September 12th-September 18th // Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Google adds Gemini to Chrome for all users in push to bolster AI search
Source: Jennifer Elias, CNBC
September 18th, 2025

Summary: Google is rolling out Gemini AI for Chrome to US users and mobile without a subscription, which Google says represents the "biggest upgrade to Chrome in its history." Gemini can act like a "browsing assistant" that can explain complex webpage content and work across multiple tabs. Gemini in Chrome will also push deeper into Google Calendar, YouTube, Maps, and other Google apps, letting users leverage Gemini without navigating to a different tab. Chrome will soon add new “agentic” capabilities allowing Gemini to complete multi-step tasks like booking appointments or ordering groceries. Agentic AI is an AI system that can complete tasks with little to no supervision, according to ZDNet. Gemini AI in Chrome will soon be available to businesses through Google Workspace, too. The timing comes just two weeks after Google avoided a court order to sell Chrome in its antitrust case for search advertising. 

Opinion: Chrome processes over 8 billion searches daily, making it Google's most valuable real estate for defending against AI search competitors like OpenAI and Perplexity. By embedding Gemini directly into the browser experience—rather than requiring separate visits to competing AI tools—Google takes back some control over the search journey. The “agentic” features position Chrome as an AI operating system rather than just a browser, potentially making it harder for users to defect to alternative AI platforms.

This could be a watershed moment. If Gemini being embedded in Chrome means agentic browsing will take off (we should say “when”, not “if”), it will turn the entire industry on its head. Consumer attention will shift. The open web will die a quicker death. And there will be a paradigm shift in digital advertising.

Rembrand Merges With Spaceback to Build AI-Powered 'Ad Factory'🔒
Source: Trishla Ostwal, Adweek
September 15th, 2025

Summary: AI startup Rembrand acquired creative automation platform Spaceback in a cash-and-stock deal expected to close by the end of September. The merger combines Rembrand's virtual product placement technology with Spaceback's social content automation to develop more compelling and relevant ads. For example, a company can virtually embed its products into a music video from an artist who aligns with their brand, then automatically convert the artist's accompanying social media posts into targeted programmatic ads. The combined 75-employee company will be led by Rembrand CEO Omar Tawakol, with Spaceback CEO Casey Saran joining the board.

Opinion: By combining virtual product placement with creative automation, the merged company can significantly shorten the creative development process. This model could pressure traditional agencies to either build similar capabilities or risk being squeezed out of routine creative work. The creative agency AI reckoning is upon us…

Google doubles down on AI Max pitch to wary advertisers
Source: Anu Adegbola, Search Engine Land
September 17th, 2025

Summary: Google has updated AI Max for Search Campaigns and its accompanying pitch deck to address advertiser confusion and complaints. AI Max for Search Ads is Google's suite of tools that use AI to automatically expand keyword targeting, sometimes beyond what brands bid on, and generate customized ad copy and landing page recommendations. Advertisers worried about brand safety risks and accuracy after various snafus, including the tool using the wrong text or images. Google responded by adding controls like negative keyword filters and other safeguards that limit AI generation to pre-approved brand materials.

Opinion: Google plans to test ads inside AI search responses starting in Q4, so the company is clearly trying to raise advertiser comfort levels ahead of the trial. AI is uncharted territory, so guardrails are critical to ensure brand safety. Also, Google is not a “must-buy” yet in AI search (although it probably will be soon), so their whole philosophy of “we do whatever we want and they’ll still have to buy” won’t fly. They know that.

Rolling Stone Publisher Sues Google Over AI Summaries🔒
Source: Ben Fritz, The Wall Street Journal
September 13th, 2025

Summary: Penske Media, which also publishes The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and other titles, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in federal court, alleging that AI Overviews are illegally using its reporting without compensation and torpedoing its website traffic. The publisher claims that Google search results with links to its sites include AI Overviews about 20% of the time—and growing. That's caused affiliate link revenue to decline by more than one-third since late 2024, the publisher says. Penske wants a permanent injunction and monetary damages.

​​Opinion: This lawsuit may represent the opening salvo in what could be a wave of publisher litigation against AI search. Penske's traffic and revenue data add to the growing evidence of AI's impact on traditional search referrals. Will these kinds of cases force fundamental changes to how AI platforms compensate content creators in order to sustain them? Or will they just be a blip in AI’s ongoing march to take over the Internet and kill off publishing as we know it?

How People Inc. is prioritizing traffic and revenue diversification to prepare for AI era🔒
Source: Sara Guaglione, Digiday
September 17th, 2025

Summary: Speaking of AI's impact on referral traffic, here's more evidence: People Inc. (formerly Dotdash Meredith) says organic search represents 25%-30% of its traffic today, down from 60%-65% in 2021. That has the publisher furiously trying to diversify by investing in other traffic sources like email newsletters, Apple News, Google Discover, and social media, among others. Health and finance titles are most exposed to the traffic declines from AI Overviews, while the publication Travel + Leisure was already more diversified. Events are a growing part of People's business, with more than 60 events held annually, leading to double-digit growth that is helping to offset programmatic ad revenue declines. 

Opinion: With People managing to continue increasing revenue and traffic, its strategy offers a blueprint for publisher survival in the AI era. But its focus on deepening direct-to-consumer relationships is an important lesson for all companies, not just publishers. 

Amazon is creating more tools to fill its site with AI ads

What It Does: Amazon's new AI tool generates ads from simple text prompts, helping sellers create static and video ads by simply describing what they want. For example, a pet supply seller could prompt "create a video ad for organic dog treats highlighting health benefits" and get product images, script, voiceover, music, and storyboard. The tool uses Amazon's Nova AI model and Anthropic's Claude to pull from brand guidelines, product pages, and store details. The ads can then be served throughout the Amazon ecosystem, including its marketplace and Prime Video. 

Quick Take: This helps to democratize video advertising for small sellers who lack creative budgets, while positioning Amazon as the infrastructure layer controlling ad creation across its ecosystem. It helps Amazon grow their SMB business, especially in video and CTV, which is a big opportunity that tons of companies are chasing right now.

PubMatic Unveils AI-Powered Publisher Platform to Supercharge Ad Revenue in $770B Global Digital Ad Market

What It Does: PubMatic's new AI-powered monetization platform aims to help publishers boost their bottom lines. It makes it possible to automate revenue optimization, boost revenue from their first-party data, and tap into high-value media budgets. It integrates PubMatic Assistant, easily enabling a publisher to set up PMP and PG deals automated deal parameters. Another feature called Connect uses AI to leverage the publisher's first-party data to make campaigns more effective. PubMatic’s Activate tools help publishers maintain control over their data used for audience extension.

Quick Take: This positions PubMatic as an anti-walled garden solution, using AI to help publishers better compete for advertiser dollars in the open web. 

Monday.com welcomes marketers to its CRM with AI-powered campaigns

What It Does: Monday.com's CRM was previously a sales-focused tool, but new AI capabilities are aimed at marketers—the first step in building a CRM suite. Monday Campaigns can help marketers create, launch, and optimize campaigns in no time based on their CRM data. It helps to align sales and marketing; for example, it can build campaigns using the CRM's real-time customer and lead insights, reducing the need for sales and marketers to gather and share this data. 

Quick Take: This tool may help eliminate data silos and address the classic problem of marketing-sales disconnection, but can Monday.com break through when there are already other, mature CRM tools in the market that do this well?

Simon AI Launches Agentic Marketing Platform to Unlock Data for Contextual Personalization

What It Does: Simon Data has rebranded to Simon AI. Its new agentic marketing platform uses AI agents or systems to supercharge personalization, uncover patterns, turn data into campaigns, and accelerate campaign launches. The platform includes Personalization Studio for goal-based campaign creation, AI Agents for data prep and workflow orchestration, and a Composable CDP running natively in customer cloud environments. Theoretically, the platform could help a retailer quickly launch jacket promotions when the weather drops in specific markets or create urgency messaging based on stock levels.

Quick Take: Simon is betting that its platform can help marketers quickly launch more campaigns without sacrificing personalization. Also, smart rebrand for the valuation…

The Setup: Yum Brands wanted to use AI to more effectively harness its massive first-party data across restaurants like Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. The company centralized over 140 million qualified customer profiles in its Red360 consumer data program and built a foundational AI framework to drive personalized marketing campaigns at scale. 

The AI Solution: Yum's “AI factory” strategy operates on three tech pillars: consumer interactions (communications and drive-thru), the Byte software suite (inventory and scheduling), and above-store operations. AI powers content workflows and creative expansion. The system tests data sets in real time and integrates learnings into its AI models. 

The Results: The AI factory delivered measurable performance improvements:

Why This Matters: Yum's approach demonstrates how AI can transform marketing operations at enterprise scale. By centralizing data and AI capabilities at the parent company level, and buying in at all levels of the organization, are key.

Your Action: Centralize customer data across touchpoints, then identify high-volume, repeatable marketing tasks where AI can drive immediate efficiency gains. Focus on measurement and testing to prove ROI and improve models before expanding AI capabilities.

Anthropic unveils first major brand campaign for Claude, its AI assistant🔒- Anthropic's "Keep thinking" campaign wants you to think of Claude as a "trusty companion" when you could use a hand solving a problem, Ad Age reports. 

Meta Approaches Media Companies About AI Content-Licensing Deals - Meta has approached Axel Springer, Fox Corp., News Corp, and other media companies about paying them to use their articles for its AI products. 

PayPal and Google Want to Help You Shop Online With AI - Under a multi-year partnership,  PayPay will be embedded across Google's platforms, and PayPal will improve its e-commerce service with Google's AI.

YouTube goes all-in on AI tools for creators - YouTube integrated Google DeepMind’s AI-powered video generation model, Veo 3 Fast, into Shorts, making it possible for creators to quickly create video clips or backgrounds with sound.

When CMOs pay for agents not agencies: S4 Capital’s AI gambit🔒- S4 Capital estimates 65% of current agency tasks could be automated by AI agents. Let that sink in. 

AI search ads explained—what brands need to know about costs, formats and risks🔒- There is still loads of uncertainty surrounding AI search ads, but some theorize they could command connected TV-level pricing ($8-$60 CPMs) depending on the platform's quality.

Hotels Grapple With AI’s Double-Sided Impact on Marketing🔒- AI tools can make marketing more efficient for hotels, but they must also contend with AI travel assistants screening out their branding ads.

Facebook owner unveils new AI-powered smart glasses - The new lineup includes the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses with full-color screens for video calls and other capabilities. Zuck got on stage and did a demo! But, in classic Zuck fashion, the demo glitched. #Awkward

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