Welcome to Week In Review
From new tools transforming creative work, to campaigns reshaped by automation, we track the biggest shifts at the intersection of AI, media, and marketing. This week, Google announces an agentic commerce protocol and ads in Gemini, Reuters looks at the future of journalism, and Grok is investigated by Ofcom for sexualised images.
Top Stories of the Week
Google Announces Tools for AI Shopping
Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to enable “agentic commerce,” letting AI assistants discover, recommend, and complete purchases across retailers. Alongside this, Google is piloting “Direct Offers,” inserting personalised, intent-driven promotions into AI shopping experiences, blending commerce execution directly with advertising inside Search and Gemini.
Why it matters: Through these latest announcements, brands can now influence not just discovery but purchasing decisions inside AI assistants, while retailers and media owners must adapt measurement, creative, and commercial strategies to environments where AI, not consumers, increasingly controls the path to purchase.
Reuters Research Looks at the Future of Journalism
Research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that despite many publishers lacking optimism about the future of journalism, some still believe that as ‘AI slop’ rises, the need for trustworthy journalism will become more important.
Why it matters: The study “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions for 2026” also noted that in light of people seeking trusted and accurate content, more politicians and public figures are communicating directly with audiences through podcasts and YouTube shows.
Grok Investigated by Ofcom Over Sexualised Images
UK regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into X under the Online Safety Act over its AI chatbot Grok, after reports that the tool continues to generate sexualised images of real people. X says safeguards are in place, but regulators say the probe is ongoing.
Why it Matters: This case is an early test of how the UK’s Online Safety Act applies to generative AI systems, not just user-posted content. If Ofcom finds X in breach, it could set a precedent forcing platforms to proactively prevent AI-generated abuse, with significant fines and operational changes for AI model deployment.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Greene King Trials AI Tech for Customer Experience
Greene King is piloting AI and smart technologies in two UK pubs, using live trading environments to test how automation can improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance the in-pub customer experience.
IAB Launches AI Transparency Framework
Industry trade group IAB launched its “AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework” this week. The framework is an effort to make clear when AI should, and shouldn’t be disclosed as a guide for brands, agencies, publishers and platforms.
JD Sports to Let Customers Purchase Through AI Chatbots
JD Sports is enabling direct purchases inside AI assistants like Copilot, with ChatGPT and Gemini to follow, allowing shoppers to complete checkout without visiting its website as the retailer adopts agentic commerce across key markets.
Brands Testing Shopping Agents in Their Own Apps
Retailers are increasingly wary of ceding control to third-party AI shopping platforms as consumers begin using chatbots to decide what to buy, AI News reported. To protect customer relationships, data, and ad revenue, chains like Kroger, Lowe’s, and Papa Johns are testing AI shopping agents inside their own apps – often using Google’s tools – while spreading risk across multiple vendors and avoiding heavy long-term commitments.
Gartner Study Predicts Agentic Use by 2028
Gartner predicts 60 percent of brands will use agentic AI by 2028 to deliver continuous one-to-one customer interactions, signaling the decline of traditional channel-based marketing. Separately, the firm forecasts brands will shift 50 percent of influencer budgets toward authenticity, verification, and trust as AI-generated content reshapes search and consumer expectations.
Media
Google Seeks Dismissal of Rolling Stone Over AI Summaries
Google is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit from Penske Media Corp, publisher of Rolling Stone, arguing that its AI-generated search summaries do not unlawfully divert traffic from publishers. Google says AI overviews appear alongside traditional links, publishers can opt out of indexing, and it has no obligation to deliver traffic on publishers’ terms. The case adds to mounting legal pressure on Google over AI, search, and advertising practices.
Broadcasters Push Back on AI Copyright Proposal
Indian broadcasters are pushing back against a Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s (DPIIT) proposal to introduce mandatory licensing for copyrighted content used to train GenAI models, warning it could undermine creators’ rights and disrupt a fast-growing AI licensing market. Broadcasters argue voluntary licensing already works, enables fair negotiation, and aligns with global norms.
Winter Olympics 2026 to Leverage AI Broadcast Tools
Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will introduce a new wave of AI-powered broadcast tools, including real-time 360-degree replays developed with Alibaba, AI-driven stone tracking for curling, automated highlights generation, and Olympic GPT for live results and rules.
Tech
Snowflake to Acquire Observe
Snowflake plans to acquire Observe, an AI observability platform, in a deal aimed at strengthening Snowflake’s AI-powered monitoring capabilities. The acquisition is intended to help customers ingest, retain, and analyse telemetry data more cost-effectively using open standards, as Snowflake deepens its push into enterprise AI and data operations.
Shopify Doubles Down on Agentic Commerce
Shopify is doubling down on agentic commerce by co-developing an open standard for AI shopping agents with Google, partnering with Google and Microsoft to surface merchant products inside chatbots, and opening a new customer plan that exposes its product catalogue beyond Shopify stores, positioning itself as the data and infrastructure layer behind AI-led shopping.
Gemini to Power Apple Products
Apple and Google have entered a multi-year partnership in which Google’s Gemini models and cloud infrastructure will underpin the next generation of Apple Foundation Models. The collaboration will power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalised Siri later this year, while keeping inference on-device and via Apple’s Private Cloud Compute to maintain its privacy commitments.
AppLovin Becomes Pure-Play Adtech Company
AppLovin has sold its mobile gaming business to become a pure-play adtech company, centring its growth on Axon – its AI-driven ad optimisation platform that uses machine learning to automate targeting, bidding, and creative performance across mobile and e-commerce advertisers.
Rakuten Advertising Launches AI Innovation Lab
Rakuten Advertising has launched Innovation Labs, a new product development hub embedded in its Insights & Analytics portal, giving advertisers and publishers early access to experimental AI tools. The first release, AI Recommendations, uses campaign data to surface non-obvious publisher and product opportunities, with Rakuten positioning the platform as an ongoing, collaborative R&D environment rather than a finished product.
Start-Up of the Week
San-Fran based AI-startup Magic Hour has launched an AI-powered UGC ad generator that helps brands and creators produce realistic, user-generated-style video ads up to 60 seconds long. The tool lets marketers fine-tune scripts, scenes, tone, emotion, and characters, and generate multiple ad variations quickly without sacrificing creative control.
Number of the Week
Higgsfield, an AI video startup for marketers and creators, raised $80 million in a Series A extension, valuing the company at $1.3 billion. Its platform layers a proprietary “reasoning engine” on top of third-party AI models, letting users create cinematic, high-quality videos and images, acting as an all-in-one tool for ideation, storyboarding, animating, editing, and publishing. The tool is most use by social media marketers.
