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.
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.
YouTube scales up AI integrations: Conversational search and Gemini tools demand tighter transcripts, metadata, and thorough testing.
Contractor sales and ecommerce gains offset DIY drag in a slow housing market.
Digital shoppers embrace branded AI: Online-first buyers welcome AI, while 70% of store loyalists avoid it, tying comfort to channel habits.
Google protects its lead: By building multimodal AI into Search, it aims to hold onto valuable queries and limit competitor gains.
AI hype meets TV reality: Media giants pitch smarter, personalized ads, while skeptics question whether tools connect—or just multiply silos.
Spotify debuts podcast badges to fight AI slop: Platforms are turning to patchwork solutions as they struggle to contain the flood.
AI discovery lags traffic reality: Organic and social dominate web traffic, giving brands time to test AI before users’ search habits change.
Meta courts creators and cautious advertisers: New content planners and block lists aim to lift originality, time spent, and ad dollars.