OpenAI is taking a bidding market inside ChatGPT to 31 European countries. On its own availability table, British advertisers can already buy into it and none of those 31 can.

Sainsbury's named a head for its AI Centre of Excellence on the Wednesday, then suspended facial recognition alerts at one store on the Monday. Its defence points straight at the safeguard.

A domestic week. While the quarter argued about shopping agents, three UK retailers quietly spent it building AI into their own estates instead of renting someone else's.

A quiet week with a clear shape. Discovery has moved to the agent, but only 7% of UK shoppers think the delivery promise is being kept. The genuine developments of the week were all at the loading dock.

AI-generated product imagery is the AI-commerce use case with a real, measured payoff right now: SCAYLE STUDIOS cut ABOUT YOU's photo costs ~90% and lifted GMV 9.2%. But it lands the week the EU's AI-content rules bite, against Britain's deep distrust of AI in fashion, and inside an unfinished argument about models, jobs and disclosure.

Everyone spent the week building the buy-side for AI agents: a UK sandbox, fresh payment rails, an off-the-shelf assistant, a cart inside ChatGPT. Then CI&T and Morrisons showed what UK shoppers actually did with it.

AI chatbots get a fact wrong about 64% of UK high-street retailers. That, the shelf robots, and Gap's 'mindset beats mandate' study defined the week.

Britain is one of the heaviest AI-shopping markets and the most sceptical. The same week, the industry and the FCA agreed the rulebook, not the tech, is the holdup.