On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Google right now: If Google is winning at search, where is its ad machine quietly losing? Is its self-driving car unit, Waymo, a sleeping giant for the company? And are its new traditional TV-style “Stations” the right model for YouTube as it tries to take over the living room? And more. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Marisa Jones and Senior Forecasting Analyst Drew Spink. Listen everywhere, or watch on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
OpenAI widens ad footprint: International rollout aims to lure in advertisers, using scale to offset weak CTRs and steep revenue goals.
Willingness to pay for social media isn’t signaled by time spent: Lighter users overindex on interest in premium tiers, favoring control and utility over endless feeds.
Social feeds fuel, wallets drain: Prediction markets convert clicks into cash for a few but result in losses for many. The trend risks regulation and brand safety.
Disney plots a super app future: A unified Disney+ platform could fuse streaming, parks, and merch into one data-rich loop for ads and ecommerce.
Google Health app will use device data and medical records to deliver health insights, intensifying competition among consumer health wearables and AI tools.
28% of social media users worldwide say their top brand turn-off is posting unlabeled AI-generated content, the No. 1 grievance in Sprout Social's Q1 2026 Pulse Survey, beating engagement bait by 5 points.
AI-referred traffic has become a year-round structural feature for retailers of how consumers find and buy products.
AppLovin proves AI pivot is paying off: Q1 revenues grew 59% YoY. Its AI ad engine is driving higher mobile spend amid broader privacy headwinds.
Google boosts links in Overviews: New AI search features aim to recover clicks as zero-click queries sap traffic and ad performance.
Linear falls further behind as video ad spend grows at a mature rate, forcing TV players to compete on digital-native terms.
As more consumers turn to AI for health advice, embedded clinical tools aim to build trust where confidence remains low.
AR outpaces VR in race for relevance: Flat VR headset demand will lag AR’s user growth, steering brands to smart glasses and digital overlays.
Consumers are approaching holiday shopping with a sharper focus on value, taking more time to compare options and make deliberate choices, often with the help of AI tools. For brands, this shift changes what will drive results at the tail end of the year.
AI discovery brings new buyers and higher traffic to merchants.
Meta is turning Instagram into a checkout machine: Agentic AI tools could let users tap Reels to buy instantly as Meta tightens its grip on social commerce.
Chatbots rewrite B2B discovery: 71% of buyers use AI for research and 69% switch vendors after chatbot input, rerouting influence from search to LLMs.
Automation clears the campaign bottleneck: Agent-led workflows can cut asset builds from 24 hours to minutes, freeing teams to execute at scale.
Agent trust crunch: Enterprises find AI agent identity, measurement, and governance are the new roadblocks to scale.