The news: OpenAI is bringing its newest models to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the first time, marking a major milestone in the ongoing battle for AI cloud dominance. Its open-weight models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b—available via Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker AI platforms—are able to handle complicated text-based operations and integrate into cloud-based systems. Our take: OpenAI’s models are getting easier to access, meaning lower costs and fewer technical hurdles to trying powerful AI tools. AWS customers should start testing oss-120b and oss-20b for things like generating subject lines, social copy, and campaign variations and explore ways to fine-tune the models with company data.
The news: Direct messages (DMs) are becoming a key channel to reach consumers as follower growth, once the gold standard for social media success, declines. The average number of shares for brands on TikTok increased 60% quarter over quarter in Q1, per Dash Social’s 2025 Social Media Trends report, showing a pivot toward private content distribution. At the same time, average monthly follower growth for brands on TikTok dropped 27% YoY. Our take: The rise of DMs as a preferred engagement channel signals a deeper shift in social media strategy—from public broadcasting to private conversation—that requires brands to prioritize intimacy to maintain trust and drive meaningful outcomes.
The news: Roku launched Howdy, a streaming service for just $2.99 per month. It will initially be available through the Roku platform, with further rollout on mobile and beyond in the works.Our take: With 2.5% of all TV watch time—more than any other FAST provider—Roku has the audience to promote Howdy effectively. It must ensure that Howdy feels essential, not disposable, and that its content delivers real value. Still, with price sensitivity increasing and tolerance for ads shrinking, Howdy has clear appeal—especially among users seeking affordable streaming without sacrificing experience. If Roku executes on distribution and content strategy, Howdy could quietly scale into a meaningful revenue stream. Our take: With 2.5% of all TV watch time—more than any other FAST provider—Roku has the audience to promote Howdy effectively. It must ensure that Howdy feels essential, not disposable, and that its content delivers real value. Still, with price sensitivity increasing and tolerance for ads shrinking, Howdy has clear appeal—especially among users seeking affordable streaming without sacrificing experience. If Roku executes on distribution and content strategy, Howdy could quietly scale into a meaningful revenue stream. Our take: With 2.5% of all TV watch time—more than any other FAST provider—Roku has the audience to promote Howdy effectively. It must ensure that Howdy feels essential, not disposable, and that its content delivers real value. Still, with price sensitivity increasing and tolerance for ads shrinking, Howdy has clear appeal—especially among users seeking affordable streaming without sacrificing experience. If Roku executes on distribution and content strategy, Howdy could quietly scale into a meaningful revenue stream.
The news: Big Tech’s Q2 2025 earnings reveal Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Meta, and Amazon are expected to spend up to $364 billion to $400 billion collectively on capital expenditures in their 2025 fiscal years, with the vast majority targeted toward AI-related infrastructure, per The Wall Street Journal. Our first take: Big Tech is doubling down on generative AI (genAI) as its next growth engine. This massive buildout is already squeezing cloud margins, straining data center capacity and igniting a talent arms race.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss why Ms. Yaccarino left X, the expectations for its advertising business in the short and long term, and how realistic its chances are of becoming an “everything app”. Join our conversation with Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Jasmine Enberg, and Analyst, Marisa Jones. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
The news: Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed plans to “significantly” increase AI investments, including acquisitions. The iPhone-maker acquired seven firms this year, some focused on AI, and remains open to deals of any size to boost capabilities, per Business Insider. Our take: Apple’s focus on efficiency and partnerships suggests incremental but impactful AI-driven tools will emerge, especially around privacy-first and device-dependent personalization. Prepare for evolving Apple AI features that emphasize user privacy. Balance campaigns between Apple’s controlled environment and more open, AI-reliant ecosystems like Google’s and Meta’s to optimize reach and precision.
The news: YouTube is giving connected TV (CTV) users the ability to skip to the most-viewed part of a video, helping them avoid slow moments or sponsored content. The feature was previously available on mobile and web for Premium subscribers and is now rolling out to Premium users who watch YouTube on its CTV app, per Android Authority. Our take: Influencer sponsored content spots are becoming more invisible and avoidable. Brands should pivot toward native product integrations within core content or have creators place sponsorships in pre- and post-roll messaging, which may be less likely to be bypassed by AI. The era of passive viewing is over. Viewers have more control, and brands need to adapt to stay visible.
The news: Amazon plans to put ads in its AI-powered Alexa+ voice assistant to boost product discovery and profits. Our take: If Amazon rolls out sponsored answers to Alexa+ user queries or in-conversation ads, the voice assistant’s vast trove of personal user data will help marketers target consumers on a micro level. However, if hallucinations arise and lead to irrelevant or inaccurate product recommendations, Amazon risks eroding both user trust and brand confidence.
The news: OpenAI abruptly discontinued a ChatGPT “share” feature after widespread criticism of its opt-in functionality surfaced thousands of unintended private chats in Google Search results. If a user checked a box to “make this chat discoverable” (sometimes accidentally or not fully understanding the warning), Google and other search engines could “see” these chat links and add them to public search results. Our take: The AI industry’s “move fast and break things” ethos is clashing with the non-negotiable demands of data protection. For marketers reliant on AI for strategic planning and analysis, security and data privacy are paramount. Companies demonstrating a strong security focus could stand out from competitors.
The news: Reddit is positioning itself as a full-fledged search engine, with over 70 million weekly active users (WAUs) using its search functionality. As part of its strategy to house a full-fledged search engine within its website, the company is expanding its AI-powered conversational interface, Reddit Answers, and making it a central feature on the platform around the world. Reddit Answers has grown to 6 million WAUs from 1 million in December. Our take: If Reddit succeeds in becoming a self-sustaining search platform, it will become an even more valuable asset for marketers looking to target niche audiences and get in on the consumer purchase journey early. Advertisers should start identifying specific subreddits where their audience are already active, experiment with Reddit’s ad formats, and optimize content to surface in the platform’s search results.
The news: Figma’s high-profile IPO—valued at $19.3 billion—lands it squarely in the league of top-tier software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms and indicates renewed competition in cloud-based tools that agencies rely on for their campaigns. Our take: Instead of being subsumed by Adobe, Figma is now free to chart its own course. Going public gives it the independence to scale, expand its ecosystem, and challenge incumbents directly. For advertisers, Figma remaining independent gives agencies added choice. As creative tools compete for market share, expect faster innovation, more flexible pricing, and features tuned for digital-first campaigns.
The news: Microsoft’s latest earnings reflect more than just a Wall Street beat—they signal a deeper shift in how enterprises are adopting productivity software, cloud infrastructure, and embedded AI to run their businesses. It reported $76.4 billion in revenues, up 18% YoY. Microsoft Cloud made up $46.7 billion of those revenues, up 27% YoY, as cloud demand remains strong across all workloads. Our take: With strong recurring revenue, expanding AI use cases, and leadership across productivity and cloud, Microsoft is increasingly well-insulated from macroeconomic headwinds and well positioned to shape the future of work and software.
The news: More than half (51%) of customer service journeys start on search engines and third-party platforms like Google, YouTube, Reddit, and ChatGPT—rather than company websites—prompting businesses to meet customers where they are, per a recent Gartner survey. Our take: Brands need to research and identify the platforms their customers rely on and establish fast, responsive service on those channels. The goal isn’t to pull users back to official websites—it’s to meet them where they already are, with the answers they need, when they need them. Using generative engine optimization (GEO) best practices to boost customer service answers in genAI outputs could help younger consumers get digestible, fast answers in their preferred channel.
The news: Cyata launched a platform that detects, authenticates, and governs “agentic identities” as adoption of autonomous AI agents is exploding—96% of IT leaders will increase agent use in 2025, Cloudera reports. Digital agents integrating into the workforce pose new risks—ones traditional identity and access management (IAM) tools are not equipped to handle, per VentureBeat. Our take: Managing mixed human and agentic workers won’t be optional for long—it will become a baseline requirement as AI agents move from edge cases to everyday tools. Companies that delay could risk operational blind spots, compliance gaps, and uncontrolled AI autonomy.
The news: Amazon will pay The New York Times between $20 million and $25 million annually in a multiyear content licensing agreement that was announced in May. This amount, close to 1% of the Times’ total annual revenue, is one of the largest disclosed payments for news content licensing for generative AI (genAI) training. Our take: The Amazon–Times deal underscores the growing value of premium journalism in the AI era, setting a precedent for how tech companies can ethically license high-quality content. For advertisers, this signals a shift toward AI-powered platforms integrating trusted media brands, which could enhance user engagement and credibility.
The news: Demand for AI-skilled workers is exploding as workplace adoption of generative AI (genAI) accelerates, creating a make-or-break moment for B2B companies trying to compete in a tech-driven landscape. The number of job postings for employees with agentic AI skills spiked 985% between 2023 and 2024, per McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook report. Postings for workers with general AI skills also rose, but at a much smaller 35% rate. Our take: CMOs should work closely with HR to identify high-potential marketing team members for upskilling programs to tackle tasks like generating and reviewing AI copy and pulling insights out of AI-powered campaign analytics.
The news: Consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers plan to hop on the AI train and scale up their retail, social, and connected TV (CTV) ad spending, but challenges around audience and data fragmentation remain. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of CPG marketers expect to increase their retail media spending in the second half of 2025, per MediaOcean’s 2025 H2 Market Report, compared with 59% for social platforms and 55% for CTV. Our take: Using creative AI tools like one recently added to YouTube Shorts to resize and retarget content for different social platforms can maximize campaign reach. CPGs are huge advertisers, and when they pivot, they can influence the entire market. Broader marketers should follow their lead not only in spending but by immediately testing AI tools in high-impact internal areas like CTV creative or retail copy optimization.
The news: Despite strong subscriptions growth, Spotify’s ad business remains stuck in neutral amid macroeconomic pressures and the slow ramp-up of its ad stack. The streamer’s stock dropped over 11% after Q2 earnings missed expectations on both revenues and profit and the company issued weak guidance for the current quarter. Our take: Efforts around Spotify’s Ad Exchange are promising, but lagging adoption means early testing and partnerships may have resulted in disproportionate insights. With lower consumer spending and economic uncertainties, B2B planners should model more conservative ad results and balance new ad initiatives with more predictable, proven customer-acquisition channels.
The news: Employees are underreporting their generative AI (genAI) use and feel company initiatives add to their workload without benefiting them directly. 45% of US employees have used AI at work without telling their supervisors, per Gusto, with Gen Zers and tech workers being the top culprits. Our take: Offer incentives for AI use and encourage disclosure through establishing clear policies to help maximize AI initiatives and build a culture of honesty. Setting up company-specific prompts for employee use and offering free access to vetted tools will help motivate workers to use the right tools in the right way, protecting company data and maximizing AI use to increase productivity. Our take: Offer incentives for AI use and encourage disclosure through establishing clear policies to help maximize AI initiatives and build a culture of honesty. Setting up company-specific prompts for employee use and offering free access to vetted tools will help motivate workers to use the right tools in the right way, protecting company data and maximizing AI use to increase productivity.
The news: AI is growing in importance for small and medium-sized businesses, saving SMB marketers time and money, often with benefits outweighing risks like public backlash. AI helps US SMB marketers save about 13 hours per person per week and cut operating costs by about $4,700 per month on each team, per ActiveCampaign. Separately, Thryv found that 90% of US small businesses save 11 or more hours per week with AI. Our take: As AI saves companies time and money, it's crucial to have plans in place for how to use them. Marketers should use that time to test new creative strategies, reach out to new customers, and act on campaign analytics gathered by AI. AI-driven cost savings can be reinvested in higher-quality marketing content and expansion of product catalogs.