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, Sephora pilots a product app inside ChatGPT, Shopify releases an agentic plan, and OpenAI cancels Sora and its partnership with Disney.
Top Stories of the Week
Sephora Pilots App Inside ChatGPT
The cosmetics retailer Sephora announced it will be piloting a branded app in ChatGPT, letting customers discover beauty products through the LLM. Sephora said that future developments for the app includes the enablement of payments and checkout directly in its interface.
Why it matters: Brands are recognising they need to meet consumers where they are. According to research, 58 percent of consumers now use AI tools to research products. This move means that instead of searching for products in a traditional way on Sephora’s marketplace, shoppers can search for products conversationally with high-intent.
Shopify Stores Now Have Agentic Storefronts in LLMs
Shopify rolled out its agentic plan that would let any brand, even if not available on Shopify, get their products into major AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, Google’s AI Mode, Gemini and ChatGPT. Shopify brands also became shoppable in LLM ChatGPT this week, meaning consumers can now discover and buy products from a Shopify catalogue through an in-app browser. The full in-chat checkout is currently early access and primarily limited to US stores and customers.
Why it matters: This development from Shopify highlights that AI and agentic commerce isn’t around the corner, but is actually here. Increasingly, consumers will be expecting a complete end-to-end shopping experience, where they search for, discover, and purchase products without leaving a conversational AI interface.
OpenAI Shuts Down Sora and Cancels Disney Partnership
OpenAI revealed it would be shutting down its text-to-video model Sora, which launched as a standalone app only at the end of last year. As a result, the AI giant’s licensing agreement with Disney – which was intended to run for three years – is also coming to an end. The deal would give Sora permission to generate content with likeness of over 200 Disney-owned characters.
Why it matters: After its launch, Sora was the subject of some scrutiny because of it being widely used to create deepfakes, AI slop, and generating content with the likeness of copyrighted celebrities and characters. So for some, the news of its demise is likely welcome. OpenAI, however, cited the reason for Sora closing its doors was due to a reallocation of resources – particularly towards robotics and agentic AI – as Sora reportedly required huge quantities of GPU power.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Dentsu Launches ‘Creator Catalyst’ Playbook
Dentsu launched a new playbook for creators positioned at helping brands navigate “the Algorithmic Era”. The move builds on the company’s AI influencer management tool Dentsu Influencer. A part of the playbook is the use of AI-powered real-time insights that lets influencers produce content relevant to today’s trends.
Kantar Launches AI Research Tool
Kantar has developed a research tool for marketers enabling them to conduct one-to-one interviews moderated by AI, letting brands explore more sensitive topics with consumers. The tool, ‘Kantar Converser’, uses an AI moderator and analysis to conduct interviews as part of qualitative research with participants from Kantar’s own database.
Aerie Slams AI Marketing
Aerie, American Eagle’s loungewear and lingerie brand, has launched a campaign with former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, criticising the use of AI in editing marketing images. The ad shows Anderson struggling to get an AI tool to generate models that “feel real” before opting for unedited “real” footage – the note “We Commit: No AI Generated Bodies or People” appears at the end of the commercial.
Media
Google to Test Rewriting Headlines with AI
Google is testing rewriting headlines for news stories, originally written by journalists, using AI. The move is to help headlines align with search intent, but concerns around the meaning of headlines changing, and the impact this could have on already dwindling publisher traffic, have arisen online in response.
News/Media Alliance Strikes Licensing Deal with Bria
The US trade association News/Media Alliance (NMA) has partnered with GenAI platform Bria to let members opt into a licensing agreement that would let their content be used to train and surface in AI systems. The partnership will form the groundwork of a new AI product from Bria, giving the company access to content from some of NMA’s 2200 news, magazines, and online media outlets.
Tech
OpenAI Urges UK Govt to Offer ChatGPT Search as Alternative
OpenAI has sent a formal request to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, asking that ChatGPT be included as an alternative search option on Google’s Android phones and Chrome browser. OpenAI argues that AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, should qualify as search providers.
Picsart Launches Agentic Marketplace
Picsart, a creative platform, launched an AI agent marketplace for end-to-end creative workflows. The platform enables users – mostly Gen Z and social media managers – to delegate tasks to specialised AI agents.
InfoSum and Dstillery Announce Strategic Partnership
Data company InfoSum and AI targeting firm Dstillery announced a collaboration to let customers build and activate audiences from first-party data without compromising sensitive information, enhancing both performance and data security for customers.
Zeta Global Announces AI Agent Athena
Zeta Global announced the launch of an AI agent in its Zeta Marketing Platform that uses natural language and OpenAI’s models to turn data into marketing insights. The agent lets marketers delegate tasks and completes actions autonomously, such as building an audience.
Akamai Launches Brand Guardian
Akamai Technologies announced the launch of an AI tool to help brands detect brand impersonation threats. The Brand Guardian scans the internet to look for fraudulent assets and look-alike domains, and is available to financial, healthcare and retail sectors.
Startup of the Week
MagicLinks, an LA-based creator commerce platform, announced the launch of AI Shelf – a tool that helps brands get recognised in AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. The tool audits creator content for brand-safe language, SEO-optimised metadata, FTC compliance, revenue optimisations, Answer Engine Optimisation scores, and ensures content aligns for AI tools.
Number of the Week
As part of research conducted by commerce platform Rithum, over a thousand shoppers across the US and UK were surveyed about how AI tools are influencing their shopping habits. Over half of consumers (58 percent) blame brands when incorrect product information surfaces within AI tools, and 16 percent of respondents said they would avoid purchasing a product altogether after a “bad” AI recommendation.
