The South by Southwest festival returned to Austin, Texas, in full force this year, with discussions on the future of technology, brands, and marketing. Here, we lay out the top trends and takeaways.

“We’re showing 20.5% growth for retail media ad spending this year, and 22.9% actually accelerating into next year,” said senior forecaster Ethan Cramer-Flood at our recent “Attention! Seizing the Retail Media Opportunity” summit. That stat assumes inflation will cool some in the second half of this year, which our forecasters currently predict it will.

As marketing budgets bend under the pressure of economic uncertainty, SEO is increasingly important for its low costs and compounding returns. Some 58% of marketers plan to use AI for content and SEO by the end of this year, compared to 10% who currently do, according to BrightEdge data.

High inflation and growing interest rates are putting the credit card industry in a precarious position. As 2023 progresses, issuers and networks will rethink their strategies and marketing schemes to protect their bottom lines.

This year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showcased the latest in mobile technologies. Although new smartphones starred, some of the biggest innovations were in other devices and AI.

Generative AI has ample applications within financial services over a three-year horizon, with payments the most promising sector because of its breadth of potential use cases.

Forty-two percent of marketers said they plan on exploring AI and automation as a strategy in 2023, according to an August 2022 Sagefrog survey

Microsoft’s new AI “Copilot” lands for marketers: Tool promises to help discover consumer categories and automate processes.

The technology has promising use cases across the banking sector. We highlight where and what banks should do to prepare.

On today's episode, we discuss the US public's everyday awareness of AI, whether generative AI is more than just a hyper-advanced predictive text tool, and whether AI search might actually be a disaster. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Jacob Bourne and Yory Wurmser.

Brands were abuzz at eTail West 2023 in Palm Springs this week, talking about tech, loyalty, and integration. Here are our top five takeaways from brands like GNC, Poshmark, and Spanx.

B2B marketing leaders have lost their focus on the benefits of email marketing. Email is a key distribution channel, and investments will allow relevant messages with high engagement rates and ROI to be delivered efficiently and effectively.

The AI-driven future is here for streetwear company Snipes, according to Jenna Posner, chief digital officer, speaking at eTail West 2023 this week. Snipes is using AI tools now to integrate new merchandise into its platform, driving efficiency for getting product listings live.

Europe expands IT budgets in face of recession fears: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and software are technology’s bright spots, while devices continue to slump. We look at Europe’s growth opportunities.

Google unplugs its robotic arm: Everyday Robots is the latest cost-cutting casualty. The timing is risky given Microsoft’s ChatGPT-robotics research and a potentially robust robotics consumer market ahead.

More than half of US adults prefer human-generated content across a broad range of media, according to an Ipsos survey. For news and photojournalism, for example, about 70% want to see human-made content. But for marketing websites and movies, US adults are slightly more open to AI-generated content.

Generative AI is set to have far-reaching implications for the $5.920 trillion global ecommerce sector. Here's our take on the top three areas where the technology could have the greatest impact.

Of Microsoft’s $198 billion in revenues last year, only about 6% came from advertising. Could a revamped Bing help build out this revenue stream? It’s hard to imagine, but not impossible. Here are five charts that look at Microsoft’s latest ad moves.

With ChatGPT’s historically viral launch, 2023 is poised to be the year generative AI breaks through into marketing and advertising. These numbers will help you make sense of the billions that are pouring into the space from VC and tech giants alike and reveal the most popular use cases.

From winning “an insane amount of PR coverage” to being nimble enough to strike at the peak of buzz, Aron North, Mint Mobile’s CMO, shares how the ad that had everyone talking came about and what other marketers can learn from his experience.