Frequent errors and lagging trust send consumers elsewhere to verify details, weakening last-touch attribution for marketers.
Agentic buying can help planners navigate streaming inventory, while human oversight protects major media commitments.
Self-service AI can handle more campaign work, making strategy and human creativity key differentiators.
Strong demand for human service is prompting McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King to put employees back at the center of the experience.
AI enablement roles rose 21% as banks focus less on technical foundations and more on business results.
71% of CX leaders and practitioners worldwide use AI for ticket resolution, more than for any other task, according to an August report from Zendesk.
AI-powered search is reshaping how consumers discover products, and it's creating urgent monetization challenges for publishers, browsers, and commerce platforms. Consumers spend an average of at least 23 minutes a day in AI chat platforms, and that time will more than double by 2028, according to industry experts. "Consumers on average spend at least 23 minutes within AI chat today, and that will more than double by 2028," said John Nitti, global chief business officer at adMarketplace, during a panel at Advertising Week New York this week. "Advertising expenditure is actually a two-year lag. So the consumer has always been ahead of marketing."
New buying and AI tools could help the platform capture more transactions from brands and shoppers.
Walmart and McDonald’s are drawing lines around dynamic pricing as consumers grow wary of how prices are set.
Most US adults monitor a health metric daily, but simpler, outcome-focused tracking may be more appealing.
Licensing IP can attract new fans to Disney+ while giving marketers more ways to reach them.
Mobile data could unlock more precise buys, though independent proof of performance is still missing.
Only 32% use AI for decision support, limiting their ability to turn customer data into timely, personalized outreach.
Payment providers can earn loyalty by pairing agentic tools with education, safeguards, and guarantees.
In today’s podcast episode, we discuss how the use of AI in healthcare has evolved in recent years, which part of the patient care journey AI is impacting the most, and the role of doctors in an AI-driven world. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Analysts Rajiv Leventhal and Beth Snyder Bulik. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.
AI may be capable of extraordinary things, but for marketers, its biggest opportunity right now is decidedly less exciting. “You've heard a lot of great things about AI so far today, but I wanted to share a secret with you, which is that actually AI is pretty boring,” said our analyst Nate Elliott at EMARKETER’s Future of Digital summit. “And I want to be clear: Not only do I not think that boring is a bad thing, I think that boring may well be AI's superpower.” Rather than waiting for AI to reinvent advertising, marketers may find more immediate value by applying it to the repetitive, data-heavy work they already do.
Commerce media is entering a new phase, one defined less by rapid expansion and more by operational maturity, EMARKETER analysts and industry leaders say. Commerce media ad spending will reach $83.71 billion in the US this year, accounting for 20.5% of all digital ad spending, according to EMARKETER's June 2026 forecast. As the channel becomes a core part of marketers' media strategies, the conversation is shifting from whether to invest to how to make those investments deliver measurable business results. In a new EMARKETER guide titled "Commerce media outlook: What industry leaders see ahead," our analysts and industry leaders give their thoughts about the capabilities brands should prioritize today, the consumer behaviors that will shape tomorrow, and what it will take to succeed as commerce media becomes a permanent pillar of the media mix. Erica Culley, senior director of shopper marketing at Chobani, told us about their focus on incrementality and what it takes to use data in order to deliver media that's genuinely useful.
New formats, better measurement, and brand safeguards help, but marketers should keep budgets experimental.
AI prescribing models rolling out in Utah may make care more accessible—or show that AI medicine needs firmer limits.
SoFi is closing the gap with incumbents as connected financial guidance takes priority.