Generative AI is yet to have a profound impact on media plans and marketing workflow. “The promise of genAI is to ultimately achieve a digital dream state of advertising…where the right message reaches the right consumer on the right platform at the right time,” our analyst Max Willens said on an episode of the “Behind the Numbers” podcast. “But right now, the costs associated with those technological capabilities are not there, nor has the ROI been worked out … We’re a ways away.”

Generative AI search engine Perplexity will launch ads in the next few quarters. But while advertisers probably don’t need to form Perplexity ad strategies just yet, they should keep an eye on how the search engine is approaching monetization for clues into what Google (and other emerging search competitors) could do in the future.

Generative AI is still maturing, but marketers aren’t waiting to fold it into their workflows, including content creation to audience segmentation. Marketers’ top use case is personalization, but they say copywriting has the most potential. Here are five charts demonstrating how marketers are using generative AI right now.

OpenAI’s Sora could be to video generation what ChatGPT has become to text generation—a user-friendly, scalable tool that creates human-quality work. Tyler Perry put an $800 million studio expansion on hold after seeing the tool in action. And creators with access to the tool have created impressive works, from surreal nature documentaries to underwater fashion shows.

Brands and marketers have an increasingly prominent presence at the annual technology, arts, and culture festival in Austin, Texas, which this year took place from March 8 to 16. We break down the key topics that drew the most attention from attendees.

“95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by the AI,” said OpenAI founder Sam Altman. The prediction sent marketers into a frenzy. Altman’s statement may not be all hype, so it’s important marketers prepare rather than panic.

Virtual banking assistants like Bank of America’s Erica are taking design cues from ChatGPT and Google Gemini as banks look into adding conversational AI.

Advertisers have put genAI to work on a bevy of tasks. But the resulting efficiency gains are not yet changing media plans. And genAI’s vaunted media creation capabilities are being used differently by small agencies and large ones.

Google’s new core update focuses on decluttering spam from search, targeting sites that employ generative AI to mass produce low-quality content with minimal oversight. Marketers can still use ChatGPT to draft content, but using the raw output of these tools is a bad idea, according to Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at Amsive.

Brands need to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. AI can help. But the content needs to be personalized and trained on the brand's own data to avoid generic output. And brands need to be sure that source content has a clear voice and point of view.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss what happened when the first human ever received a brain implant from Neuralink, the other potential benefits of this technology outside of helping people with paralysis, and what the ultimate goal of Neuralink actually is. "In Other News," we talk about what happens now that ChatGPT has a memory and what to make of Gemini's rough start. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Jacob Bourne and Gadjo Sevilla.

Last week, Arc, a web browser from startup The Browser Company, released a new AI-powered feature called pinch-to-summarize, which provides an instant summary of full web pages. That follows Arc’s release of “Arc Search,” a mobile app that will search the internet based on a user’s query and deliver an AI-generated page summarizing the breadth of information it searched. It’s not the only AI tool targeting search. Perplexity is seeing increased attention for its ability to summarize data sets, including searching in Reddit posts or YouTube videos. This month also saw the rebranding of Google’s Bard chatbot to Gemini as the company doubles down on AI search.

OpenAI to take on Google directly with a search product: Generative AI can enhance search and introduce new problems. Google’s vast search market advantage will be tough to surpass.

Marketers are wary of AI-powered creative, but not productivity: Companies’ new features flesh out AI’s value as a professional tool rather than a creative one.

With OpenAI’s new GPT Store, an Apple App Store-like interface that opened earlier this month, SEO professionals can share their own custom versions of ChatGPT with premium subscribers. But these collaborative innovations aren’t without their challenges. Generative AI can’t do everything, and it can be hard to vet new tools in the store.

GenAI is on the agenda for most retailers in 2024: Walmart, Target, Canadian Tire, and others are turning to the tech to boost customer and employee satisfaction.

Leading financial institutions have discovered new ways to harness the power of AI to supercharge their operations and customer service.

As 2023 comes to an end, this is the data you need to kick-start 2024.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss whether this is the beginning of Amazon's decline, if the Internet is becoming more ad-free, whether shopping pairs well with streaming, where brands will shift their ad dollars during the Super Bowl as they lean away from X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT creator OpenAI's deal with publishing giant Axel Springer, the most visited tourist attractions in the world, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Blake Droesch and vice presidents of content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna.

Until Google rolls out generative search to all users, most consumers won’t adopt the technology. That means AI isn’t driving search ad spending—yet.