Our analysts (or “bakers”) compete in a Great British Bake Off–style episode, discussing why lawsuits and regulations will begin to fundamentally shift how kids use social media and how brands are going to use creators to figure out generative engine optimization (GEO). Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Analyst Minda Smiley and Principal Analyst Max Willens. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

OpenAI introduced product recommendations into ChatGPT on Monday, creating a potential opportunity for advertising—and a threat to affiliate marketing sites.

As marketers integrate generative AI (genAI) into their creative workflows, they must ensure the technology enhances, rather than replaces, creativity. Creatives must be active in AI policy development, maintain transparency of AI use, and be thoughtful about the way they use genAI. Brands that balance AI efficiency with human insight will stand out.

The technology will improve banks’ customer service and help them deliver more personalized interactions.

The martech landscape is shifting from prompt-based AI to more sophisticated autonomous systems. Agentic AI—artificial intelligence that can independently execute tasks, make decisions, and learn from interactions—represents a significant evolution in how marketing teams can operate and scale their efforts.

Consumers are cautiously optimistic about AI use. Over 100 million people will use generative AI (genAI) in the US this year, per our June 2024 forecast. But many are still distrustful of the tech as it relates to consumer privacy, personalization, and its capacity to hallucinate. Here are five charts demonstrating how consumers really feel about AI, and what marketers can do to make them more comfortable with the evolving technology.

2024 has been a disruptive year for generative AI (genAI), which transformed from a buzzword into a practical part of marketing workflows, and commerce media as more platforms launch. Meanwhile, advertisers are still figuring out the lifespan of third-party cookies. And connected TV (CTV) advertising got a big boost from Prime Video.

“The promise of a way better consumer experience is here. The promise of real personalization is here,” said Kya Sainsbury-Carter, corporate vice president of Microsoft Advertising.

OpenAI has released o1-preview, its first AI model with reasoning abilities, giving marketers a glimpse of what the next evolution of AI tools could offer.

Content creation has relied on manual processes—marketers, writers, and designers crafting messages that resonate with audiences. The introduction of generative AI has revolutionized these workflows. Three-quarters (75%) of professionals who use generative AI say the technology saves them between one to 10 hours per week, according to the recent Contentful survey.

Key stat: 56% of internet users in China have used generative AI (genAI) compared with 46.3% of internet users in the US, according to February 2024 data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) - Japan.

“The speed of the technology is moving so fast that waiting on the sidelines is not an option,” Upwork CEO Hayden Brown said at Tech Brew’s “Onboarding Your Favorite New Coworker: AI” event this week.

“I wish more brands would take more small swings to see what kinds of new experiences, products, interactions they can create [with generative AI],” said Jenny Nicholson, founder at creative AI agency Queen of Swords. The agency worked with wedding planning site Zola to develop its Split the Decisions chatbot last year.

“Every tool that exists right now is getting AI infused into it,” our analyst Henry Powderly said on a recent episode of the “Behind the Numbers” podcast. Indeed, 24.0% of people in the US will use generative AI at work next year, per our June 2023 forecast.

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.”

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.

“What’s really exciting about retail media is a lot of it is uncharted territory,” said Paul Longo, general manager of retail media at Microsoft. “We’re in inning two, inning three. What’s gotten us here will not get us where things need to be.”

“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.

Last week, Apple made news for testing an AI-powered ad product similar to Google’s Performance Max. Apple has been successfully investing in advertising for the past few years. But Google has a multibillion dollar advertising advantage. Even with AI advertising improvements, Apple is nowhere near Google’s ad dominance.

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.