AI darlings split the spotlight: Anthropic’s $30 billion valuation underscores its safety focus and enterprise ties, while Perplexity, worth $9 billion, battles legal woes and bets on ads to stay competitive.

Cyberattacks and overloads disrupt industries: From telecom strikes to service failures, 2024’s outages underline the fragility of tech systems and the urgent need for diversification and resilience strategies.

AI will become deeply woven into daily life in 2025. Autonomous agents, smart devices, AR glasses, search engines, and digital twins are making AI an ambient presence in how we work, shop, browse, and interact with the world.

As publishers battle declining revenues, deals with AI firms like OpenAI and Perplexity provide new income streams—and a seat at the table in shaping the industry’s future.

As it transitions to a for-profit model, OpenAI’s innovations and investments promise growth, but leadership turmoil and rising competition may challenge its dominance.

Consumers turn to genAI to help with holiday shopping: Nearly one-fifth of global Cyber Five sales this year will be influenced by AI agents and other tools, Salesforce says.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the takeaways from Netflix’s record-breaking boxing event, the chances of TikTok dodging a US ban under a Trump presidency, the future of “roadblock marketing”, Perplexity’s new feature that lets you buy things directly within its search engine, the true story that inspired the 1992 film “A League Of Their Own”, and more. Tune in to the discussion with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Director of Reports Editing Rahul Chadha, Senior Analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, and Senior Director of Forecasting Oscar Orozco.

EMARKETER analysts highlight four trends that will affect digital advertising in 2025.

Perplexity takes on Google: The AI-powered search engine launched a Buy with Pro ecommerce feature, along with a host of other shopping-related elements to broaden its utility and appeal.

Lackluster improvements in OpenAI’s Orion signal that limited training data and expensive computing could slow future breakthroughs.

Amazon’s program democratizes access to compute resources and raises concerns about aligning corporate goals with academic freedom.

The partnership, hosted by AWS, could solidify Anthropic’s reputation as a trusted AI provider for high-risk government applications.

ChatGPT’s new offering can challenge Google’s search space while expanding its appeal, positioning OpenAI for future ad revenue opportunities.

The tool could shift users away from Google and Bing, embedding AI search across Meta’s ecosystem and unlocking fresh ad revenue streams.

The New York Times insists Perplexity halt its use of NYT content, underscoring the brewing tension between media rights and AI-driven data access.

“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.

The company, now valued at $157 billion, is using deals with investors like Microsoft and Nvidia to shut out rivals and dominate the AI market.

Generative AI search engine Perplexity said it will launch ads in Q4, but the platform will need to win over advertisers and convince them their search ad spend will go further than it does on Google.

Perplexity enters ad market with focus on user engagement: Rapid growth and commitment to transparency position it as a strong competitor in search.

Voice assistant adoption continues to grow, but the pace has slowed. Gen Z and seniors are key growth drivers, while smartphones and smart speakers remain central to the ecosystem as innovation and fresh competition shake up the sector.