28% of B2B buyers worldwide have AI review boards or steering committees review AI products during evaluation, making it the least common internal review method, according to a July 2025 Responsive survey.
As CTV investment accelerates, so does scrutiny. Marketers face pressure to validate every ad dollar, yet measurement across connected TV (CTV) remains fractured and disconnected from the outcomes that matter: Sales.
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80% of adults in France, the UK, and the US say well-integrated, non-disruptive ads are important factors in a high-quality media experience, according to The Trade Desk research conducted by PA Consulting in June 2025.
On todayâs podcast episode, we discuss whether Coca-Colaâs AI holiday ad is a bold move forward or a soulless shortcutâand, when everything can be generated, whether authenticity becomes the new premium. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, and Analyst Arielle Feger.
In earnings calls from retail leaders, one of the biggest shared signals is that AI shopping assistants are becoming the new front door of the customer journey. Whether the retailer is in grocery, fashion, or general merchandise, conversational search is now the organizing principle for discovery.
JPMorgan Chase signed updated contracts with Plaid, Yodlee, Morningstar, and Akoya, accounting for more than 95% of open banking data requests to the bankâs systems. FIs that have made no effort to securely transmit consumer data are lagging technology-forward peers in customer experience and consumer privacy and security. Without a policy nudge, itâs easy for FIs to be tempted to put open banking on the back burnerâalongside the digital transformation that should have come with it.
A federal judge handed Meta one of its biggest legal wins in years, ruling that its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions do not violate US antitrust law. The decision leaned heavily on how TikTok and YouTube now compete for the same user attention Meta once dominatedâproof, the court said, that the company cannot be considered a monopoly. The ruling arrives just as Reels accelerates across Instagram and platforms converge on short-form video and AI-driven discovery. For marketers, the outcome underscores a simple reality: user attention sits across the big three video platforms, and planning must follow that distribution.
Bank of America (BofA) recently introduced 401(k) Pay for plan sponsors and participants. It handles recordkeeping, flexible deposit options, retirement income planning, and financial advice. retirement custodians have a particular opportunity to cater to Gen Zers, who often job hop, causing their retirement accounts to multiply. They also increasingly live frugally and save and invest aggressively. To attract Gen Zers, plan custodians should distribute both traditional and nontraditional savings and investment products and offer tools like automated investing and financial education.
Intuit signed a multiyear strategic partnership with OpenAI with over USâŻ$100âŻmillion per year to embed OpenAIâs models into Intuitâs software. The models will enable AI agents for Turbotax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp. Intuitâs OpenAI deal foreshadows a seismic transformation in how users experience applicationsâ where generative interactions become the norm, AI agents handle tasks on usersâ behalf, and copilots integrate seamlessly into daily workflows. In financial services, it introduces the capacity to quickly interact with complex data and take action.
Less than 3% of consumers in India recall digital ads they see despite spending an average of 2.17 hours daily consuming videos on mobile devices, per a report from RK Swamy Centre for Study of Indian Markets. Digital advertising is an essential part of a well-rounded campaign strategy in the digital-first era. But with ad effectiveness low, advertisers must carefully tailor strategies to drive the best outcomes.
Three major AI releasesâMicrosoftâs Agent 365, Googleâs Gemini 3 Pro, and xAIâs Grok 4.1âcould point the way to how businesses will deploy and govern AI. Following OpenAâs GPT 5.1, each new product update approaches intelligence from a different angle: Microsoft is offering operational control, Gemini is touting multimodal reasoning and search, and xAI is demonstrating emotional fluency. The brands that map these tools to specific workflowsâgovernance with Microsoft, discovery and search with Google, and engagement with xAIâcould see faster execution, sharper insights, more resilient customer experiences, and tangible ROI.
The US housing market remains frozen as affordability challenges, elevated rates, and tariffs choke activity, leaving prices nearly flat YoY and 75% of top markets overvalued. The slowdown has hurt major home-improvement chainsâHome Depot and Loweâs both trimmed guidance as big-ticket projects and financed spending weaken. Yet higher-end and digitally savvy retailers like Wayfair and Williams-Sonoma have held up better, with AI-driven personalization and affluent customer bases helping offset broader softness. The split underscores a K-shaped retail economy unlikely to rebalance until affordability and buyer confidence improve.
Target will spend $5 billion next year to upgrade stores, merchandise, and digital capabilities as it works to return to growth. Net sales fell 1.5% YoY in Q3, and traffic declined 2.7%, underscoring its exposure to weakening discretionary spending. With shoppers prioritizing value, Target has struggled to deliver enough newness. To get back on track, CEO Michael Fiddelke is focusing on restoring merchandising authority, enhancing the omnichannel experience, and investing in technology. The retailer is using AI to surface trends faster and integrating with ChatGPT to enable conversational shopping. Targetâs ability to dig itself out of its current hole will largely depend on how quickly it can fix its merchandising problem and improve the in-store experience.
Perplexity is relaunching its agentic shopping product for all users next week, just in time for Black Friday, with PayPal as its key partner. The upgraded tool improves shopping intent detection and personalization using usersâ past search data, while PayPal merchants will handle transactions and customer service directly. The move intensifies competition with OpenAI, Amazon, and Google, all racing to dominate AI-powered shopping ahead of the holidays. While sales from these tools are expected to remain modest, they offer brands a valuable testing ground for future ecommerce growth driven by generative AI.
Nearly 70% of large organizations are using genAI tools in marketing, but only 7% of global marketing leaders strongly agree that genAI use has improved the effectiveness of their campaigns, per a new study from Capgemini. The challenge may lie in budget control: More than half of AI initiatives are funded by IT. For AI to become the engine of growth that leaders envision, marketing needs to assume ownership, budget, and strategic influence to bridge the gap between its potential and its realized value.
TJX is confident its value proposition will resonate with shoppers this holiday season. Q4 is already âoff to a strong start,â CEO Ernie Herrman said, following a better-than-expected Q3. As TJX and other retailers have repeatedly pointed out this year, off-price is one of the few retail sectors that thrives in times of uncertainty. Few retailers can compete with TJXâs value propositionâparticularly its range of good-better-best merchandise, which appeals to shoppers of all budgetsâand its treasure hunt experience. TJXâs continued momentum shows that retailers that can offer a compelling combination of value and fun stand to outperform this holiday season.
Lloyds Banking Group will acquire Curve, a London-based digital wallet. Acquiring Curve is a valuable first step toward embracing digital wallet payments solutions. However, Lloyds faces a challenge of incentivizing its users to choose Curve over competitors like PayPal and Klarna, which have established rewards systems. Embedding features and perks into Curve could help create a flywheel effect to trap more volume within its ecosystem.
Luma AI has secured a $900 million funding round led by Humain, pushing its valuation above $4 billion and marking one of the largest investments to date in AI-generated video. As agencies, studios, and brands increasingly adopt AI for editing, narration, testing, and full video generation, Lumaâs raise signals a shift: AI video is becoming the creative backbone for modern advertising, powering faster iteration, scalable personalization, and multi-format production across every screen.