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 tests conversion tracking into ChatGPT, IAB reveals playbooks for AI commerce, and Tesco partners with Adobe for AI-driven marketing.
Top Stories of the Week
OpenAI Tests Conversion Tracking into ChatGPT
OpenAI is developing a conversion tracking pixel for ChatGPT, which will let advertisers measure actions like purchases and sign-ups directly within the platform, first reported by Digiday.
Why it matters: This development would shift ChatGPT from being a discovery tool to becoming a high-intent performance channel, allowing marketers to calculate return on investment and cost per acquisition. This move would give marketers nuanced intent data that traditional keyword searches can’t understand.
IAB Sets Playbook for AI-Powered Commerce Media
At the IAB Connected Commerce Summit, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released the Building a Competitive Commerce Media Ecosystem playbook, which provides strategic recommendations for how commerce media networks can stay ahead in an AI and performance-driven market. The report highlights AI moving from being an experimental tool to becoming the core foundation of commerce media.
Why it matters: The guidelines outline several areas where AI is delivering immediate business value including predictive audience building with synthetic audiences, real-time shopper intent understanding, agentic workflows, and dynamic personalisation.
Tesco Partners with Adobe to Power AI-Driven Personalised Marketing
UK retailer Tesco has announced a partnership with design software giant Adobe to bolster its AI-powered marketing strategy. Tesco said the partnership would better predict what consumers want so it can present relevant content and offers to them across Tesco channels.
Why it matters: Tesco revealed that it will use the data from its Clubcard scheme to power the personalised AI marketing. The Clubcard loyalty programme is one of the largest in the UK. Reportedly 80 percent of UK households have a Tesco Clubcard – roughly over 24 million households.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Havas Red Bets on AI Visibility Race
Havas Red launches GEO platform EchoWeave to help brands win visibility inside AI search and answer engines, as marketers race to influence how large language models surface and recommend content.
Dentsu Builds Agentic AI Marketing Engine
Dentsu unveiled the next evolution of dentsu.Connect, positioning it as a fully agentic AI-powered marketing operating system designed to automate workflows, unify data and optimise performance across campaigns.
Consumers Don’t Trust AI Recommendations Alone
Only 2 percent of consumers buy AI-recommended brands without checking first, underscoring persistent trust gaps and the continued importance of independent research and brand credibility in AI-driven journeys.
Media
AI Val Kilmer Western Sparks Industry Debate
A trailer for an AI-generated Val Kilmer performance in a new western reignites debate over digital likeness rights, consent and how far Hollywood will go in resurrecting actors onscreen.
UK Censors Turn to AI for Age Ratings
British regulators are adopting AI to classify streaming content at scale, aiming to speed up age ratings. However, the move raises concerns around accuracy, transparency and the diminishing role of human oversight.
Publishers Test AI Answer Engines for Ads
Publishers Reach and The Independent are exploring AI-powered answer engines to improve advertising performance, using conversational formats and intent signals to better align ads with user queries and engagement.
Tech
Microsoft Rebuilds Marketing Around AI Copilots
Microsoft announced it is integrates AI across its marketing organisation, using copilots and automation to streamline workflows, boost creativity and improve decision-making.
Google Reshapes Ads for AI-First Search Era
Google is reportedly rebuilding its ads business for AI-driven search, as Perplexity signals a premium, ad-light model—highlighting growing disruption to traditional monetisation in conversational interfaces.
HubSpot Targets AI-Shaped Buyer Journeys
HubSpot launched new AI tools and agents to respond to shifting buyer behaviour, enabling more personalised engagement, predictive insights and automation as customer journeys become increasingly AI-mediated.
Interluxe Tracks Luxury Visibility in AI Search
Interluxe launches the Optima AI Index to measure luxury brand visibility across generative AI platforms, helping marketers understand and optimise how brands are surfaced in AI-driven discovery environments.
Startup of the Week
Hightouch, a California-based customer data and AI content creation platform, revealed it has surpassed $100M in annual recurring revenue. Tech Crunch reported $70M of that growth happened in the 20 months following their shift to AI agents and decisioning tools.
Number of the Week
The PwC report, which interviewed 1217 senior executives, found that top-performing companies are 2.6 times more likely than peers to report AI improves their ability to reinvent their business model.
