Havas Market’s Molly Hop: In Agentic Commerce, Only One Product Wins. Retailers Aren’t Ready
CANNES, France — Search used to surface the top results through infinity. Agentic commerce surfaces one. And most retailers have not yet built the product content infrastructure needed to be that winner.
“Consumers’ expectations are that what is discoverable is the best product for them. But I don’t think retailers have figured out how to allow the products to necessarily have the right content to meet that consumer expectation,” Molly Hop, managing partner, North America at Havas Market, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “It’s a confusing world for retailers right now that they’re trying to figure out.”
This winner-take-all dynamic makes product discoverability the defining retail challenge of the agentic era, requiring brands to think differently about how they present themselves within AI-driven discovery environments.
Seamless path to purchase is paramount
Agentic commerce integration into consumers’ daily lives raises experience expectations beyond current retail capabilities, requiring natural, non-intrusive discovery followed by frictionless purchase pathways.
“Agentic becomes more natural in the consumer’s lives. Their expectation is even more so that the experience is clean, that it’s personalized and that they’re getting what they want,” Hop said. “Think about how you naturally show yourself in terms of being the right discoverable solution and then a really seamless path to purchase for them within that environment.”
Consumer expectations, rather than technology capabilities, will ultimately dictate what successful agentic commerce implementations look like.
Generational divide shapes AI adoption
Experienced professionals approach AI content creation cautiously as a supplement to existing work, while younger generations increasingly use it as a replacement — a divergence that will define industry norms over the next two years.
“People 20-, 30 years into their career are being much more cautious when it comes to how to create content, how to use it to supplement what you’re doing. Younger generations who are adapting quicker are using it almost as a replacement and they’re removing that human element,” Hop said.
This tension between augmentation and replacement remains unresolved, with the right balance between human and agentic contribution still emerging across the industry.
AI picks cultural moments where brands need to appear
DeBeers’ approach to AI-assisted brand stewardship illustrates how technology can expand opportunity identification while human creativity remains essential for authentic brand expression at those moments.
“Where AI is helping is that it’s helping us understand more moments that we can be relevant to people, culturally relevant to people. But once AI has helped them identify those moments, that’s where they really still need to be their authentic brand when they’re showing up,” Hop said.
AI serves as an opportunity scanner while human brand judgment determines how to respond — a division of labor that preserves creative authenticity within scaled content environments.
Personalization speed brings comfort and concern
Rapid AI personalization generates both consumer comfort and unease, as the speed at which AI tools learn individual preferences normalizes deeper reliance on automated recommendations.
“How surprisingly quick any of the AI partners that I’m using, how personalized they get so quickly, and then how comfortable I am really assuming that they know what I need and what I want,” Hop said. “I think that’s where the success is. And also the scariness of it.”
You’re watching “From Discovery to Purchase: AI’s New Role in Retail,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Best Buy Ads. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France — Search used to surface the top results through infinity. Agentic commerce surfaces one. And most retailers have not yet built the product content infrastructure needed to be that winner.
“Consumers’ expectations are that what is discoverable is the best product for them. But I don’t think retailers have figured out how to allow the products to necessarily have the right content to meet that consumer expectation,” Molly Hop, managing partner, North America at Havas Market, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “It’s a confusing world for retailers right now that they’re trying to figure out.”
This winner-take-all dynamic makes product discoverability the defining retail challenge of the agentic era, requiring brands to think differently about how they present themselves within AI-driven discovery environments.
Seamless path to purchase is paramount
Agentic commerce integration into consumers’ daily lives raises experience expectations beyond current retail capabilities, requiring natural, non-intrusive discovery followed by frictionless purchase pathways.
“Agentic becomes more natural in the consumer’s lives. Their expectation is even more so that the experience is clean, that it’s personalized and that they’re getting what they want,” Hop said. “Think about how you naturally show yourself in terms of being the right discoverable solution and then a really seamless path to purchase for them within that environment.”
Consumer expectations, rather than technology capabilities, will ultimately dictate what successful agentic commerce implementations look like.
Generational divide shapes AI adoption
Experienced professionals approach AI content creation cautiously as a supplement to existing work, while younger generations increasingly use it as a replacement — a divergence that will define industry norms over the next two years.
“People 20-, 30 years into their career are being much more cautious when it comes to how to create content, how to use it to supplement what you’re doing. Younger generations who are adapting quicker are using it almost as a replacement and they’re removing that human element,” Hop said.
This tension between augmentation and replacement remains unresolved, with the right balance between human and agentic contribution still emerging across the industry.
AI picks cultural moments where brands need to appear
DeBeers’ approach to AI-assisted brand stewardship illustrates how technology can expand opportunity identification while human creativity remains essential for authentic brand expression at those moments.
“Where AI is helping is that it’s helping us understand more moments that we can be relevant to people, culturally relevant to people. But once AI has helped them identify those moments, that’s where they really still need to be their authentic brand when they’re showing up,” Hop said.
AI serves as an opportunity scanner while human brand judgment determines how to respond — a division of labor that preserves creative authenticity within scaled content environments.
Personalization speed brings comfort and concern
Rapid AI personalization generates both consumer comfort and unease, as the speed at which AI tools learn individual preferences normalizes deeper reliance on automated recommendations.
“How surprisingly quick any of the AI partners that I’m using, how personalized they get so quickly, and then how comfortable I am really assuming that they know what I need and what I want,” Hop said. “I think that’s where the success is. And also the scariness of it.”
You’re watching “From Discovery to Purchase: AI’s New Role in Retail,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Best Buy Ads. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
