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.
While AI advancements have sparked litigation between publishers and tech giants—The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI for copyright infringement being the most prominent—some publishers are embracing AI partnerships as an essential revenue driver amid shaky search traffic.
The news: Almost 6 in 10 physicians (58%) are skeptical that the US physician shortage will improve significantly in the next decade, per a Medscape report last week. While we expect the shortage—and physicians’ skepticism—to persist, generative AI could help with both. AI-assisted administrative work can save physicians hours of work, while AI tools for clinical support and diagnostics can boost accuracy, improving job satisfaction and adding appeal for the next generation of medical students.
The news: A majority of US adults are ready for AI to take their bosses’ jobs. 73% said they’re behind AI having a role in hiring, firing, and budgets, per a new ResumeNow survey. 69% are fine with AI monitoring for productivity purposes. Our take: 41% of C-suite professionals are concerned about the ethical use of AI, per Bearing Point. AI can quickly become a yes man, confirming decisions that might not be in a company’s best interest. Balance and oversight are key when adopting AI solutions. Using AI for hiring and budgeting will help streamline those processes, but AI decisions need to be monitored to keep bias and hallucinations in check.
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.
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: Meta and Midjourney formed a partnership to bring more image-generation tools to Facebook and Instagram. Meta is licensing Midjourney’s “aesthetic technology” for users and brands, Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang posted on Threads. He implied that the agreement may go past licensing and involve collaboration with Meta’s research teams to integrate Midjourney into future models and products. Our take: Brands should experiment with Midjourney to streamline content creation for Meta campaigns. However, they should also monitor outputs carefully for quality and copyright issues, especially considering Midjourney has faced allegations of IP misuse. Fast creation is only an advantage if it doesn’t trigger legal or reputational backlash.
The news: Cohere launched Command A Reasoning, its first enterprise-tuned large language model (LLM). Designed for secure environments, the model handles agentic customer service, research, and automation tasks at scale. Its big-business focus is rooted in its ability to integrate with existing tools, support for on-premises deployment, and strict data controls. Our take: Enterprise AI is shifting from optional to operational. Vendors that deliver reliability, guardrails, and measurable value—like Command A Reasoning and Agentforce—will win long-term adoption over general-purpose models built for show, not scale.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss our ‘very specific, but highly unlikely’ predictions for the future of digital in 2026 and beyond. Why browsers will become the new AI battleground, what does it mean if agentic AI doesn’t take over shopping, and can GenAI actually lead to more of the jobs it can easily destroy? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Senior Director of Briefings, Jeremy Goldman, Principal Analyst, Sara Marzano, and Vice President of Content, Paul Verna. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
Despite recent tariff challenges, Amazon continues to show impressive growth while experimenting with longer Prime Day events and exploring new AI ventures.
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: 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: Google is bringing Gemini AI to the living room. Starting in October, Gemini for Home will replace Google Assistant on Nest speakers and displays, per The Verge. Gemini for Home opens new channels for contextual, voice-driven ad engagement inside households. With millions of Nest and Google Home devices expected to get the upgrade, the scale is massive and the stakes are high. Our take: Gemini for Home lets Google fuse search ads with household AI. But winning against Amazon will depend on trust, adoption, seamless ad integration, and pricing. Google’s challenge is making its service compelling enough to drive adoption and subscribers.
Audience customization is the top GenAI use case for marketers who produce multiple versions of video ads (42%), per a March Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) survey.
The news: AI dominated Wednesday’s Made by Google event, where the company unveiled its Pixel 10 lineup. Google pitched Gemini as “personal intelligence,” framing it as a universal AI assistant across smartphones, wearables, smart homes, and connected cars. The showcase feature, Magic Cue, anticipates user needs by pulling data from Gmail, Calendar, and Messages to suggest timely actions. Our take: If features like Magic Cue prove indispensable, Google gains a recurring revenue stream and deeper ecosystem lock-in. If they fade as gimmicks, Pixel risks remaining a niche brand, especially if competitors can provide similar apps or services.
The news: Epic rolled out new genAI tools for clinicians, including an AI scribe solution that transcribes doctors’ notes during patient visits. Epic will incorporate ambient technology from Microsoft to power its medical documentation technology. Our take: Epic’s AI scribe solution with Microsoft/Nuance as its development partner delivers a major blow to startups like Abridge and Ambience. These two companies are part of a booming ambient AI scribe space that has totaled nearly $1 billion in investment funding so far this year, per a July analysis from STAT. But Epic’s presence will make it much tougher for smaller players to stand out in the category, since doctors will be drawn in by the efficiency of using scribe tools from their EHR system.
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.