Big media acquisitions and streaming integrations will contribute to consolidation in connected TV (CTV) ad spending.

Amazon is continuing to see success with its maturing ad offerings. Q3 advertising services reached $17.7 billion, up 24% YoY, while net sales increased 13% to $180.2 billion. Q4 guidance points to continued confidence, with Amazon expecting growth between 10% and 13% YoY. Amazon’s ad success indicates that it will continue to be a promising opportunity for marketers that offers a unique proposition combining data-driven targeting, commerce integration, innovative ad formats, and the ability to reach consumers both onsite and offsite.

Fintechs, big tech, and payment players are using genAI to redefine finance. To compete, banks must pair strategic genAI investment with hyper-personalization and human support to earn customer trust and loyalty.

Google parent Alphabet reported strong Q3 earnings on Wednesday, with revenues growing 16% YoY to $102.35 billion, while Google Search & other, YouTube Ads, and Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices all saw double-digit growth. But Google simultaneously experienced a notable loss in an ongoing antitrust case that could carry implications for the future of search advertising. Google will remain a cornerstone of successful ad strategies, at least in the short-term.

The ad industry has reached a tipping point in its approach to measurement, shifting from a slower, siloed approach to one that’s more dynamic and allows advertisers to shift their spending more quickly than they had in years past.

Holding company WPP launched WPP Open Pro on Thursday, a self-serve AI tool piloted by Google and other clients that creates ad campaigns from start to finish in a push to attract small businesses. WPP’s newest move means marketers can continue to expect greater automation, cost savings, and a shift in agency relationships.

YouTube TV could lose access to Disney networks October 30, including ESPN, Disney Channel, and ABC, as Google and Disney enter a deal-renewal standoff. YouTube TV will become an increasingly risky investment for advertisers if a deal is not reached by the deadline, especially as advertisers turn to sports as a key channel to reach vast audiences but struggle with sports rights fragmentation.

Alphabet subsidiary Verily is launching a free health app offering personalized guidance from clinicians. The Verily Me app will also have an AI agent to answer people’s health questions based on their medical records. Verily’s competitive advantage over bigger companies with brand-name is that it has clinician partners and access to some medical record data. The company should leverage its network of doctors to endorse Verily Me to their patients, using real-world examples to demonstrate the benefit of combining a person’s health history with a medical expert’s view for individualized guidance.

AI adoption is accelerating faster than regulation, reshaping consumer behavior. Younger generations lead the charge for mainstream acceptance, forcing brands to navigate new risks and opportunities in AI-powered content.

Google has officially eliminated its Privacy Sandbox and removed the remaining 10 Sandbox technologies that were still available, marking an end to its yearslong plan to pivot away from third-party cookies on Chrome. Even as giants like Google step away from first-party initiatives, advertisers should prepare for continued change as many are pushing forward with post-cookie ambitions. Cookies may linger for some time to come, but that doesn’t negate broader consumer sentiments that favor data transparency.

AI will soon redefine how people find information. As search engines and generative AI engines converge, the next wave of discovery is emerging—and marketers who invest in AI optimization now will secure an early advantage.

Google and WPP struck a $400 million, five-year deal to expand AI tools and services across the UK ad agency’s services. The extension of their partnership, first announced in April 2024, marks a structural acceleration of how AI is becoming embedded in marketing operations. Deals like Google and WPP’s redefine what “AI maturity” looks like in marketing and how alliances are reshaping competitive dynamics. For CMOs, announcements like this emphasize the need for strong oversight of agency partnerships and a clear framework for measuring AI-driven efficiency and creative quality.

Visa launched the Trusted Agent Protocol, infrastructure meant to facilitate secure communication between AI agents and merchants to complete transactions, per a press release. Fully operationalized agentic commerce will take time to get off the ground. However, Visa’s endorsement of agentic commerce demands reluctant AI-adopters to quickly gear themselves for a new age of payment facilitation, or face irrelevance. Major payment rails especially need to convince merchants not to abandon their infrastructure to pursue things like blockchain-based transactions, as major retailers like Walmart and Amazon try to save money on fees. Offering seamless agentic commerce can entice these retailers to stay loyal.

Mastercard and Coinbase are reportedly in talks to acquire BVNK for approximately $2 billion, per an exclusive from Fortune Crypto. The scale of this deal underscores stablecoin’s acceptance into the mainstream of payments. Mastercard’s eagerness to seize BVNK’s capabilities suggests that traditional payment rails can no longer ignore stablecoins, and must integrate with the payment method to avoid being left behind.

Perplexity is taking a step back from its advertising initiatives amid struggles to monetize AI search. Marketers should pause planned investments in AI search until search ads are measurable and proven to be effective. AI adoption may be growing, but there remains no clear evidence that ad formats in AI search provide returns.

AppLovin’s launch of Axon marks its transformation from mobile gaming to full-scale AI ad platform — and one of ad tech’s boldest pivots yet. The new Axon Ads Manager promises real-time AI bidding, Shopify integrations, and transparent attribution as the company positions itself as a performance-driven alternative to Meta and Google. The rollout comes as the SEC investigates AppLovin’s data practices, spotlighting the tension between AI-powered innovation and compliance. Marketers see opportunity — regulators see risk.

Perplexity dropped the $200 monthly fee for its AI-native Comet browser, making it free worldwide but with rate limits. The change follows Google Chrome hitting a record 73.7% share of desktop browsing in September, per StatCounter. Comet can summarize webpages, pull key details, and wade through links on a user’s behalf. Chrome remains the must-buy channel, but ChatGPT’s mobile stickiness and Comet’s positioning prove that audiences may increasingly flow through alternative gateways. The brands that experiment early across these varied environments will be better prepared when consumer behavior tilts away from legacy browsers.

AI shopping assistants are boosting discovery and personalization, but trust issues and fulfillment challenges could limit their impact on channel migration.