85% of US adults trust their bank as an information source vs. just 62% who trust AI, putting financial institutions 23 points ahead of artificial intelligence, according to a February survey from TD Bank.
AI implementation in retail and ecommerce has reached an inflection point where individual experimentation must give way to organizational strategy, but the path from proof-of-concept to production remains fraught with challenges around data security, cost justification, and realistic expectations about automation.
Consumers want smarter digital health tools: This will push providers, insurers, and tech players to align with consumer demand for greater personalization, intuitiveness, and accurate health insights.
Brands’ social missteps could hurt ROI: Consumers want human content and service, while marketers double down on genAI content and automation.
VR growth is slowing as AR moves into everyday behavior. Smartphones are making immersive content easier to adopt, while headsets still face limits in comfort, use cases, and reach.
LLMs take a larger role in recommendations, insurers could face greater pricing pressure.
LinkedIn fights AI clutter: New limits curb low-value bot posts, even as AI tools spread across hiring and content.
The bank’s hiring plans provide competitors with a blueprint for keeping up.
AI Overviews remake retail search: Beauty AIO presence rates jumped from 14.5% to 72.3% Q3 to Q4, spurring brands to optimize for zero-click visibility.
Spotify reimagines podcast discovery: AI personalization and creator tools link listener intent to stronger revenue paths.
41% of US adults skip retail mobile apps because they prefer shopping in-store to see products in person, the top reason cited above payment privacy (33%) and phone storage (33%), according to a March 2026 survey from Ipsos.
TikTok Shop turns small brands into commerce contenders: 72% of discovered brands are SMBs, reflecting TikTok’s discovery-to-checkout pipeline.
Mobile gaming profits lean on whales, not installs: IAP revenues climb in EU and the UK even as downloads slip, requiring publishers to mine loyal players.
CTV’s data gap stalls TV ad dollars: 86% of media planners want better show-level targeting; without it, CTV could struggle to continue prying budgets from linear.
Brand safety gets costlier in EU: Scam ads near legit buys risk reputational damage—and CMOs may demand tougher controls.
46% of US genAI assistant users are resistant to both AI advertising and agentic AI commerce, more than the share open to either format, according to a January survey from Mod7 Research Strategy.
Reddit builds a performance case: Beta attribution and unified reporting aim to prove Reddit’s role beyond awareness.
Banks will likely lean into AI to keep up.
Meta cuts 8,000 employees as AI spend soars: Layoffs and a 7,000-person shift to AI units show how compute costs are rewriting Big Tech workforce math.