A ski trip planning session turned into a case study in how fast AI-driven discovery has taken hold, our chief content officer Vladimir Hanzlik told the audience at EMARKETER’s Future of Digital summit. Sitting around the table with friends and family, phones out on Gemini, his group booked resorts, hotels, and ski schools in a matter of hours. "What really struck me is that if you didn't turn up in those LLM recommendations, if you didn't show up in Claude or Gemini, there'll be literally zero chance that we will pick you," Hanzlik said, opening a conversation with VML's chief discoverability officer Heather Physioc on whether brands understand just how close that future already is.
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In today’s podcast episode, we discuss why some of the biggest names in AI are now calling for a slowdown in development, what we would gain and lose if the pace of AI progress decelerated, and whether these doomsday concerns are about a distant existential risk or consequences that are already showing up in everyday work and life. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Jacob Bourne and Senior Analyst Asa Hiken. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.
US retail sales will surpass $1.4 trillion this holiday season, growing 4% over last year, per EMARKETER. That growth arrives under pressure: tariff refunds that major players like Walmart ($2.7 billion) are using to slash prices, rising consumer costs for gas and travel, and the unpredictable impact of AI on shopping behavior.
75% of US consumers who used AI to find a local business checked Google or Maps before contacting them, according to a July report from BrightLocal.
Temu drew 108.2 million unique US visitors in June 2026, up 79% from 60.6 million a year earlier, according to an August report from Comscore.
AI is changing how search captures intent and adding new questions around consumer trust. As clicks become less predictable, performance TV could give marketers another way to build demand and drive measurable action.
Small advertisers are flooding connected TV (CTV). Media data shows brands spending under $1 million per year on CTV platforms are increasing, opening TV advertising to buyers who could never afford it. That shift is reshaping performance marketing as AI disrupts traditional channels like search and social media. "The environment is perfectly tailor-made for exactly this to happen," said Matt Collins, vice president of product marketing at MNTN, during EMARKETER's Future of Digital summit this week. "Digital infrastructure allows for precision of audience targeting and measurement, to be able to give advertisers a very clear read for budgets that are very deliberate."
The promise of agentic commerce is that AI will collapse the path to purchase, handling everything from product research to checkout on consumers’ behalf. Shoppers aren't ready to give up control, and AI may actually be adding complexity to their journeys, according to EMARKETER principal analyst Sky Canaves, speaking at the EMARKETER Future of Digital summit this week.
Cross-border transfers can deepen customer ties, but reach, speed, and pricing will matter.