Meta cuts staff as AI automates ads: A 10% reduction tied to AI tools pushes marketers to prioritize outcomes over targeting.

Social platforms want a bigger role in search ad budgets, but user habits lag behind. As search expands beyond traditional engines, these platforms must turn occasional behavior into intent-driven activity to grab ad dollars.

GenAI health users will jump 37% YoY in 2026, but most queries will still begin on search—forcing marketers to balance SEO with AI discovery.

AI is reshaping brand safety by amplifying risks around placement, accuracy, and authenticity while offering new tools to control them. As automation scales, marketers face a growing tradeoff between performance gains and trust.

CSAM scanning halts as the ePrivacy Directive expires, complicating child safety as Greece and others eye youth social bans.

From automated bidding tools offered by Google, Meta, and Amazon to emerging agentic AI systems designed for end-to-end campaign automation, AI is becoming embedded at every stage of the media buying process.

Tech and AI players must prove accuracy, privacy, and real clinical value if they want users to trust them with their medical record data.

AI is reshaping how consumers in Canada search, shop, and spend time with media. As digital adoption deepens, brands, publishers, and retailers face the need to adapt to AI-driven discovery and commerce, or risk losing out in a rapidly changing market.

Microsoft’s 2027 console-PC hybrid may turn fragmented players into one measurable media buy.

Video is fueling LinkedIn’s growth, with Q4 revenues topping $5 billion, aided by a 30% jump in paid video ads and rising short-form demand.

A 4% fee puts pressure on merchants and could shift momentum to rivals like Google and Microsoft.

Microsoft’s in-game advertising dream gets its first test via two minutes of preroll ads per hour of cloud gaming playtime.

Trust in consumer banking varies widely in 2026. Primary banks still anchor core products. But confidence differs by generation, product, and channel, with honesty, transparency, and security shaping how consumers evaluate financial providers.

This FAQ examines in-game ad formats, audience demographics, and emerging opportunities like rewarded advertising that are reshaping how brands connect with gamers across platforms.

AI scribe tools that transcribe doctors’ notes save doctors only a minimal amount of time, according to a recent UCLA Health study. Healthcare AI scribe developers already face high provider churn due to a crowded market and the ease of switching between competing products. They must now prove their product's value extends beyond time savings (modest or significant) to include areas like improving patient care, enhancing the patient experience to drive retention, or ensuring more accurate clinical notes for billing and coding.

AI enters 2026 facing energy bottlenecks, regulatory battles, and a gap between promise and performance. From market corrections to voice assistant limits and physical AI’s unreadiness, hype is meeting reality.

The New York Times filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity on Friday, adding to the more than 40 current court cases between AI companies and copyright holders. Lawsuits like The Times’ underscore how AI is impacting the overall health and future of the digital advertising ecosystem—requiring advertisers to rethink traditional strategies.

An OpenAI leak indicates that ads are coming to ChatGPT in the near future, according to computer engineer Tibor Blaho. Advertisers should anticipate a future where ads become a core part of the ChatGPT experience and act quickly to test and learn before competitors, but should remain agile in their strategies and remain informed about developments in consumer behavior.

Baidu posted its sharpest revenue decline on record, with ad revenues falling 18% as AI-generated answers replace traditional search clicks. Ernie Bot now powers responses on most Baidu queries, improving user experience but suppressing monetizable activity—a trend management says will weigh on results into Q4. Competitors like Tencent, ByteDance, and PDD are still growing 20% to 30% YoY, suggesting Baidu’s weakness is structural. While the US market is more diversified, Baidu offers a stress test: AI can reshape search faster than monetization evolves. For advertisers, it’s a reminder that even Google and Microsoft must balance innovation with economic stability.

Google has officially begun showing ads in its AI Mode search engine after announcing a rollout earlier this year. Google’s early testing of ads in AI Mode suggests that AI-driven search placements are beginning to take shape and may ultimately unlock new revenue potential. But with performance still unproven, advertisers should track developments closely while resisting the urge to invest heavily before the format demonstrates clear value.