The biggest challenge in search will come from the need to summarize the world's information -- not just organize it -- according to Jason Hartley, head of Search & Shopping as well as the privacy lead at independent agency PMG. Dan Salmon, lead analyst at New Street Research, hosted the call this week. Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving search from the mobile 'near me' mindset to a 'for me' mindset, and brands are having to think about discovery in new ways, according to Hartley. Th...

Brands need to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. AI can help. But the content needs to be personalized and trained on the brand's own data to avoid generic output. And brands need to be sure that source content has a clear voice and point of view. Ogilvy owner WPP leans on 'brand brains,' generative AI models trained on a client's data and external sources, Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy, said at The Marketer's (Early) Guide to AI event by Marketing Brew last week. Each...

The news: Shopping ads appear above Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) snippets over 80% of the time, according to a new study by SEO platform SE Ranking. The study, which examined 100,000 keywords across 20 distinct niches, looked at the placement of ads within search engine results pages (SERPs) now that SGE is a core component of those pages. SE Ranking's analysis revealed key insights: Ads commonly appear at the bottom, regardless of whether SGE snippets are present. ...

Marketing increasingly relies on the seemingly boundless possibilities of generative AI - tools like DALL-E for imagery, ChatGPT, Claude, and Jasper for instantly creating taglines, ads, and even entire campaigns, and prediction algorithms that keep getting smarter. According to Drift, 64% of marketers already use AI to augment strategies, with the vast majority reporting positive outcomes. As these technologies proliferate, they promise to unlock creativity at an unprecedented scale. Yet, r...

The news: OpenAI is developing an AI-powered search engine with the goal of competing with Google, according to reporting from The Information this month. There's been scant news about the in-development product, but the suggestion of its existence begs the question: Does an OpenAI search engine have a shot at taking on Google? Furthermore, how likely is AI to fundamentally shake up the search market? We've collected what we know about OpenAI's search product and consulted with In...

2024 is shaping up to be the year of the AI-powered shopping assistant. Just two months in, retailers from Walmart and Amazon to Ikea and Chevron have released a flurry of AI-based updates, hoping to make the shopping experience easier and more relevant. Here are some notable examples. Search party: Walmart kicked things off at the Consumer Eectronics Show, unveiling its generative AI search tool that allows shoppers to search by specific use cases, like 'football watch party,' instead o...

Generative AI is beginning to transform marketing and advertising — and brand managers are scrambling to keep up with the onslaught. Eighty-two percent of marketers are familiar with generative AI tools and 65 percent have incorporated them into their tech stack, according to the "The Highs, Lows, and 'Whoas' of AI," which surveyed 317 marketing professionals. Yet many marketers are having a tough time leveraging the full potential of AI: 70 percent say they feel inundated by the current p...

Think about the best advertisement you've ever seen. I'm willing to bet it was your favorite because it made you laugh; and unless you're the sophisticated type, maybe it was even a little stupid. If you ask me, the best work always is. It's human. It's also the secret to outlasting AI. We might not be able to outsmart it, but we can dig deep into our innate human sensibilities. In some ways, AI is a saving grace. It's been a godsend for Photoshop comps. It can be our get-out-of-jail free-ca...

Implementing AI is sort of like welcoming a puppy into your house, a puppy that never grows up and needs constant oversight (not to mention potty training). Your AI tools need constant maintenance and oversight to perform as expected. There's a good reason for this. When you ask Bard, OpenAI or Anthropic chat questions, the tool tends just to take whatever data it can justify as a credible source within the large language model (LLM), run it through a GPT and output something humans recogni...

Google said Thursday that it plans to integrate Gemini generative artificial intelligence (GAI) models into Performance Max, an advertising platform that allows advertisers to access all the company's advertising channels from one platform. The integration is part of an ongoing effort to support conversational text and realistic images into more of its services. The company made several announcements around the features to help advertisers scale campaigns. In the coming weeks, as Google u...