The news: Google is gearing up for a wide release of ads in AI Mode search as advertisers grapple with concerns over brand safety and performance erosion in AI-curated environments. Our take: Even as concerns over Google’s ad dominance linger and advertisers consider competitors, cutting spend on Google entirely remains highly unlikely—but the dominoes are stacking up against Google. Ads in AI mode shows the search giant is taking steps to protect itself in an increasingly competitive ecosystem.

The news: Amazon plans to put ads in its AI-powered Alexa+ voice assistant to boost product discovery and profits. Our take: If Amazon rolls out sponsored answers to Alexa+ user queries or in-conversation ads, the voice assistant’s vast trove of personal user data will help marketers target consumers on a micro level. However, if hallucinations arise and lead to irrelevant or inaccurate product recommendations, Amazon risks eroding both user trust and brand confidence.

The news: Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed plans to “significantly” increase AI investments, including acquisitions. The iPhone-maker acquired seven firms this year, some focused on AI, and remains open to deals of any size to boost capabilities, per Business Insider. Our take: Apple’s focus on efficiency and partnerships suggests incremental but impactful AI-driven tools will emerge, especially around privacy-first and device-dependent personalization. Prepare for evolving Apple AI features that emphasize user privacy. Balance campaigns between Apple’s controlled environment and more open, AI-reliant ecosystems like Google’s and Meta’s to optimize reach and precision.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss why Ms. Yaccarino left X, the expectations for its advertising business in the short and long term, and how realistic its chances are of becoming an “everything app”. Join our conversation with Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Jasmine Enberg, and Analyst, Marisa Jones. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

The news: Reddit is positioning itself as a full-fledged search engine, with over 70 million weekly active users (WAUs) using its search functionality. As part of its strategy to house a full-fledged search engine within its website, the company is expanding its AI-powered conversational interface, Reddit Answers, and making it a central feature on the platform around the world. Reddit Answers has grown to 6 million WAUs from 1 million in December. Our take: If Reddit succeeds in becoming a self-sustaining search platform, it will become an even more valuable asset for marketers looking to target niche audiences and get in on the consumer purchase journey early. Advertisers should start identifying specific subreddits where their audience are already active, experiment with Reddit’s ad formats, and optimize content to surface in the platform’s search results.

The news: More than half (51%) of customer service journeys start on search engines and third-party platforms like Google, YouTube, Reddit, and ChatGPT—rather than company websites—prompting businesses to meet customers where they are, per a recent Gartner survey. Our take: Brands need to research and identify the platforms their customers rely on and establish fast, responsive service on those channels. The goal isn’t to pull users back to official websites—it’s to meet them where they already are, with the answers they need, when they need them. Using generative engine optimization (GEO) best practices to boost customer service answers in genAI outputs could help younger consumers get digestible, fast answers in their preferred channel.

Microsoft reported $76.4 billion in Q2 revenue, up 18% YoY, as cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and embedded AI drove strong performance. Microsoft Cloud grew 27% to $46.7 billion, and Azure's annual run rate surpassed $75 billion, overtaking Google Cloud. Enterprise adoption of tools like Dynamics 365 continues to rise, reinforcing Microsoft’s role in AI-powered operations. Following the report, Microsoft’s market cap crossed $4 trillion. The company plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while showing capital discipline. Microsoft is positioning itself as the foundational enterprise platform for the AI era.

The situation: Amazon and Google, once bound by a symbiotic relationship in which Amazon funneled ad dollars into Google Search and Google indexed Amazon’s pages, are now veering toward open conflict as generative AI (genAI) blurs the lines between ecommerce, advertising, and search. Both companies are determined to own the entire journey from discovery to checkout, and that ambition is unraveling what remains of their former détente. Our take: Amazon and Google are racing to define where and how consumers discover and buy products in the genAI era. If Amazon succeeds in walling off its marketplace data and steering shoppers to its own AI interfaces, the retail landscape could splinter into walled gardens where tech giants cooperate far less. That winner‑takes‑all dynamic might suit the victors, but it risks degrading the overall consumer experience with fewer choices and less transparent pricing. At the same time, it could lead brands and retailers into a margin‑sapping race to the bottom inside whichever closed ecosystem proves most dominant.

The news: Consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers plan to hop on the AI train and scale up their retail, social, and connected TV (CTV) ad spending, but challenges around audience and data fragmentation remain. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of CPG marketers expect to increase their retail media spending in the second half of 2025, per MediaOcean’s 2025 H2 Market Report, compared with 59% for social platforms and 55% for CTV. Our take: Using creative AI tools like one recently added to YouTube Shorts to resize and retarget content for different social platforms can maximize campaign reach. CPGs are huge advertisers, and when they pivot, they can influence the entire market. Broader marketers should follow their lead not only in spending but by immediately testing AI tools in high-impact internal areas like CTV creative or retail copy optimization.

The triopoly looks stronger, but it's digital that's getting bigger. Amazon, Google, and Meta now command 58.8% of total US ad dollars, up from 47.1% in 2020. But that's not an indication that the triopoly's control of the digital ad market is growing.

Alphabet posted strong Q2 results, with Search ad revenue up 12% YoY and YouTube ad revenue climbing 13%. But analysts and advertisers are asking tougher questions as the company shifts toward AI-led formats like AI Overviews and Gemini. Google declined to provide clear data on ROI, clickthroughs, or user engagement, fueling concerns about monetization in a no-click world. Licensing costs for LLM training, brand safety, and competition from ChatGPT and Perplexity are all in focus. While YouTube continues to lead in streaming ad growth, the future of Google’s ad engine may hinge on transparency, AI accountability, and performance parity.

The trend: Consumers generally find that AI-generated responses to their online health queries are only somewhat reliable, according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. Our take: As Google’s AI gets smarter, healthcare and pharma websites will lose search traffic. Google is in a race with OpenAI and other tech players to make its AI more intelligent and improve users’ search experiences. Other consumers will conduct more health queries on platforms like ChatGPT. Brands and publishers must optimize content for AI rather than for search, but they should also be developing strategies to connect more with consumers on non-search channels such as social media and CTV.

Our midyear report revisits the top trends we named in early 2025 to see what’s shaping the market, evolving fast, or fading in the rearview mirror.

The news: In the wake of Google’s impressive earnings report, YouTube is getting more creative AI tools on YouTube Shorts for both creators and advertisers. YouTube added an image-to-video generative AI (genAI) tool to Shorts, which can turn a photo into a 6-second video, powered by Google’s Veo 2. It also introduced AI-powered tools that resize ads to fit Shorts’ format. Our take: These new tools could help YouTube outpace rivals by combining TikTok-style virality with Google’s deep AI infrastructure. Instead of recycling or repurposing long-form assets, marketers should push more budget to testing Shorts-first content. A/B testing with Shorts’ new AI resizing tool and audience-specific, unique content for mobile and CTV can help determine which content can be converted with AI for both platforms and which needs to be remade and retargeted.

The news: Google’s AI Overviews feature gets users offline and out of search quickly, making it harder for brands and websites to capture attention and clicks. Only 8% of Google users whose search triggered an AI Overview clicked on a link, per Pew Research. Among those who didn’t see an AI summary, nearly twice as many (15%) clicked a link. Our take: Google’s AI tools offer fast answers, but they’re cutting off engagement before it can begin. For publishers, brands, and creators, that means fewer opportunities to connect, convert, or even be seen. Prioritize visibility on platforms favored by AI Overviews, like YouTube and Reddit, and strengthen owned channels like newsletters and apps to help boost appearance in results while reducing dependence on traffic from Google.

GenAI will reach about 51% of US internet users by 2029 as growth stabilizes, with search dominating use cases and Gen Z leading adoption. Amid rising competition from Google and others, ChatGPT will maintain dominance. Brands must adapt to AI-mediated customer relationships.

The news: Google is looking to sign licensing deals with more publishers, per Bloomberg, to improve its products and address the threat of dwindling AI training resources. It’s launching a pilot project to partner with about 20 national news outlets, which could help ease tensions between Big Tech players and the publishers that are demanding compensation for their content. Our take: Google’s increased effort to license more media content shows its gearing up for a future in which AI-generated summaries dominate search. As this shift occurs, brands will need to focus on generative engine optimization (GEO) to get their content into AI summaries, such as by including concise takeaways that LLMs can surface. Preparing for a world where more premium content is behind paywalls could also include deeper publisher partnerships.

The news: Despite global cuts in ad budgets, several companies are diving head-first into their own ad offerings to diversify revenues. HP is reportedly pitching HP Media Network, an ad network highlighting laptop and desktop ads. The move includes ads on HP computers and apps, offsite ads, placements in social and email campaigns, and a free ad-supported TV service. Our take: Introducing ad offerings isn’t necessarily a lost cause—but knowing how to position new ad products is key to succeeding in a time when advertisers are increasingly hesitant to invest without measurable results.

AI is upending every aspect of marketing, from neuro-contextual ads that read emotions to autonomous shopping agents that make purchasing decisions. As tech giants consolidate control of the sector, six pivotal trends are reshaping advertising, search, and commerce.

Privacy regulations are mounting. Signal loss is accelerating. Omnichannel advertising has become impossibly complex. These forces are driving marketers back to MMM for holistic, privacy-safe measurement.