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, OpenAI bolsters its ads business in ChatGPT, Snap and Perplexity’s AI deal comes to an end, and Rakuten launches a campaign optimisation agent.
Top Stories of the Week
OpenAI Bolsters ChatGPT Ads Business
AI giant OpenAI made a series of announcements this week to bolster the infrastructure of its ads business, including a self-service ads platform, measurement tools, and cost-per-click (CPC) bidding capabilities. To fuel this, OpenAI has partnered with design software powerhouse Adobe – so users can create ads within ChatGPT, programmatic ads platform StackAdapt, performance advertising platform Criteo, creative advertising platform Kargo, and retail media management company Pacvue.
Why it matters: OpenAI also announced the expansion of its ads pilot – which has only appeared in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – to the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea. As the AI giant expands its ads pilot, so too does the infrastructure underpinning it. This week’s ads-related announcements from the tech company signals that ads in ChatGPT isn’t around the corner, but very much here.
Snap Ends AI Partnership with Perplexity
Announced on Wednesday, instant image sharing platform Snapchat’s parent company Snap ended its partnership with AI search engine Perplexity. The deal worth $400 million, announced last November, has come to an end amicably. Perplexity’s AI would have contributed to new features in Snapchat, including a conversational ‘Chat’ interface. Also revealed in its earnings call, was the news that Snapchat’s daily and monthly active users grew 5 percent year-on-year.
Why it matters: Despite the termination of the partnership between Perplexity and Snap, the social media platform remains a relevant channel for advertisers, particularly because of AI features including ‘My AI’ – the platform’s conversations chatbot and ‘Sponsored Snaps’ – where users can engage with brand agents through Snapchat.
Rakuten Launches Optimisation Agent
Rakuten Advertising launched a conversational AI agent for campaign optimisation called Mirai. The AI agent is for affiliate marketers and will let customers manage affiliate offers through conversational language instead of manual configuration.
Why it matters: In a statement, Rakuten said it aims for Mirai to function as an extension of advertising teams. The development is another example of AI agents being used to manage ad campaigns, shifting tasks from manual to conversational and automated optimisation.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Jellyfish Report Introduces Generative Engine Marketing
A new report from marketing agency Jellyfish introduces a new approach called Generative Engine Marketing (GEM) – a marketing system that enables advertisers to analyse how LLMs perceive their brands, products and services. Using the new system, Korean skincare brand Gentle Monster reportedly generated a 17 percent improvement to its click-through rate.
Digital Video More Than 60 Percent of Ad Spend
A new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) titled ‘2026 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report: Part One’ revealed that digital video ad spend has surged, in part because AI is reshaping strategy. The paper predicts that US digital video ad spend will grow 11 percent year-on-year.
Deceiving AI Ads On the Rise
This week, BBC News reported on a phenomenon whereby AI-generated ads in the form of fitness videos are deceiving viewers into buying health or fitness related products. The ads often feature AI-generated people with strong and chiseled physiques claiming to have followed workout programmes in an attempt to sell these programmes to viewers. The BBC said the ads it found were flagged to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Media
AI Deepfakes Impacting Iran-US War Coverage
An article written by Greta Khan, a digital journalist from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, outlines how modern warfare isn’t only fought on battlefields today but takes place through online narratives, and is being stirred by AI-generated content like deepfakes. Khan draws on the US-Iran war as an example of a new ‘information war’ fuelled by AI.
Google to Include Human ‘Perspectives’ In AI Overviews
In a blog post, Google said it would be introducing “a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media, and other firsthand sources” into its AI Overviews. The move aims to highlight advice from real people instead of information generated by its AI model, drawing from real quotes from social media platforms like Reddit.
News/Media Alliance Demands Common Crawl Stop Scraping
The News/Media Alliance (NMA) sent a formal letter to Common Crawl demanding the non-profit archiving company stops giving AI companies access to publisher content it has collected. Common Crawl is a company that has archived the open web since 2013. The publisher alliance is demanding Common Crawl stop selling this data to AI companies to train its models.
Tech
Meta to Build a Consumer-Facing AI Agent and Shopping Agent
Tech giant Meta is reportedly building a consumer-facing AI agent and an agentic shopping tool within Instagram. The Information reported that Meta is getting ready to launch a consumer-facing AI agent that acts as a personal assistant and can carry out tasks for a user autonomously. Meta is apparently also creating an agentic shopping tool for Instagram, which would enable users to purchase directly within its social media platform.
Pinterests Ads Business Blooms Due to AI
Image sharing and curation platform Pinterest reported strong Q1 results in its latest earnings call. Pinterest said ad impressions on its platform increased 24 percent because of integrating AI into its system. In January, the company said it would cut 15 percent of its workforce and have more on an emphasis on AI.
Amazon Tests AI Chatbot Responses In Search
The Information reported that Amazon is testing responses from its AI chatbot Rufus in its main search function. The offering will essentially operate as a hybrid search tool – utilising both AI and regular search capabilities – directly on its retail website.
Veritone Launches Discovery Content Intelligence
AI company Veritone has launched an AI-powered analytics solution for media and broadcasters ‘Discovery Content Intelligence’ using its new Veri AI agent. The AI agent lets users look through content libraries with natural language and create structured insights and reports.
Startup of the Week
The Indian consumer intent company InMobi has announced the acquisition of MobileAction, an AI-powered platform for developers and marketers to increase visibility to iOS app users. The acquisition will help InMobi’s customers – brands, publishers and marketers – reach app users across the iOS ecosystem.
Number of the Week
This figure from the ‘EY AI Sentiment Index 2026’ report highlights a significant gap between the contrasting high usage of AI by UK consumers and the low levels of trust in these tools, reflecting public concern over data privacy, transparency, and concerns over AI hallucinations.
