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We’ve spent years worrying about AI replacing us, yet here we are—still writing newsletters while robots politely argue over who gets to talk to whom. Between agentic AI taking the reins in customer engagement, Meta borrowing Midjourney’s artistic flair, and Apple outsourcing Siri to Google, it’s clear the machines aren’t just learning—they’re conspiring… politely, for now.
This Week in Digital Marketing
AI Leadership Gap: Retailers Struggle With Automation Despite Hiring Chief AI Officers
Meta, Siri & xAI: Platform Battles, Partnerships, and Lawsuits Shake Marketing Ecosystems
NotebookLM Videos: Turn Dense Business Documents Into Shareable AI-Powered Summaries
and more…
POINT OF CONTACT
Newest Insights on Customer Engagement
🤖 Reality Check: MIT's bombshell finding that 95% of AI pilots fail isn't stopping retailers from doubling down. Nearly two-thirds now have dedicated AI teams, and 99% of UK retail decision-makers report in-house AI expertise. The kicker? Half think AI will handle most customer interactions in five years… but 49% say AI isn’t ready to own the full journey. Translation: everyone’s hiring Chief AI Officers, but seamless customer engagement? Still a work in progress. Lesson for marketers: having AI brains on the team doesn’t mean your AI is actually working.
🎯 Human Touch Paradox: Retailers are leaning into automation, with 73% reporting generative AI already handling basic customer requests, letting humans tackle the tricky stuff. Yet 54% worry about output quality and consistency, and 36% mainly use AI for insights while humans make the final call. The takeaway: AI isn’t replacing humans—it’s amplifying them. Routine tasks go to AI, relationship-building moments stay human, and that’s where loyalty gets built.
🚀 Agentic Revolution: Enter agentic AI; the evolution beyond simple chatbots that operates autonomously, anticipating customer needs and making real-time decisions rather than just reacting to inputs. Unlike traditional AI that follows scripts, agentic systems take initiative, turning interactions into intelligent, dynamic experiences that can change and enhance in real-time. For customer engagement teams, this means moving from reactive support to proactive relationship building. The brands that master this shift won't just improve satisfaction scores—they'll redefine what customers expect from every interaction.
THIS WEEK IN THE LOOP
Headlines on Digital Marketing, AI, and More
🎨 Meta's Visual Coup: Meta just inked a licensing deal with Midjourney to tap into the startup's "aesthetic technology" for future AI products, giving the social media giant access to what many consider the gold standard of AI-generated visuals. The partnership positions Meta to compete with industry-leading models like OpenAI's Sora, Black Forest Lab's Flux, and Google's Veo. With Midjourney's artistic prowess now potentially flowing into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, brands should expect a major upgrade in native creative tools. Translation? The era of needing third-party AI art generators for social campaigns might be coming to an end.
🍏 Siri's Identity Crisis: Apple is in early talks with Google—its most direct smartphone competitor—about using Gemini AI to power a revamped Siri, marking a dramatic strategic shift. Apple is simultaneously developing two versions: "Linwood" powered by internal models and "Glenwood" running on outside technology. For marketers, this could be seismic: if Apple outsources Siri's brain to Google, it signals that even the most privacy-obsessed tech giant recognizes that AI partnerships trump internal pride. Brands investing heavily in voice commerce and Siri integrations might want to start preparing for a very different—and potentially much smarter—voice assistant landscape.
⚖️ Algorithm Wars: Elon Musk's xAI just sued Apple and OpenAI, alleging an "anticompetitive scheme" that keeps rival AI apps like Grok from reaching #1 in the App Store. The lawsuit claims Apple is "deprioritizing so-called super apps and generative AI chatbot competitors" while favoring OpenAI through their ChatGPT integration. OpenAI fired back, calling it Musk's "ongoing pattern of harassment." For marketers, this battle exposes how platform gatekeepers can make or break AI tool adoption—and why diversifying your AI stack across multiple platforms isn't just smart strategy, it's survival insurance against the billionaire boys' club turf wars.
TO INFINITY & BEYOND
How Businesses are Scaling Today
📹 NotebookLM Video Revolution: Transform dense business documents into engaging video presentations using Google's newest NotebookLM Video Overviews feature. Just launched this month, this tool converts your uploaded sources—market research, competitor analysis, financial reports—into AI-generated video summaries with virtual hosts that explain complex concepts visually. Perfect for executive briefings, client presentations, or training materials that need to stick.
Best part: It's completely free with Google Workspace.
Upload your sources → NotebookLM
Create new notebook → NotebookLM
Generate video overview → NotebookLM Studio Panel
Customize focus areas → NotebookLM
Download & share → NotebookLM
Create shareable links → NotebookLM
Pro Tip: Upload multiple related documents (competitive analysis + market research + customer feedback) to create comprehensive video briefings that connect dots across data sources. The AI hosts will identify patterns and relationships you might have missed.
Sample Use Cases:
Convert quarterly board decks into digestible video summaries for stakeholders
Transform competitor research into visual presentations for sales teams
Turn customer research into engaging onboarding videos for new hires
WARP SPEED
Solutions to Hyper Charge Your Productivity
CROSSROADS
Everything Else that’s Happening
✅ Skyward Sense: Engineers at the University of Surrey, inspired by owls and raptors, are developing fixed-wing drones that can perch, weave through cityscapes, and endure turbulent wind—blending precision with energy efficiency for urban delivery or offshore inspections. |
✅ Rate-Cut Rally: Markets soared after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that interest rate cuts could be coming as early as September—sparking optimism across global markets. |
✅ Luxury Leap: Procter & Gamble is quietly rolling out a premium, aloe-infused diaper line called bumbum, made in China and sold at Target, as its flagship Pampers and Luvs brands face stiff competition and pressure on market share. |
✅ Uranus Has a Moon: Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a previously unknown moon, S/2025 U 1, orbiting Uranus—adding to our understanding of the distant planet’s system.. |
STATS
Because We Marketers are Obsessed with Numbers
89% – Proportion of top U.S. economists who voiced concern over the deteriorating quality of official economic data, citing deep staff cuts at agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics. |
94% – The amount of U.S. managers who use AI rely on it to make decisions about their direct reports — including raises, promotions, layoffs, and firings. |
50% – Proportion of Netflix’s global subscribers (estimated 150 million+ households) that now watch anime — a figure that has tripled over the past five years, driven by breakout hits like Jujutsu Kaisen and Sakamoto Days. |
FEEDBACK LOOP
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