41% of CMOs in North America and Europe say they leveraged data, analytics, and measurement to optimize marketing performance—the most common tactic followed by AI, according to March 2025 data from Gartner.
The news: Under pressure to deliver on AI investments, Big Tech companies like Meta and Apple are seeking to acquire AI startups. Failing that, they’re looking to hire away founders and key personnel to boost their own capabilities. Our take: The recent complications between OpenAI and Microsoft reveal that partnerships and investments aren’t always compatible with a startup’s growth. Expect Meta and Apple to pit money over mission as they hire away founders and key engineers, leaving AI startups high and dry, similar to how Google hired ex-Googlers from AI chatbot startup Character AI. The AI startup talent pool could be shrinking as startups and founders get acqui-hired by Big Tech.
The news: Google blamed a faulty, untested policy update—not overloaded infrastructure—for triggering a Google Cloud outage that took down Gmail, Cloudflare, Shopify, and many others. It admitted to skipping standard risk safeguards, per CNBC. Our take: The next outage is a matter of when, not if—and the time to prepare is now. CMOs should pressure vendors for transparency, diversify martech stacks to reduce dependency, and ensure business continuity plans cover cloud failures and system disruptions.
he news: At WWDC 2025, Apple announced its upcoming macOS 26 Tahoe, marking the final operating system supporting Intel-based Macs and the end of a computing era. Apple’s transition will accelerate replacement cycles for millions of business users and marketing technology stacks. ur take: The shift will require a massive reset for Apple-reliant companies. They will need comprehensive technology audits across devices and software to weed out unsupported tools. Organizations delaying transitions, particularly for models that have already lost support, risk security vulnerabilities and performance limitations, affecting campaign execution and creative production timelines.
The R1-0528 model nearly matches OpenAI and Google on reasoning, offering a tantalizing preview of what the cheaper, open-source future of AI could look like.
Choosing the right tech solutions can be like entering a long-term relationship with vendor partners. “There has to be a long-term gain more than just a nice-to-have quick incremental add,” said Ann Marie Ippoliti, vice president of ecommerce and marketing for Michael Kors at The Lead Summit in New York City earlier this week.
The $8 billion Informatica buy signals a pivot from flashy AI tools to reliable, compliant data—core to scaling enterprise automation without sacrificing transparency.
On this special edition podcast, we examine practical ways to track commerce media ROI—covering KPI selection, attribution, and cross channel measurement. ĢAV Principal Analyst, Sky Canaves talks with Maev’s Michael Campi, PepsiCo’s Mike Glaser, and LiveRamp’s Christine Grammier in this panel from the May 9th ĢAV virtual summit, Commerce Media Trends 2025. Listen everywhere you find podcasts, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.
As consumers become increasingly comfortable abandoning brands, marketers and retailers are betting on personalized experiences to keep them around. 81% of Gen Zers and Millennials, and 74% of all shoppers worldwide have switched brands in the past year, per a December 2024 Salesforce survey. Enhancing personalization efforts and building brand trust and loyalty are two of the top priorities among marketing leaders worldwide, according to a December 2024 survey from The Marketing Geeks.
Over half (53%) of US B2B marketers have a growing dedicated budget for influencer marketing, according to September 2024 data from TopRank Marketing and Ascend2.
New research shows clusters of AI agents evolve social norms and roles on their own, mimicking human behavior and raising fresh concerns about bias
Attention measurement is maturing: The hotly sought-after metric is getting industry standards thanks to the IAB and MRC.
Following Google’s second antitrust loss in under a year, Google is at a crossroads. The recent ruling that Google maintains an illegal monopoly on ad tech, combined with last year’s ruling of antitrust practices in online search, could reshape digital advertising.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how the judge thinks Google is, and isn’t, an illegal monopoly, the most likely outcomes from this ruling, and who stands to benefit the most. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman, and Senior Analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
Marketers are just starting to familiarize themselves with machine-to-machine (M2M) marketing, where a brand AI agent and a consumer AI agent navigate decision-making. The next step is preparing for this AI-driven method of influencing consumers, by examining how agents “understand” their brands and work to improve those impressions.
It uses the technology for more manual processes, freeing up the team for creativity.
Google has backtracked on its cookie plans once again, this time scrapping its decision to offer users a prompt to opt out of third-party cookies.
HubSpot’s push for AI data privacy: HubSpot customers handled 90% of inquiries without human intervention while meeting strict privacy regulations.
Vizio boosts Walmart’s retail media edge: New beta program brings exclusive connected TV inventory under Walmart’s direct control.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how companies can figure out where AI should go, how to deal with model inaccuracies, and tons of tips on how best to use AI at work. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Vice President Henry Powderly, and Senior Analyst Gadjo Sevilla for the conversation. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.