AI discovery is rewriting the rules of B2B marketing—and most CMOs admit they’re not ready. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of B2B tech marketing leaders lack the skills, budget, or strategy to compete with AI-native firms, per a new report by 3Thinkrs. Brands that don’t adapt could disappear from view. CMOs need to focus on staying visible in AI-powered summaries and answers. That means publishing fresher content, showing up in trusted news sources, and telling a consistent story across every channel. It also means learning new metrics that track how often your brand is mentioned by AI, not just humans.
YouTube is experimenting with AI avatars based on a small group of popular creators via Google’s “Portraits” feature, which allows fans to have conversations with AI versions of real-life creators. Advertisers should approach AI creators with cautious interest, closely monitoring how the format evolves as an ad opportunity while balancing emerging AI capabilities with consumers’ sensitivity to authenticity.
Platforms like ChatGPT are influencing more purchases, with sales forecast to hit $144 billion by 2029.
Gift cards remain a resilient holiday staple, valued for convenience and budget control, even as rising fraud concerns prompt retailers to bolster security measures and consumer warnings.
Chase Sapphire Reserve will offer an exclusive FIFA World Cup ticket sale for cardholders in February 2026, per Chase. Offers connected to major events with deep fanbases can create valuable sign-up opportunities and positive brand associations for issuers. To maintain these new cardholders’ loyalty, issuers should consider integrating experiential rewards during the games—lounge opportunities, fast-pass check-in lanes, interactive pop-ups—to funnel users through multiple value-driven experiences over the duration of the tournament.
Walmart’s OnePay adopted Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to drive agentic commerce as a credentialled provider, per a press release. With Chrome remaining consumer’s most popular browser, Gemini is narrowing the gap with ChatGPT as the most used chatbot: We forecast that by 2029, Gemini will hold 53% of genAI market share. That in turn could give Google’s AP2 a large share of agent-driven consumer spend in the long term, as consumers develop loyalty and use patterns around AI platforms.
Artificial intelligence is working its way into every facet of the US economy, and the payments industry is no exception. While the changes to consumers’ payment behavior will be gradual, providers need to act now, according to our 2026 AI in the Payments Customer Life Cycle report. Providers need to overcome critical issues like data fragmentation, but a well executed AI strategy can help providers maintain control over product discovery and streamline checkout.
Store brands grew 3.7% while national brands lagged at 1.1%, widening the value gap for inflation-hit shoppers.
The FTC's recent settlement penalties remain too small to shift corporate behavior.
23% now say it’s in crisis—the highest share in 30 years—with affordability fears at the core.
Pharma companies see pricing concessions as the lesser of two evils, as the price cuts grant exemption from Trump’s tariffs on US drug imports.
As AI moves into decision-making support, the next challenge is helping patients trust how it fits into their care.
But pharma companies are missing the mark with their digital UX—doctor’s satisfaction ratings are dropping as they use digital to reach pharma more.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss our “very specific but highly unlikely” predictions for 2026: what Amazon will do with the price of Prime; between OpenAI and Apple, who’s most likely to buy whom; and why a potential WBD acquisition by Netflix might not go through in 2026—if at all. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Principal Analyst Nate Elliott, and Vice Presidents of Content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
YouTube users streamed over 700 million hours of video podcasts on their TVs in October. That’s nearly double the 400 million hours in October 2024, per Bloomberg. Video podcasts are an increasingly popular medium that streamers like Spotify, and even Netflix, are racing to support. Marketers should capitalize on the flexibility of YouTube’s cross-format reach to test creative placements in video podcast content, repurpose social video assets for CTV consumption, and gain greater insights into conversion and visibility than can be offered by linear TV.
Even as the majority of podcasters (71%) use video, per Sounds Profitable, video podcast ads are falling short of driving purchases compared with audio ads. YouTube’s video podcast ads are 18% to 25% less effective than audio downloads at driving users to purchase, according to an Oxford Road and Podscribe study. Video podcast consumption is growing, and YouTube remains the largest media platform globally, but advertisers looking to target podcast consumers specifically must make audio a core part of their campaign planning.
Amazon is recalibrating its relationship with the agencies and adtech firms that helped build its retail-media dominance. While Amazon insists agencies remain central, many intermediaries say rising data costs and tool duplication echo earlier platform playbooks from Google and Meta—centralize strengths, limit external dependencies, and scale in-house automation. The result is a more controlled, AI-driven ecosystem that may reduce tooling diversity while boosting Amazon’s own ad stack. For marketers, the challenge will be balancing Amazon’s convenience and scale with the flexibility, transparency, and customization offered by independent partners.
In today’s attention economy, many companies find their rebrands becoming the story—drowning out the products or services they’re meant to elevate. From HBO Max’s naming whiplash to Apple TV’s identity blur, the narrative often shifts from innovation to confusion. Marketers should treat rebrands as thoughtful acts of storytelling, not stunts. Build rollout campaigns that quickly return attention to your core experience. When rebranding becomes the headline, your product risks becoming the footnote.
On today’s EMARKETER Miniseries—AI-Driven Media Management—we explore how to break down the media manager role into workflows that can be automated or augmented by agentic AI, what agencies misunderstand about AI, and which agency tasks are ripest to hand off to AI right now. EMARKETER Senior Director of Content Jeremy Goldman speaks with Adam Epstein, co-founder and CEO of Gigi. Listen everywhere you find podcasts, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.