On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the biggest discrepancy by device with regards to where we spend our time versus how many ad dollars are aimed there, why social players want to take a page from YouTube’s CTV playbook, and why sub OTT’s unusual path to advertising has created major misalignments. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Principal Forecasting Writer, Ethan Cramer-Flood, and Senior Analyst, Minda Smiley. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
The news: Nvidia’s latest earnings report shows that spending on AI infrastructure remains strong, even as some metrics normalize after explosive growth. Despite robust numbers, Nvidia’s stock dipped slightly on Thursday, owing in part to the market’s excessive expectations of the industry giant. Our take: Nvidia is still riding the AI wave but is entering a more complex phase as expectations outpace results. If investment outruns adoption or monetization, the sector risks overkill. The test will be whether user demand and AI application development can keep pace with this level of spending.
The news: Online retail traffic from generative AI (genAI) sources is exploding, highlighting how AI tools are intercepting and guiding the product search journey. GenAI traffic to US retail sites grew 4,700% YoY in July, per Adobe Digital Insights. 38% of US consumers have used genAI for shopping, and another 52% plan to do so this year. Our take: Brands need to market to both machines and people to avoid being excluded from AI results. Success will involve understanding how models interpret product data and reviews and aligning messaging with the signals AI uses to index and recommend products.
The news: Google Vids rolled out AI avatars, a Veo-powered image-to-video tool, and automatic transcript trimming. Google also announced that features like noise cancellation, custom backgrounds, video filters, and appearance options will be generally available next month. Our take: Brands should: Develop AI content guidelines that set up a clear voice, tone, and message structure to keep scripts brand-consistent. Use AI for speed, not substance. Let the technology handle repetitive tasks, but rely on human input for concepting and storytelling to ensure messages retain emotional nuance—something AI may lack. Pilot, then scale. Test AI video tools on low-risk internal content before expanding to public-facing campaigns.
The news: Google Translate is taking on Duolingo with a slate of new features, including a focus on gamification. An app update includes customizable language lessons based on skill level and is currently available for English, Spanish, and French learners. The lessons track users’ daily progress, similar to Duolingo’s popular “streaks” feature, and can create practice scenarios based on user prompts. Our take: Gamification and interactive features can boost engagement, but AI tools aren’t free to operate. Google may swallow Gemini’s translation costs to keep the service free, a perk that Big Tech’s deep pockets can easily handle and that Duolingo might have a difficult time matching.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what AI Overviews are doing to search behavior, some potential new business models for the internet, and how much “AI slop” might encourage folks to decrease their time on the web. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Analyst, Grace Harmon, and the CEO and Founder of CMO Huddles, and host of the Renegade Marketers Unite podcast, Drew Neisser. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
The news: Perplexity added a standalone subscription tier for its Comet agentic AI browser that will fund a $42.5 million publisher revenue-sharing program. Comet Plus costs $5 per month and gives users access to “premium content from a group of trusted publishers and journalists.” The browser is included in Perplexity Pro and Max subscriptions. Our take: Brands should actively monitor how their content is used across AI platforms and consider usage-based deals for fair compensation, especially if content is regularly surfaced by AI tools. They should also examine the real revenue potential of partnerships like Comet Plus and scrutinize audience size, payout structures, and long-term sustainability before committing.
The news: Elon Musk tried to enlist Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a $97.4 billion takeover of OpenAI in February, per court filings in OpenAI’s ongoing countersuit against Musk. The failed bid was Musk’s response to OpenAI’s potential shift to a for-profit model, which he claims broke its founding mission. Our take: The initial phase of the AI boom, defined by research breakthroughs and experimentation, is giving way to a more aggressive era of market consolidation, legal entanglements, and power politics. Litigation is emerging as the last resort when innovation stalls or acquisition paths close—an indicator that the AI industry could be entering a defensive phase where court battles stand in for competitive breakthroughs.
The news: Meta will spend more than $10 billion on Google Cloud over six years, making it one of Google’s largest-ever contracts, per CNBC. Despite running its own data centers and using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, Meta’s growth requires additional cloud capacity. The deal demonstrates how even fierce ad rivals can align when AI demands massive computing scale. Our take: When it comes to AI, the old rules of competition no longer apply. Cloud rivals are forced into uneasy alliances to remain competitive as infrastructure demand explodes. For AWS and Azure, keeping pace with Google Cloud means doubling down on custom silicon, broadening AI partnerships, and proving they can deliver the scale and neutrality that Google is now signaling to the market.
The news: 46% of US adults check their phones between 10 and 50 times per day, per a YouGov survey, presenting brands with a strong opportunity to create sticky, habit-forming mobile experiences. Sixty-four percent of survey respondents have at least one paid mobile app subscription, showing that consumers are willing to pay if apps provide solutions to users’ needs. Our take: B2C marketers looking to drive subscriptions or paid features need to ensure apps deliver immediate, ongoing value that users will turn to daily. For apps that can’t hit the bar of essential utility, a freemium or ad-supported model can offer more realistic monetization paths.
The news: Meta’s new auto-translation feature for Reels could simplify global content sharing. The AI-powered translation tool can automatically dub and lip-sync Reels on Instagram and Facebook into other languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It’s available to Facebook creators with at least 1,000 followers and to all public Instagram accounts. Our take: Creators and brands should lean into short-form multilingual content to maximize audience reach and watch for engagement spikes in views in unexpected regions to identify new markets and audiences worth targeting.
The news: Publishers are tackling AI scraping with a new strategy—pay per crawl. Rather than one-time licensing deals, usage-based compensation models would have AI companies pay publishers and content providers based on how often their work is used in AI-generated responses. Our take: These usage-based models could be a more equitable deal for publishers whose content powers AI engines that are earning tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per year. To avoid getting locked out of monetization, brands should act now to review existing content agreements, explore licensing opportunities, and push for fairer models that recognize the value of original content.
The news: Google Ads is ending manual language targeting, taking over a significant element of campaign management. In lieu of manual targeting, Google’s AI will detect user language automatically using signals such as language settings and historic search activity. Our take: Brands should consider auditing current campaigns to identify where automated language detection might create gaps and establish safeguards, such as breaking out campaigns by region or market and including clear, native-language text in headlines and descriptions to signal intended language to both users and Google’s systems.
The news: A federal appeals court upheld $92 million in fines against T-Mobile and Sprint for illegally selling customer location information (CLI) without proper consent or safeguards. Our take: When building campaigns that use location-based targeting or CLI, marketers should treat consent and transparency as not only legal checkboxes but also strategic imperatives. Brands that clearly communicate how data is collected and used will build trust and better maintain customer loyalty.
The news: As entry-level roles for younger hires shrink, ad schools are retooling their programs to promote AI fluency and skills. Miami Ad School, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter, and London’s School of Communication Arts are adding AI education curriculum focused on concepting, campaign execution, and portfolio development, per Adweek. Our take: CMOs who understand how AI is reshaping both entry-level roles and leadership expectations will be in a better position to build resilient, AI-ready teams. However, companies shouldn’t focus only on hiring junior employees with existing AI literacy—keeping resources open to train both new and current workers as AI evolves will encourage a diversity of skills and experience on staff.
The strategy: Agentic AI could redefine how banks detect and prevent financial crime, according to a recent McKinsey report. Our take: Banks are just beginning to pilot agentic AI and explore use cases, but they should prioritize using it in financial crime prevention. This technology will become essential as traditional methods struggle to keep up with increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics: Despite allocating significant resources to KYC and AML efforts, the financial industry only detects about 2% of global financial crime, per Interpol data.
The news: Apple could soon renew its smart home and robotics plans with a slew of products. The hardware giant is planning an AI-enabled tabletop robot, per Bloomberg, a smart home camera, and a smart speaker with a display. This could all be accompanied by a major Siri upgrade built on large language models (LLMs). Our take: This could be Apple’s biggest ecosystem play since the iPhone. If successful, it could drive growth in a post-iPhone era, reestablish Apple in the AI game, and usher in a new era of home-based intelligence.
The news: YouTube is facing user backlash after rolling out its AI-powered age-verification system in the US. Many users are furious, per TechRadar, citing concerns about “mass surveillance and data control.” The age-verification AI estimates a user’s age based on viewing patterns, search history, and account age. If it flags a user as under 18, YouTube automatically applies teen safety restrictions like disabling personalized ads, limiting content availability, and turning on digital well-being tools. Our take: Disabling personalized advertising for flagged accounts will disrupt retargeting models and reduce audience reach. Marketers focused on Gen Zers on YouTube should prepare for reduced targeting precision and to shift toward context-driven campaigns or diversify across other platforms.
The news: Last year, we covered predicted growth in specialized insurance, including cybersecurity protection, because of the rising costs of data breaches. Allianz Life’s recent incident is further proof why such protection and precautionary measures are imperative. Why this matters: As a result of this data breach, Allianz Life faces financial and reputational costs that could affect its bottom line for years. This is a powerful reminder for the entire insurance industry to strengthen its cybersecurity defenses. Preventing attacks requires a proactive and comprehensive strategy beyond simple perimeter defenses.
The news: OpenAI’s GPT-5 could be the start of ChatGPT becoming a transaction-driven super app that monetizes user intent, not attention. GPT-5’s router—which analyzes queries and decides how hard to “think” based on complexity—lets OpenAI invest more resources during high-intent moments like “compare hiking boots under $200” or “best smart TVs for co-op gaming.” Prioritizing queries with high commercial value could help OpenAI monetize users not through ads but via affiliate or take-rate revenues, per SemiAnalysis. Partnerships with Shopify and others suggest that monetization stack is already on the way. Our take: A full-service ChatGPT that’s intuitive enough to guide full shopping journeys inside a chatbot while keeping backend costs minimal could rewrite the AI platform’s business model. Brands should be working to optimize for AI-native commerce and integrate with agentic tools.