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, Perplexity is accused of giving data to Meta and Google, Volkswagen builds a GenAI pipeline, and Meta introduces AI-powered “Trading Ads”.
Top Stories of the Week
Lawsuit Accuses Perplexity of Sharing User Data with Meta and Google
A class action filed against AI answer engine Perplexity claims that when a Perplexity user logs into the AI search engine, trackers are downloaded to a user’s device and their AI chats are tracked and shared with Meta and Google, even when browsing in ‘Incognito’ mode, Bloomberg first reported.
Why it matters:
The anonymous Utah-based plaintiff, who refers to himself as John Doe in the lawsuit, says this tracking violates privacy laws, and that he’s seeking class certification for affected users. This legal case raises questions about how user data in AI platforms is collected and used, especially as users trust AI tools more than other platforms because of their conversational interface.
Volkswagen Group Builds GenAI Pipeline
Car manufacturer Volkswagen Group has built a GenAI image content engine with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power marketing assets across its brands, including Volkswagen, Porsche, and Ducati. The GenAI venture was created in partnership with AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre – the tech giant’s $100 million programme to help its customers build and deploy custom GenAI solutions.
Why it matters:
The Volkswagen solution will let the car company’s marketers generate realistic images of its vehicles at scale, and represents a shift from weeks of production – which included costly production photoshoots – to minutes, illustrating how a primary benefit of GenAI is its ability to save time and money for marketers.
Meta Introduces AI-Powered “Trending Ads”
Meta introduced AI-powered “Trending Ads” for Reels at the IAB NewFronts, the Bureau’s digital video showcase in New York. The tech giant said it would let advertisers use Llama – its LLM – to match brand content with viral trends. This new tool features predictive features, creative mixing, and a reported 30 percent increase in view-through rates.
Why it matters:
The new AI feature will let brands align creative with viral moments, a phenomenon that is growing, particularly in social media marketing, because of AI. Through AI use, brands go from being reactive to predictive, even with cultural moments that live and die quickly on social media.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Research Reveals What LLM AI Crawlers Look For
Study from LightSite AI discovered what AI crawlers look for when extracting website content to surface in LLMs. It found that questions in URLs and pages, as though framed around specific questions, are more likely to be picked up. Additionally, clarity in the first section of a webpage was identified as important for websites to become machine readable. There was no clear evidence to show that content became more visible if purposefully ‘optimised’ for LLMs. Instead, clarity and directness is preferred.
Macy Unveils AI Shopping Assistant
US department store Macy’s announced it would be launching a conversational AI shopping assistant powered by Google’s Gemini. The tool will help customers discover and virtually ‘try on’ products from the shop. The assistant will be available on Macy’s e-commerce site and app.
Gap Taps Into Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol
Retailer Gap announced it would be bolstering its AI commerce experience for online shoppers through new partnerships with Bold Metrics and Google. The Bold Metrics collaboration will help customers better find the correct clothing size for them before purchasing, an issue the company says is “a major barrier” for online apparel retailers. While the company’s endorsement of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) will let consumers purchase products in Google’s search feature AI Mode and its LLM Gemini.
Media
Future Announces Traffic Decline
Future plc, the publishing company that owns Marie Claire, The Week, and Country Life, announced it was facing severe traffic declines, more than it had anticipated. That decline is impacting the company’s digital advertising model, and company shares fell 30 percent after this news was revealed.
Penguin Files a Lawsuit Against OpenAI
Publisher Penguin Random House has filed for a lawsuit against AI company OpenAI, claiming its LLM ChatGPT violated copyright laws in reproducing one of its German children’s books called ‘Coconut the Little Dragon’. Penguin’s legal team claims that when asked to create an image of the dragon character, ChatGPT produces a near identical image to their owned works.
Tech
Sponsored Ads in Rufus to Move Out of Beta
A leaked internal pitch deck from Amazon that was shared with advertisers explained new details about ads in Amazon’s Rufus moving out of beta and into a paid model where advertisers will pay when users click on ad units. Specific pricing or a launch date was not confirmed.
YouTube Announces AI Creator Platform
YouTube announced a creator marketing platform, called YouTube Creator Partnerships, that will centralise how brands and creators discover, measure and manage partnerships. The platform uses Google’s Gemini to help advertisers search from a pool of creators.
Ozone Launches R&D Lab
Ozone, a digital ad tech platform built by publishers, has launched Ozone Labs, a research and development centre focused on understanding how AI tools will impact future ad tech providers and publisher business models.
Startup of the Week
Latvian AI-startup Spotwise has raised £450k pre-seed funding to help it boost its AI-powered sales intelligence platform. The company detects competitor ads in radio and broadcast, and identifies potential advertisers.
Number of the Week
However, the paper warns that these AI-driven campaigns face fraud rates nearly twice as high as traditional alternatives.
