AI took over search, ads, and discovery in 2025 as YouTube and CTV became the new centers of gravity for consumers and marketers. Our top 20 stories of the year highlight an evolution toward an AI-first world where attention and advantage move faster than ever.
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Become a ClientTech titans invest in each other, accelerating AI buildouts—but the loop may snap under pressure or regulation
Amazon’s grip on ecommerce stays firm—for now—as Prime-led growth holds steady, yet AI agents could eventually challenge its ecommerce and retail media supremacy.
RMNs face a tougher sell in 2026, as smaller players must lean on category expertise, customer data, and their store footprints to counter Amazon's and Walmart's dominance.
TikTok Shop will surpass Target in US ecommerce in 2026, thanks to the platform’s growing influence over product discovery and shopping trends.
New data shows traditional SEO success no longer guarantees visibility inside generative AI answers. Ahrefs found that fewer than 9% of ChatGPT and Gemini citations come from URLs ranked in Google’s top 10 results—meaning more than 90% of high-ranking organic pages never appear in AI responses. Instead, LLMs lean heavily on community-driven sources like Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia, Yelp, and TripAdvisor, dramatically reshaping early-stage discovery. With LLM usage exceeding one billion monthly users, brands that do not participate in open forums risk disappearing from AI-mediated journeys. Marketers must treat GEO as a distinct discipline, not an extension of SEO.
The most impactful ads of 2025 stirred debate and dollars: From Sydney Sweeney to Katseye to Coca-Cola.
Capital One is reportedly exploring alternatives to its AWS cloud contract because of rising AI costs.
The 10 most-read briefing articles of 2025 included analyzing Gen Z behavior, AI agents, and more.
An institutional crypto desk would legitimize crypto in a way that no other FI could.