August 7, 2026  |  SIGN UP

Jim Cooper
DIGIDAY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

They’ve been a bit laggard, letting their agency partners take the early positions – and arrows – on AI adoption. But now, as we report this morning, brand marketers no longer really have a choice. Their customers are all over AI and if brands want to remain top of mind with them, they need to be too.

Almost one in five consumers have already replaced traditional search with AI, according to a recent SponsorCX survey. To be fair, brands over the past year have started to put dollars and organize teams around their AI visibility efforts and some are close to being on pace – if that’s even possible.

But in general, brand facility with AI is a muddled affair. According to a recent survey from Fractl, 82% of marketers have allocated at least some budget to AI vis. Meanwhile, 18% have allocated nothing at all. Are they waiting for the bubble to burst?

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ZERO-CLICK FUTURE

How marketers are building the infrastructure for AI search

While AI visibility could largely be considered an organic play, there are still dollars required to fund things like content production and earned media. Marketers are spending, but not all at the same rate.

ZERO-CLICK FUTURE

Clients are hungry for AI visibility aids, but buyers are skeptical of specialized markdown ads

Publishers have begun offering ad inventory specifically designed to be seen by AI agents. With clients desperate to improve their AI search visibility, some media buyers say it’s worth a shot. Others regard it as magical thinking.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM CONTENTFUL

While AI helps marketers change how work gets done, it’s not changing who does it yet

Only 18% of CMOs say AI has reduced their reliance on developers or data teams, despite its core promise to free up the modern marketer. The focus is on improving workflows while maintaining the human component of creatives.

MARKETING ON PLATFORMS

OpenAI brings product carousels to ChatGPT ads

A product carousel is a notable step forward for OpenAI, which for the past five months, has largely relied on a single ad format that features a headline, short description, an image and a link. The ads sit at the bottom of users’ conversations, clearly labelled as ads.

A MESSAGE FROM OPTABLE

Step-by-step guide to assessing agentic readiness and adopting at scale

A buyer agent evaluating inventory is only as informed as the data a seller agent can surface. Becoming agent-ready now sets publishers up for a smooth transition into agentic buying and selling.

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RETAIL MEDIA  REWRITTEN

Kroger’s AI shopping assistant has ads at launch

Advertisements may appear in Kroger’s AI assistant when it is building a list for shoppers, such as when consumers ask for back-to-school snack ideas. They appear alongside organic results and are labeled as sponsored content.

ZERO-CLICK FUTURE

People Inc. CEO: We’re not turning off Google crawlers yet

People Inc.’s CEO Neil Vogel said the company won’t block Google’s crawlers — not because execs don’t want to, but because they don’t want to lose out on any potential referral traffic.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM BLOCKBOARD

‘They haven’t been given the receipts’: Why one brand is auditing its DSPs for greater transparency

Buoyed by the shift of sports programming to streaming, ad spend on digital video continues to climb, but that growth comes with greater scrutiny around transparency and business outcomes.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM BLIS