Brands pivot towards genuine engagement with Black consumers: It’s move prompted by past performative marketing—oh, and a $1.8 trillion market opportunity.
Amazon looks to step into the post-cookie market: Job listings show the company is testing ad solutions for an “identity-restricted world” as Google preps its solution.
Consumers want more AI transparency from brands: AI content isn’t easily discernible, and there are no disclosure rules. How should brands adapt?
Last week, Arc, a web browser from startup The Browser Company, released a new AI-powered feature called pinch-to-summarize, which provides an instant summary of full web pages. That follows Arc’s release of “Arc Search,” a mobile app that will search the internet based on a user’s query and deliver an AI-generated page summarizing the breadth of information it searched. It’s not the only AI tool targeting search. Perplexity is seeing increased attention for its ability to summarize data sets, including searching in Reddit posts or YouTube videos. This month also saw the rebranding of Google’s Bard chatbot to Gemini as the company doubles down on AI search.
Best Buy expects this will be a “year of increasing industry sales stabilization”: That would be welcome news after a tough few years for consumer electronics.
Honda fuses its personal mobility venture with VR: Its full-body device could provide novel immersive experiences at commercial venues, but the vision for VR is smaller, lighter devices.
Media giants from 17 European countries sue Google for €2.1 billion, claiming ad market manipulation and revenue loss. Intensifying litigation could topple Google’s long-standing practices.
Apple shareholders vote down AI ethics standards: They’re getting impatient with Apple over its generative AI hesitation. The tech giant is focusing on quality over quantity to uphold its reputation.
Alibaba’s EMO genAI tool can produce convincing short videos from a photo and an audio track. It brings massive potential for content creation but could also accelerate misinformation
CEO Sundar Pichai admits Gemini’s racial misrepresentations and vows to fix them. Google’s reputation is at stake as it races to polish AI amid increasing competition.
It shifts 2,000 workers to generative AI projects amid slowing EV sales and heightened interest in AI. The abrupt move signals a necessary and strategic pivot.
Starbucks softens its anti-union stance: That could help rebuild the company’s tarnished reputation.
OpenAI slams NYT while Google invests in AI news: Tech companies need news outlets, but questions over fair compensation and journalistic integrity loom large.
But Google isn’t the only company with a misbehaving AI: Microsoft and OpenAI chatbots have been generating problematic output too, but the burden is on Google to show its winning tech.
On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of February. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Sara Lebow (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Sara Lebow will defend their list against analysts Sky Canaves and Blake Droesch, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.
More retailers are turning to self-checkout: While the technology reduces labor costs, it also creates a host of other problems.
A Google versus OpenAI search engine showdown is taking shape: A race to develop AI search engines raises questions about whether the tech can shake up the market.
2024 is shaping up to be the year of the AI-powered shopping assistant. Just two months in, retailers from Walmart and Amazon to Ikea and Chevron have released a flurry of AI-based updates, hoping to make the shopping experience easier and more relevant.
Google brings a transparency overhaul to search advertising: Move responds to uproar after report that ads were placed on problematic sites.
Another encouraging sign of ad industry health: US ad spending rose 4.3% last month, marking 10 consecutive months of growth and the best January on record.