Anthropic’s Claude AI is taking on competitors in a multimillion dollar ad campaign. The “Keep Thinking” campaign positions Claude as “the AI for problem solvers” and marks Anthropic’s first foray into brand marketing. The campaign is a necessary start to help Claude gain market share and boost its comparatively small user base, but it’s only the first step in a long journey ahead for Anthropic.

Junior ad jobs are gradually disappearing as the industry faces upheaval. While overall ad jobs ticked up slightly earlier this year, employment is still trending downward—and younger workers are taking the brunt. Without a pipeline of entry-level talent, agencies risk eroding their long-term relevance.

AI is taking over tasks once handled by junior staff. Agencies and brands are embracing the efficiency and cost savings of AI—but at the risk of cutting the very pipeline that feeds future leadership, per MarTech. Marketers are realizing they can’t afford to treat AI as a zero-sum replacement for junior talent. The smart play is balance: Use AI for short-term efficiency while still investing in entry-level hires who can grow into long-term strategists and leaders. Pair automation with training, expand AI education, and let young staff lead adoption. That balance drives efficiency now while protecting tomorrow’s talent pipeline.

The trend: Healthcare executives expect AI adoption to be the leading trend in the next two years and have high expectations for improvements in patient care, per a new survey from Sage Growth Partners. Sage surveyed 101 healthcare system and hospital C-suite executives during the second quarter about AI opportunities and investment plans. AI can help healthcare shift from reactive to proactive care by transforming the vast amount of data from health sensors into actionable insights. However, the key is to integrate this AI as a tool to support, not replace, a provider's judgment. AI predictive assessments and analytics add valuable information, but providers’ experience, critical thinking, and empathy are necessary not only for balanced diagnoses but also to maintain patients’ trust. A recent study in JAMA found that patients think physicians who use AI are less trustworthy, less competent, and less empathetic than those who didn’t. For now at least, AI use in healthcare is a significant perception hurdle requiring transparent disclosure and careful oversight.

Meta will allow advertisers to exclude specific words or phrases from AI-generated ad copy to protect and align with brand image as it accelerates its AI advertising push. While barriers to adoption remain, Meta’s continued push toward AI ad automation signals where the future of advertising is heading: One where AI will increasingly balance scale with control to give marketers confidence in experimenting with automated campaigns.

The news: Mistral, a French AI company founded by former Meta and Google DeepMind employees, unlocked premium features including persistent memory, deep business app integrations, and user-controlled privacy on its Le Chat platform at no cost, per VentureBeat. This undercuts rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic that wall off such tools behind paywalls and paid premium. Our take: Free enterprise-grade AI features and cross-platform integrations accelerate adoption, experimentation, and innovation. By enabling data export between AI providers, brands cut switching costs and gain leverage in an interoperable AI market.

This report analyzes how digital adoption and evolving consumer habits are reshaping South Korea’s retail, media, and payments landscape.

Generative AI is rapidly moving from novelty to necessity in advertising, collapsing production costs and timelines while expanding creative possibilities. National TV ads that once required six figures and weeks of work can now be made in days for a fraction of the budget, opening broadcast-quality campaigns to smaller advertisers. With nearly 90% of large video advertisers already adopting AI, use cases like personalization, ideation, and versioning are proliferating. Yet consumer skepticism remains strong—especially among older audiences—underscoring that human craft and cultural nuance still matter. The challenge ahead: merging automation’s efficiency with trust and authentic creativity at scale.

The advertising industry’s age and experience mix is shifting fast. In the US, entry-level roles are shrinking as automation replaces routine tasks, while in Australia, “juniorisation” favors younger, digitally fluent hires over seasoned veterans. Agencies face a balancing act—bringing in Gen Z talent to master AI-driven tools and authentically shape campaigns, while retaining senior expertise crucial for strategy, oversight, and client trust. Without a robust entry-level pipeline today, the industry risks a future shortage of homegrown leaders just as marketing grows more complex.

AI search startup Perplexity shocked the industry with an unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash bid for Google’s Chrome browser—despite Chrome not being for sale. The offer comes as a US court weighs whether Google must divest Chrome after an antitrust ruling, and positions Perplexity as a ready operator if a spin-off is ordered. Even if the deal never closes, the move amplifies Perplexity’s profile, pressures Google, and underscores the growing importance of distribution channels alongside model quality in AI competition.

AI is rapidly becoming foundational to marketing strategy, with 63% of teams now using it for planning—up from 28% in 2023, per Boathouse. Customer service and analytics have seen similarly sharp increases, supported by rising investments in CRM systems, CDPs, and automation tools, according to Twilio. As AI’s footprint grows, marketers are reallocating spend toward digital formats like social, CTV, and video, where AI can optimize targeting and performance. This trend reflects a broader shift: the most successful marketers are embedding AI into the fabric of their decision-making, not treating it as a plug-in. The gap is widening fast.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the growing AI literacy gap, how to tell if your organization is ready for AI, and what not to do when it comes to AI adoption. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Analyst Gadjo Sevilla, and Professor and AI Advisor to the Deans at Rice Business School and Founder and CEO of AI company DemistifAI Kathleen Perley. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Our take: OpenAI’s first-mover advantage is under threat from all sides—vertically from specialized AI agents, horizontally from rival chatbots, and internally from talent wars and Microsoft. The news: OpenAI’s ChatGPT has rapidly become a mainstream AI tool, with new data showing that 34% of US adults have now used it—almost double the 2023 figures, per Pew Research Center. For CMOs and CTOs, this means betting on ChatGPT’s current dominance while preparing for a fragmented future where no single platform reigns supreme. Finding the right AI solutions for specific use cases is a smarter play than betting the farm on an all-in-one solutions provider.

The trend: Retailers and brands are rapidly weaving generative AI (genAI) into their operations to boost efficiency and scale without adding significant headcount. The breadth of the initiatives signals an abrupt shift in many companies’ thinking about genAI from a useful tool to a potential core business driver. Our take: GenAI enables companies to do more with less—a crucial advantage at a time when macro uncertainty is making many firms wary of increasing their headcount. As early adopters scale their efforts and share results, momentum will grow—prompting others to follow out of necessity, not choice.

Marketers are embracing AI for creative work: Most, though, still ignore its power to drive efficiency and automation.

HubSpot’s push for AI data privacy: HubSpot customers handled 90% of inquiries without human intervention while meeting strict privacy regulations.

HubSpot’s 2025 Spotlight proves that the pressure for AI adoption is on: The event highlighted over 200 features to show how HubSpot’s AI is setting the pace.

Most professionals admit to exaggerating their AI skills as companies tie job security and promotions to tech fluency they’ve barely been trained for.

AI-generated fake KFC ad emphasizes consumers’ AI concerns: The reaction underscores lingering fears over AI’s ethical implications.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss how much we will actually be using AI agents this year, what happens when they start talking to each other, and how much Apple is likely to move the smart glasses adoption needle. Tune in to the conversation with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Technology Analyst Jacob Bourne and Senior Briefings Editor Gadjo Sevilla. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.