A snapshot of what happened this week for your holiday train/bus/boat/plane read!
But before you dive into this week’s Cannes hot-takes, Gen-AI tools, and TV spots for the cost of lunch… I have a quick challenge for you, courtesy of the NY Times.
🧐 Can you spot an Ai-video vs. what’s real?
The New York Times published a 10-question quiz to see if you know what videos are made with AI or are filmed by real humans. It’s equal parts fun and terrifying. Take a few minutes, test your eyes, then come back here and share:
- Your score (I got 50%...so you probably will beat me.)
- And/or one reaction - are you amazed, worried, already brainstorming brand ideas?
My take (spoiler-free):
Even with AI looking so “real”, I believe the heart of great marketing is still human stories. Maybe it’s spending $$$$ on four years of journalism school, but I love the real, not-perfect, lived voices, real nuance, and real moments that cut through more than any pixel-perfect synth clip ever will...even for a branded, paid campaign.
The opportunity (and responsibility) is weaving these new tools into storytelling, not letting them flatten it. (Anyone see the ending of The Mortician for example…you can’t make that up! …again trying not to spoil!)
Enjoy the weekly digest below, drop your quiz score in the comments, and would love your thoughts on where AI ends and creativity begins. 🎬✨
Happy hopefully short work week for you, too!
Check out the newest weekly newsletter here!
Top AI + Marketing News
71% of CMOs Plan to Spend $10M+ on AI (Up from 57%)
At Cannes Lions’ CMO Insider Breakfast, leaders from Mercedes‑Benz, e.l.f. Beauty and Citi revealed AI budgets are skyrocketing…even as many haven’t proven ROI yet. Read more →
My take: FOMO (yes, I’m a millennial) is real. If your 2026 plan has “experimental” AI spend, you may already look under-funded next to peers working on full-funnel automation.
BrightEdge Survey: 68% of Marketers Are Embracing the AI Search Shift
68% of marketers say they’re shifting SEO strategy to keep up with AI. Most orgs are leaning on SEO teams to figure it out, but not everyone’s aligned on where it’s going. Read more →
My take: Right now, a lot of people are looking at their SEO lead like, “You got this, right 😬?” (also fun fast, this is my favorite emoji). But this shift is bigger than one team. If AI changes how people search, discover, and click, that’s a brand-wide moment…not a backend traffic tweak. It’s wild that SEO, once a niche role, is now expected to lead the charge. Marketing has to be all in this together. (Yes, this is a high school music reference.)
AI Literacy: The Missing Piece in Marketing Success
Canva says 75% of marketers are investing in AI, but 92% say their teams don’t actually know how to use it well yet. Read more →
My take: So many teams are collecting tools like they’re Labubus (I’m hip!) but when it’s time to actually use them, no one feels confident. And you can feel it in the work. If you’re not building team fluency, you’re just paying for unused features and hoping for magic. That’s not a strategy, sadly. 🫠
Channel 4 Launches AI‑Generated Ads for SMBs
Channel 4 is testing AI-generated video ads on its streaming platform, making “TV-level” content more accessible to small businesses. Read more →
My take: I love that more small brands can now show up in big ways. That’s exciting! But even with AI looking slick and studio-polished, the campaigns that stick with me still come from real, imperfect, very human storytelling (as noted above). So yes, AI can scale production and open doors. But it’s on us to make sure we’re still telling stories that feel honest, not just efficient.
Ad Agencies Are in Trouble, Says Barclays
Barclays downgraded major ad agencies like WPP and IPG, attributing low growth to slow AI adoption and outdated hourly billing models. Read more →
My take: This one hurts to read, but it’s overdue (hello Ogilvy, my first job). The big shops are stuck, too big to pivot, too proud to unbundle. Meanwhile, scrappy AI-first teams are grabbing share, serving outcomes not hours, and outsourcing massive processes. If legacy agencies don’t evolve, they risk becoming glorified shutter companies 😬 (back to my favorite emoji).
Agentic AI: The New Frontier in Brand Innovation
Generative agents, digital stylists, logistics bots, concierge AIs, are moving from theory into real-world testing, especially in luxury branding. Read more →
My take: We’ve graduated from chatbots to agents that act. Ordering, deciding, serving, all autonomously. This is where brand design, ethics, and UX start demanding serious attention. You’re not just shipping code anymore.. you’re shipping agency. Scary? Yes. Full of potential? Let’s seeee!
IBM Builds AI Trust from the Inside Out
IBM’s marketing lead, Jonathan Adashek, is training internal teams on watsonx to build ethical, transparent narratives before pushing outward. Read more →
My take: IBM didn’t start with a commercial, it started with its own people. Internal alignment creates external authority (oh, I’m gonna use this sentence more often!). Skip that step and you risk hollow messaging and misaligned execution. Invest inward first.
Posts I Love
Allie K. Miller - “Why I Tell My Team to Use AI Even When It Doesn’t Save Time”
Another week, another awesome Allie Miller post. Miller reframes AI as a quality amplifier, synthetic personas for brainstorms, instant devil’s-advocate drafts, arguing speed is table stakes, creativity is the upside. See Post →
Deedy Das - “We Just Dropped the BEST Consumer AI Report”
Menlo Ventures surveyed 5,000 U.S. adults: only 3% pay for AI tools today, but that small group is already spending $12B annually. Parents and coders lead the pack. See Post →
Lindsey Slaby - “10 Things That Stood Out at Cannes 2025”
Highlights: AI as the new OS, creators acting as studios, and fandom as a strategy. She also calls out how behind many agencies still are on AI fluency. See Post →
David Kaye - “AI Breaks Everything…Except Trust”
Kaye riffs on Doug Shapiro’s “Trust is the new oil,” arguing AI content turns attention into a commodity and trust into the real currency. 100% love this and agree with this. Go, trust! See Post →
Rand Fishkin - “AI Tools in Marketing: Good vs Bad Use-Cases”
Rand sorts common AI marketing tasks on a spectrum, from “great for ideation” to “please don’t let AI do that.” Clear, honest, and grounded. Perfect for anyone still trying to make AI write a full press release in one go. Rand lays it out simply: where AI actually helps, and where it still makes a mess. I’d send this to any exec asking why you’re not using it for everything. See Post →
Ahrefs - “AI in Content Marketing: Survey of 879 Marketers”
Ahrefs dropped a 63-page report: 87% of content teams use AI now, publishing 42% more content at 4.7× lower cost, but AI-written content is also getting hit with more manual penalties. If you’re scaling with AI, this is your reminder to still check for quality (and proofread, too!). See Post →
AI + Marketing Tools Added to the Directory This Week
All tools covered continue to be added to the 100+ AI + Marketing tool directory!
IAS Snap Attention Measurement First-to-market metric that fuses Lumen eye-tracking with IAS quality signals to score true attention on Snapchat ads, finally moving beyond plain viewability.
Saifr Ad Compliance Agent Fidelity-incubated Saifr rolled out an AI agent that scans life-insurance and annuity ads against NAIC + state regs, flags risky copy, and suggests fixes, cutting manual review time for heavily regulated marketers.
CRED Predictive Intelligence Platform Fresh out of stealth with $15 M seed funding, CRED unifies CRM, marketing automation, and 10 K+ external data feeds to surface real-time churn, upsell, and look-alike signals, claiming $100 M in user-driven revenue pre-launch.
SE Ranking “AI Search Toolkit” New dashboard tracks how Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT mention (or ignore) your brand, logs link presence, and benchmarks competitors…great early warning system for the looming AI-search traffic shift.
Events on My Radar
Below are more interesting AI + marketing events added this week to the full AI + Marketing Events blog post.
ITU AI for Good Summit July 8–11, 2025 — Geneva, Switzerland Global stage on AI’s social impact—great if you’re exploring brand responsibility, ethics, or purpose-led innovation. Learn More →
AI for Marketers Summit September 3, 2025, San Francisco, CA A one-day event tailored for marketing leaders eager to build AI strategies and scale campaigns from the Chief Marketing Officer Alliance. Learn More →
New, Cool AI + Marketing Jobs
Atlassian - Campaign Manager, AI
Circle - Marketing Operations Manager, AI Lead
Meta - Director, Llama Marketing
Handshake - Growth Marketing, Handshake AI
Real Chemistry - Chief AI Officer
Thanks for reading til the end, friends! What did I miss? How can I make this newsletter better for you? Anything else AI + marketing on your mind this week? Share in the comments or reach out! Excited to see your NY Times quiz score, too!