From the explosion of ChatGPT to confusing economic indicators, the first quarter of 2023 has proven to be a mixed bag for retail. We break down major developments from the past few months and what they mean for the year ahead.

While social commerce is on the rise in the US, livestream commerce has yet to take off. In addition, advances in technology (like ChatGPT) may help jumpstart voice commerce adoption. Here’s what marketers need to know to take advantage of the increase in physical and digital shopping channels.

Social media ad spend declined in the second half of 2022, and the category will make up a shrinking slice of total digital ad spend in the US this year, according to our forecast. But brands still need a social media presence. That’s where AI and ChatGPT can help. Here are six uses for generative AI in organic social campaigns.

When asked about generative AI, 62% of US adults strongly or somewhat agreed that it can save time and resources in the workplace, but there were concerns about the effectiveness and accuracy of its written work, according to Ipsos.

ChatGPT will transform formulaic tasks like product descriptions and inventory management. As OpenAI makes more integrations available, adoption will become increasingly common. Here’s how major retailers are already using ChatGPT.

OpenAI, Microsoft might ignore industry calls to halt AI advancement: As OpenAI continues to aim for a human-level AI with Microsoft’s blessing, industry players are calling foul. Regulation is necessary.

A 2022 Aira survey of marketers worldwide found 58.9% already used AI tools to optimize existing content, such as for search or to outshine competitors’ copy. Here are four noteworthy ways ChatGPT and other generative AI tools—such as Anyword, Jasper, Copy.ai, Frase, and Quillbot—might be used to enhance content.

“Everybody’s talking about generative AI,” said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian. “The underlying question is, will it last? Or will it be the next metaverse?” (Spoiler alert: She thinks it’s here to stay.) Davidkhanian shares her thoughts on some of the overarching trends from this week’s event.

Nearly 90% of US marketers said AI or machine learning technology saves their company time and money, while 82% said the content it generates is as good as—if not better than—human-generated content, per Capterra polling from last July. At the time of the survey, marketers said implementation can take a long time, though this perspective may have shifted since ChatGPT burst on the scene.

Insurer Zurich is exploring using ChatGPT to improve modeling and claims. The tech has the potential to strengthen customer service, but not all consumers are sold.

Billions of dollars are flowing to generative AI startups: High barriers to entry and a hard road to profitability mean a select few companies will eventually dominate a powerful market.

Bing's ChatGPT integration is boosting its usage, challenging Google in the AI-driven search market: Microsoft shares are up, and the incumbent’s ad revenues could be impacted.

The buzz around generative AI has reached a fever pitch, but the technology is being developed and deployed at different rates in various parts of the world. Here’s a guide to how mature it is in key regions, and what’s next for generative AI.

ChatGPT’s latest update could turn it into a shopping engine: Instacart, Klarna, and Shopify are experimenting with offering users personalized recommendations.

It partnered with OpenAI on a ChatGPT plugin to offer users personalized shopping recommendations.

Between bank collapses and a prolonged crypto winter, 2023 has not been kind to the banking industry. But that doesn’t mean things can’t turn around. Here are five charts on what’s good (consumer trust remains steady), what’s bad (crypto’s downfall continues), and some areas of opportunity (the rise of ChatGPT).

Generative AI has the potential to completely transform how media and advertising industries work. But it will remain on both industries’ margins if it fails to overcome skepticism and even hostility from consumers, publishers, and advertisers.

What is truly promising with generative AI, and when should content marketers stay human? Here’s how content marketers might use ChatGPT and other AI tools and where they should invest time and resources.

Brands are scrambling to incorporate generative AI into their strategy to stay ahead of the curve. But according to our analysts, AI’s current uses are just the tip of the iceberg. We dig into some recent AI innovations (including Snapchat’s AI chatbot and GPT-4) and predictions for the tech’s evolution.

Bing's new features take aim at Google: Microsoft is betting that ChatGPT-powered Bing Chat Answers and an image generation feature could keep recent search converts in the fold.