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Become a ClientBrands and retailers are struggling to keep up with changes to the shopper experience as consumers adopt genAI-powered “click-less journeys.”
SitusAMC—a vendor to banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Morgan Stanley—had a data breach whose scope and severity it’s still investigating. The compromised data was related to residential mortgages and may include Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information. Even the best-prepared financial services companies need to be ready to respond to data breaches. Vague assurances before or after a breach suggest bankers aren’t paying attention to necessary details. They must be explicit and transparent about safeguards and breach remediation.
Revolut sold shares that valued the company at $75 billion. The amount raised was unclear, but the buyers included several venture firms and asset management firms that commonly invest in private shares. Revolut’s global success has been remarkable. But it may just crowd the graveyard of foreign neobanks that have tested the US waters. N26 quit in 2022 after two years. When Bunq tried in 2023, it gave up after getting tied up in regulatory reviews. Monzo still operates in the US but gave up hope of getting a banking license. Incumbents have a lot to fear, but Revolut doesn’t have a slam dunk.
Canada published the draft of its Stablecoin Act as part of its Budget 2025 Implementation Act. It applies to stablecoins issued by entities that are not prudentially regulated. For Canadian banks and fintechs, the impending legislation signals that stablecoins are normalizing everywhere as a regulated alternative to cash as a store of value and for electronic payments. The use cases are particularly interesting for Canadian financial institutions and stablecoin issuers who will use stablecoins to move money across the US border.
Consumers increasingly have a negative perception of generative AI (genAI) in the creator economy while fewer see it positively, per a Billion Dollar Boy Study. AI is becoming a necessity across marketing strategies. Negative consumer attitudes toward AI in the creator economy suggest that it’s not whether advertisers and creators use AI, but how they use it that will determine if they see success or face backlash.
A slate of retailers boosted their outlooks following strong Q3 performances, a positive sign as the industry heads into the most important shopping period of the year. Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Kohl's all updated their FY sales guidance, pointing to ongoing consumer resilience despite growing pessimism about the state of the economy and personal finances. The outlook for holiday spending is notably stronger than it appeared earlier this year: We expect sales in November and December to rise 3.6% YoY, slower than last year’s 4.4% growth but a significant upgrade from our May forecast.
Baidu posted its sharpest revenue decline on record, with ad revenues falling 18% as AI-generated answers replace traditional search clicks. Ernie Bot now powers responses on most Baidu queries, improving user experience but suppressing monetizable activity—a trend management says will weigh on results into Q4. Competitors like Tencent, ByteDance, and PDD are still growing 20% to 30% YoY, suggesting Baidu’s weakness is structural. While the US market is more diversified, Baidu offers a stress test: AI can reshape search faster than monetization evolves. For advertisers, it’s a reminder that even Google and Microsoft must balance innovation with economic stability.
Klarna will launch its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, per a press release. The Swedish fintech is building KlarnaUSD on Stripe’s Open Issuance powered by Bridge, making it the first neobank to release a token on the platform. To execute this future, firms need to educate consumers on the nature of stablecoins versus other digital currencies, which historically have experienced dramatic price volatility. By assuring consumers that stablecoins are backed by fiat, payment providers have a greater chance of convincing shoppers to convert to crypto.
OpenAI introduced a shopping research feature for ChatGPT that builds personalized buying guides based on user queries and past conversations. The feature is available to all ChatGPT users, including those on free plans; OpenAI is offering “nearly unlimited usage” throughout the holiday season. Making the feature widely available at no cost suggests that OpenAI is looking to get users to rely on ChatGPT for purchase decisions, which could eventually result in greater buy-in for its agentic checkout features. However, it faces stiff competition: Perplexity, Google, and Amazon have all rolled out advanced AI functions to help holiday shoppers.