The news: Microsoft will avoid a major EU antitrust fine by agreeing to sell its Teams app separately from Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Brussels is set to approve the deal after a positive market test, with no strong objections from rivals or customers, per Bloomberg. As part of the settlement, Microsoft must not only unbundle Teams but also lower prices on Office packages without it and improve interoperability with rival apps such as Zoom, Slack, and similar productivity tools. Our take: Microsoft sidesteps a fine but loses its bundling edge. The move levels the playing field for Slack, Zoom, and others—while showing the EU’s playbook is evolving from punishing fines to behavioral change.

The news: OpenAI is preparing to launch a suite of office productivity tools that could let users bypass tools from Microsoft. Users will be able to build and modify presentations and spreadsheets that are compatible with PowerPoint and Excel, per The Information—without using Microsoft’s own apps. Our take: This suite could position OpenAI as a serious contender in the office software space, bypassing years of Microsoft and Google development. Companies using ChatGPT could improve workflows by managing documents, generating content, and executing repetitive tasks from a single interface.

GenAI reaches a crossroads: While nearly all executives embrace AI investments, employee apprehension and lagging adoption expose cracks in the workforce’s readiness for an AI-powered future.

After a hack exposed sensitive internal data, Disney is looking for other solutions, raising the stakes for Salesforce to restore trust in its products.

Organic marketing is experiencing a comeback on social media. The resurgence is due to trends like community-building and social search that are helping brands resonate with audiences.

Marketers are wary of AI-powered creative, but not productivity: Companies’ new features flesh out AI’s value as a professional tool rather than a creative one.

Amazon’s return-to-office policy defies research, enrages employees: Lack of evidence-based decision-making won’t give Amazon the committed employees it needs to take on Big Tech rivals.

Bots might soon replace professional interactions: ChatGPT is coming to Slack as companies go all in on generative AI. It would be wise to tally the pros and cons of AI adoption.

As marketers look to increase audience reach and stay away from the whims of any singular platform, private social media networks offer another avenue.

Salesforce-owned Slack announced Canvas, an integrated feature that allows users to create and edit documents without leaving the application.

For many content creators, Instagram isn’t everything. In the US, 41.0% of creators run websites or blogs to reach their audiences outside of social media. Newsletters and podcasts are also tools they use to staying connected. But perhaps most notably, 43.3% do not use anything other than social platforms.

Microsoft is in talks to acquire the popular chat platform, part of a greater focus by Microsoft on social media.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss whether WarnerMedia just killed movie theaters, why Salesforce is buying Slack, why Facebook's buying Kustomer, the first few cases of Facebook's Oversight Board, Nielsen readies to change its TV ratings, shopping carts on WhatsApp, how much cash can fit in your pocket at once, and more.

The coronavirus pandemic forced businesses to switch to a distributed employee model very abruptly. This report will detail the best management strategies for people and processes to make remote work sustainable.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver and vice president of multimedia Paul Verna join host Marcus Johnson to discuss reports that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating YouTube for potential violations of children’s online privacy. Other topics on the agenda include Slack’s initial public offering and a study showing an increase in screen time among older users.