47% of US banking decision-makers say their institutions have already rolled out generative AI, up from 10% in 2023, said data from EY-Parthenon.
Klarna and Splitit are pursuing AI initiatives to keep their products top-of-mind for consumers, per press releases. Klarna partnered with Google Cloud to power AI-backed hyperpersonalized marketing campaigns. Splitit debuted its Agentic Commerce Partner Program, bringing card-linked buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans to agent-powered shopping. Replacing human created art with AI generated images is a risky play for marketing, but Splitit’s BNPL angle with agentic commerce may help it establish a foothold in the installment plan arena, especially when tied to shoppers’ preferred cards that they trust and earn rewards.
Once seen as a revenue channel, commerce media is fast becoming the connective tissue between brands, retailers, and consumers. The industry’s focus is expanding from monetization to meaning, a theme that resonated throughout Advertising Week New York.
At Tech Futures 2025 in New York last week, IBM general manager of corporate strategy Roger Premo and VP of AI and automation Nick Fuller outlined how enterprises and brands can scale AI responsibly—and profitably. Acting as “client zero,” IBM has improved its run rate by $3.5 billion—about 8% of its revenues—through internal AI adoption. Brands that treat AI as a business transformation, not a tech trial, will move faster from proof of concept to profit. Align leadership vision with a disciplined data strategy, invest in unified platforms, and embed governance from the start.
At Philadelphia’s 1682 conference, Coca-Cola’s Benny Lee and Hershey’s Andy Hunt shared how two of the world’s oldest CPG brands are transforming retail through creativity, data, and AI. Coca-Cola is evolving from selling beverages to designing experiences—using AI to power global design systems and create immersive in-store storytelling through products like Y3000. Hershey’s is closing the gap between physical and digital by embedding data into every stage of retail, from aisle feedback to retail media KPIs. Both executives envision the store of the future as dynamic, data-driven, and human-led—where AI supports storytelling, not automation.
OpenAI announced a blockbuster deal to design its own AI chips in collaboration with Broadcom, continuing a trend of AI companies seeking partnerships and investments to own both ends of the AI stack, per The New York Times. OpenAI’s Broadcom deal is a turning point in AI strategy—from chasing smarter models to securing the power that fuels them. For enterprises, this is the moment to pick sides. The competitive advantage in the next decade belongs to those who align with partners that control their infrastructure, not just their algorithms.
As Google’s Chrome and DuckDuckGo integrate AI tools into their browsers, Perplexity has launched its own, built with agentic AI capabilities from the ground up—Comet. When perusing products, Comet can take complex natural-language requests and surf review sites, listicles, and news articles to find top options. For users looking for an AI-first experience, Comet is a promising entry that blends active assistance with traditional web functions. However, given Perplexity’s recent scaleback on advertiser initiatives, AI search may not be the next frontier for ad formats. Continuing investments in traditional search options like Google Search is crucial to ensuring visibility.
Salesforce’s launch of Agentforce 360 is a sign that agentic AI is moving into the marketing stack, signaling that automation is becoming a core capability rather than a future experiment. Agentforce can help CMOs decide how far to push agentic AI across their marketing stack. To move from experimentation to deployment, CMOs should start with focused pilots in high-volume touchpoints like chat or email with clear success metrics, such as resolution time or customer satisfaction.
Perplexity is taking a step back from its advertising initiatives amid struggles to monetize AI search. Marketers should pause planned investments in AI search until search ads are measurable and proven to be effective. AI adoption may be growing, but there remains no clear evidence that ad formats in AI search provide returns.
India is piloting a program to allow consumers to shop and pay for products directly through AI chatbots using United Payments Interface (UPI), per TechCrunch. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the first chatbot to join the pilot, with integrations for Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude to follow shortly. The agentic commerce pilot in India could inform companies’ shopping initiatives in the US, though the two markets differ significantly in how consumers use AI.
The biggest banks will spend $6 billion or more on marketing in 2025, or 0.10% of their total asset value, per an analysis of the American Bankers Association Bank Marketers Survey in the ABA Banking Journal. On average, 32% of banks’ marketing budgets were allocated to new customer acquisition—more than any other allocation. Bank marketers are clearly focused on digital advertising, and with greater resources and scale, the largest institutions won’t find it hard to drive awareness, attract new customers digitally, and dominate the conversation. Community banks will need to be scrappy.
JPMorgan Chase spends $2 billion per year on AI and finds an equal amount of cost savings as a result, said CEO Jamie Dimon in a recent Bloomberg TV interview. During its April investor day, JPMorgan forecast spending $18 billion on technology in 2025. JPMorgan is increasing the gap between the haves and have nots in bank technology. AI development in financial services, supported by modern platforms, is outrunning nearly everyone.
A Yext analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity found that 86% of AI-generated answers rely on brand-managed content—from official websites and listings to reviews. First-party sites led with 44% of citations, followed by listings (42%) and reviews (8%). The findings suggest AI models increasingly trust structured, authoritative data over publisher or community sources. But fewer users click through—only 8% from AI summaries versus 15% from standard search—indicating that generative platforms are capturing more engagement directly. To stay discoverable, marketers must pair clean, structured first-party data with strong social visibility as AI search reshapes traffic flows.
GumGum’s CMO Kerel Cooper says contextual advertising has shifted from an education hurdle to a growth engine. In an EMARKETER interview at Advertising Week New York, he described how AI now interprets full-page or frame-by-frame context, allowing brands to reach audiences based on meaning rather than identity. As cookies fade, contextual ads offer privacy-safe precision and brand safety at scale. Cooper calls this “mindset marketing”—targeting users in the right headspace, not just the right demo. With the open web regaining advertiser trust and AI powering deeper relevance, contextual targeting is emerging as the foundation of a healthier ad ecosystem.
Technological advancements are set to transform the automotive industry's cost structure, with managers forecasting 30% efficiency gains within five years, per Bain & Company. Through advanced technologies like digital platforms, intelligence automation, and a fabless future, carmakers can make significant productivity improvements. Successful automotive companies will be defined by their ability to embed technology to solve core problems. To compete, brands must focus on high-impact use cases, build a clean and integrated data backbone, and radically rethink their operating models to prioritize speed and scalability.
Most US consumers are already using digital tools for healthcare purposes, but three-quarters would prefer more personalized solutions, per a new Harris Poll sponsored by Verily. Healthcare marketers and brands need to use generative AI (genAI) tools, like remote monitoring, predictive analysis, and chatbots, to deliver personalized consumer experiences.
The search journey is becoming increasingly fragmented as consumers no longer trust the first answer they see and turn to various other resources for product recommendations and reviews. Nearly 90% of consumers in the US, the UK, France, and Germany now cross-check results across multiple platforms, per Yext’s The Rise of AI Search Archetypes report. Brands need to optimize for how AI tools act on their behalf, per Yext. CMOs should focus on ensuring AI tools interpret their data accurately and present it in the right contexts, which could come from succinct FAQ pages or concrete product listings that avoid vague descriptions.
A new Billion Dollar Boy study shows marketers are spending more on AI-generated creator content—even as audiences grow wary. Seventy-nine percent of marketers increased AI investment this year, and 77% plan to shift more budget to AI-driven creator campaigns. Yet audience enthusiasm for AI content has plunged from 60% in 2023 to 26% in 2025, reflecting frustration with formulaic, unlabeled “AI slop.” As the creator economy enters its “post-AI” phase, the challenge isn’t whether to use AI—it’s how to use it without losing authenticity.
Hannah Elsakr, VP of new genAI business ventures at Adobe, framed AI-enabled tools not as a job disruptor but as “an exponential amplifier to our own humanity and creativity,” at LWT’s TechFutures 2025 in New York City this week. She outlined three frontiers reshaping brand storytelling: AI companions, personalized marketing at scale, and world-building around IP. Brands should prioritize scalable AI pilots, adopt commercially safe AI models, and lead internal change from the top. Provenance, licensing, and IP protection must be built in—not bolted on—if AI is to expand creativity without eroding trust.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping marketing, from how content is created to how advertisers evaluate transparency and trust on digital platforms. Marketers can harness AI to streamline operations, enabling more campaigns more quickly by analyzing large data sets—but do so thoughtfully—avoid using AI for entire ad creation, as consumers still respond negatively to this. Brands must operate with an eye toward maintaining trust and authenticity.