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.
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.
The tool acts as a shopping hub, enabling users to shop across merchants and Google Services, find savings, and check out
Fortnite back on iOS worldwide: After its ban slump, global distribution could reignite teen reach and ad demand.
Search as productivity OS: Google turns Search into a coding, agent, and widget hub—keeping users inside its walls, not sending them out.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss three big questions surrounding Spotify right now: Why has the audio giant’s ad revenue stalled? What would a Spotify lifestyle app look like? Has Spotify solved the AI problem by adding “Verified” badges to distinguish human artists from AI-generated ones? And more. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Editor of our Marketing and Advertising Briefing, Daniel Konstantinovic. Listen everywhere, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.
The home furnishings category generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually, yet the shopping experience remains frustratingly complex for most consumers. Nearly every shopper reports feeling overwhelmed by options, with the average furniture purchase taking weeks and requiring dozens of open browser tabs before a final decision.