Lloyds, NatWest, and Truist are redefining banking with generative AI. Lloyds moves beyond individual use cases to rethink processes entirely, aiming for a customer-facing AI agent by late summer 2025. NatWest shifted to reimagining entire customer experiences, empowering all 70,000 employees with AI tools to rapidly explore new possibilities. Truist focuses on "knowledge extraction," a low-risk, high-reward use case demonstrating immediate value. Continuous experimentation and adaptable strategies are crucial for AI implementation, requiring agile learning, boundary-pushing, and prioritizing employee buy-in for customer-focused solutions.
The news: Pinterest will host high-performing influencer content posted on affiliate shopping platform LTK, automatically bringing popular images from the platform to Pinterest, according to The Verge. Pinterest also hired Chip Jessopp, former Amazon director of global accounts and ad tech sales, as head of programmatic, per Digiday. Jessopp will help Pinterest create new demand channels while scaling its programmatic abilities. Our take: Pinterest’s moves could better position it as a legitimate competitor in digital advertising and a promising growth area for influencers and marketers—giving the platform more legs against social commerce giants like Meta and TikTok.
The insight: Gen Z consumers are starting their purchase journeys more often on Google properties, including YouTube and Gemini, according to a Business Insider report citing Morgan Stanley data. Our take: Google is doing a good job of leveraging the popularity of YouTube and increasing interest in genAI-powered shopping tools to win over younger shoppers and establish itself as the first port of call in their customer journeys.
The news: Meta’s AI app is drawing backlash as users unknowingly publish private chats—some serious—under real names due to a confusing share feature, per TechCrunch. Many people thought they were using the chatbot or saving notes in private, only to find that their prompts—which included topics like gender identity, medical concerns, tax evasion, and job interviews—were visible to strangers. Our take: This episode poses significant issues for Meta regarding the metaverse, AI, and advertising.
The insight: The US is mired in the “worst housing market in almost 50 years,” RH CEO Gary Friedman said during the company’s Q1 earnings call, as high housing costs and economic uncertainty chill demand. Our take: With the sluggish housing market showing few signs of improvement, retailers must lean into any pockets of opportunity they find. For RH, that’s burnishing its luxury credentials and pushing deeper into hospitality, while Wayfair is leaning on its diverse supplier base. The resilient pro market is another area companies should look to take advantage of as they try to ride out the downturn.
The news: Michaels is getting a head start on the spooky season. The arts and crafts retailer began stocking its shelves with Halloween merchandise this past Friday, marking its earliest-ever rollout of themed items. Our take: Michaels is betting that even as consumers pull back on discretionary purchases, they’ll keep splurging on Instagram-worthy seasonal décor—especially if they can get it first. From black rose wreaths to candy-colored pumpkins and disco-themed skeletons, the early drop positions Michaels to win over shoppers eager to get a head start on Halloween.
The news: Shopify partnered with Coinbase and Stripe so customers can pay with the USDC stablecoin at checkout. Our take: Coinbase is the biggest winner in this partnership. Cryptocurrency needs to gain traction with a wide merchant network to accelerate its use, and Shopify represents a huge score for Base.
The news: Coinbase will launch its first credit card on the American Express network this fall. Our take: This card could be a strong retention play to keep existing users from using an alternative crypto exchange but likely won’t move the needle on broader adoption.
The news: Chases unveiled “The Shops at Chase,” an integrated shopping and promotion platform for Chase Freedom, Sapphire, and Ink cardholders. Our take: Being able to convert Chase rewards into material purchases is a draw. However, retraining Chase cardholders to make purchases at The Shops instead of starting their product search with Google or Amazon will be an uphill battle.
The news: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Angus King (I-ME) have introduced a bill, The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, that would prohibit D2C prescription drug advertising on television, radio, print, digital platforms, and social media. Our take: Despite disdain for drug commercials among consumers and lawmakers, pharma marketers shouldn’t sound the alarm just yet.
The data: Healthcare providers are struggling to get patients to use digital tools for scheduling appointments and paying for care, according to a recent Experian Health report. Our take: Clinic staff should gauge patients’ comfort level with using specific online tools at the first visit. These queries could give marketers the necessary information to remind people of the tech that’s available to them for accessing and managing their care. Further education around understanding medical bills and the importance of filling out pre-visit forms could drive patients to use a provider’s portal for these purposes.
The news: Novo Nordisk is partnering with AI drug discovery company Deep Apple Therapeutics to discover and develop new cardiometabolic drugs, including for obesity. The takeaway: Novo is not the biggest loser in the GLP-1 weight loss category, but it’s trailing Lilly in drug effectiveness, market value, and more importantly public perception. It’s critical for Novo to come up with new and better weight loss drugs—hence the deal with Deep Apple—but also polish its brand with consumers. A new CEO and new marketing direction could garner Novo some much-needed cachet.
The trend: Gen Z is turning to social media for job and career guidance in the UK, but typical pharma company content isn’t engaging them. The takeaway: Pharma and biotech companies need to embrace social media as serious recruiting channels to connect with Gen Z, and create unpolished, everyday snapshot-type videos with real employees. Social teams should track video trends on TikTok like “day in the life” or “put a finger down” and enlist employees to replicate them.
Almost a third (32%) of US and UK game players actively ignore in-game ads, while the same number finds them helpful, according to May data from Attest.
The news: Ad quality has a big impact on whether gamers will stay in the game or walk away from a session. Over half (52%) of gamers in the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan would quit playing if they encountered multiple disruptive ad features, per Deloitte’s Quality Drives Value: A Look into Mobile Gaming Ads survey. Our take: Prioritizing features like rewards and skip options can help players feel in control and properly compensated for their time, helping mobile gamers to stay engaged, click through, and return. Poorly timed or deceptive ads, on the other hand, risk alienating gamers and increasing churn.
The news: Disney and Universal are suing AI startup Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement. The lawsuit states that Midjourney pirated their content libraries and continues to produce “innumerable” copies of their characters, including Shrek, Homer Simpson, and Darth Vader. Our take: A victory for the studios could cut off AI companies’ access to media libraries, accelerate a shift toward paid content licensing deals, and set legal precedents to help web publishers and IP owners protect their content from data scraping.
The news: A sweeping internet outage traced to Google Cloud paralyzed various content streaming, cloud productivity, gaming, and AI services Thursday. The outage exposed the dangerous reality of an increasingly hyper-connected digital infrastructure—when one provider fails, the entire ecosystem collapses like dominoes. Our take: AI adoption is straining overloaded cloud systems, making widespread outages inevitable as demand grows. While Cloudflare and Google Cloud may have fixed their issues within hours, its customers may have been deeply affected. The full financial impact may take weeks to emerge.
The news: Hotel companies are expanding their upscale offerings to capitalize on strong demand for unique and customized accommodations among affluent consumers. Our take: Luxury and lifestyle brands are weathering economic ambiguity better than economy lodging. This divergence indicates that upscale, experiential offerings will be more resilient, while economy hotels face headwinds from cost-conscious consumers.
43% of creators and influencers in North America say AI tools help them streamline their workflows, according to April 2025 data from URLgenius. However, nearly a third (30%) say they haven’t noticed any impact.
TikTok Shop has emerged for many brands as a pivotal marketplace for discovery and sales. Some 50% of US consumers take product recommendation suggestions from influencers on TikTok Shop, according to February 2024 data from PartnerCentric.