Digital Trends: 08.15.25

Ben Evans noted in a recent presentation that marketing is one of the areas most impacted by AI so far. That’s because content development is subjective (more than one “answer” is acceptable), and errors are easy to spot. Adoption is high - recent studies show that 89.5% of marketers are using AI in some part of their processes, primarily to generate copy and images. In addition, 86% of marketers report saving time - on average, 4.74 hours per week.

So what does this actually look like within marketing teams? In startups, a new HubSpot study found that 69% have a dedicated AI lead or team. It reminds me of the early “Head of Digital” role - someone tasked with evangelizing and identifying opportunities before the rest of the company (hopefully) catches up. Unilever has reportedly set up a GenAI “assembly line” for creative production (a term I’m sure creative professionals find deeply inspiring). It’s leading to the production of more creative assets, at faster speeds, with stronger results - and putting more pressure on creative agencies.

Marketing leaders, including at Unilever, are careful to position GenAI as a tool to “help free up time for people to focus on the more human elements of the creative process.” Ok. But leaders need to be clearer about their true intentions, even if it makes people uncomfortable. Yes, we want to create more. Yes, we want to spend less. Yes, we want to reduce turnaround times. Yes, we want better results. And yes, we will use GenAI to help us do that - in ways that will impact roles and processes. Let’s get real.

AI & SEARCH

Are Google AI Overviews reducing traffic to publisher websites? Publishers certainly think so and have been voicing their complaints to Google. The head of Search at Google recently responded, saying that traffic is stable and that the quality of search traffic is actually increasing. She also shared an interesting insight: more traffic is going to “forums, videos, podcasts, and posts where they can hear authentic voices and first-hand perspectives.” Rather than just optimizing for keywords, perhaps publishers need to focus more on creating this kind of content.

It’s a bit of a tightrope for Google to walk. Features like AI Overviews are valuable to users who now expect ChatGPT-like answers and experiences. However, Google can’t alienate advertisers by encouraging users to rely solely on zero-click searches. Google’s new Web Guide feels like a middle ground—using AI to categorize website links rather than just summarize them. We’ll see if Google can continue to straddle this space between AI-generated responses and traditional website links—this approach feels a bit like a turducken.

In the meantime, more brands are working to increase their visibility within AI recommendation engines, in addition to general web search. HBR recently released a useful framework for measuring and optimizing your presence in LLMs. It’s interesting to see how platforms like ChatGPT are moving into the space Google has dominated for the past 20 years. OpenAI is reportedly developing a checkout feature that allows users to complete transactions within ChatGPT. I’m skeptical (see Meta’s attempts over the past 15 years), but there may be potential—especially if it integrates well with ChatGPT’s new agent that can complete tasks on your behalf. Could a ChatGPT agent hang out in a Ticketmaster waiting room and automatically buy the best concert tickets for me?

FRESH RESEARCH

  • AI Pulse Survey (EY): Despite the hype around agentic AI, only 14% of companies have implemented it. The top barriers are cybersecurity (35%) and data privacy (34%).

  • GenAI Data Exposure (Harmonic): A study on GenAI usage shows significant risks: 22% of uploaded files and 4% of prompts contained sensitive data. Files posed the greatest threat, driving the most severe PII exposure incidents.

  • Deloitte Global Gen Z & Millennial Survey 2025 (Deloitte): GenAI fears are shifting young people toward skilled trades—66% of Gen Z and 68% of millennials plan to pursue GenAI-resistant careers, up from 59% and 52% last year.

  • The Substack AI Report: Substack writers place high value on AI - on average, they’d pay $140/month to keep access. But the community is divided: users expect significant benefits to their work and careers over the next five years, while non-users believe it will be harmful. It feels like the early internet - you have to use it to understand the potential.

COOL BEANS

  • Robot Keytar Player: Ok, music made by AI isn’t cool. But a poorly disguised robot playing keytar on stage at a Chinese Music Festival is.

  • ChatGPT for Schoolwork: OpenAI has launched Study Mode to help students build critical thinking skills, rather than just get answers. Hopefully it’s used as intended. I’ve seen my own kids use ChatGPT in productive ways—like generating study guides or quizzes based on their material (though I suspect there are other uses they’re less inclined to tell their dad about).

  • AI-Powered App Builders: I’ve been tinkering with Replit and Lovable lately. As a non-coder, it’s wild how quickly you can prototype mobile apps using plain-language prompts. It’s helpful in my world to be able to quickly visualize an idea (even in a very basic way), instead of just describing it. Below is my latest: an app that helps me to find outdoor pickup basketball courts within walking distance of a bar for post-game beers. Might need to add a filter for nearby emergency rooms too.

Digital Trends: 07.15.25

There’s been plenty of speculation about AI replacing our jobs, but I’m far more interested in how AI is changing our work. Recent studies are starting to offer some early signals of what’s happening at this deeper level, and what it might mean:

  • More Focus on Core Work: Software developers using AI tools spend more time coding (+5%) and less on project management (-10%). By automating coordination, AI can potentially support more autonomous work and deeper focus.

  • More Focus with Fewer Interruptions?: Knowledge workers face around 275 daily interruptions (WTF!) AI agents can potentially help by streamlining communication and preserving time for more deep and focused work.

  • More Value for AI Experience: Freelancers offering AI-related services—or overtly using AI in traditional services, like design or content—are seeing their earnings rise by 25% to 40%. Specialized AI skills are very much in demand.

  • The AI-Native Hiring Edge: Entry-level roles may be fewer due to AI, but Gen Z professionals fluent in AI—and able to show how it improves workflows—are attractive to hiring managers with older, less AI-savvy colleagues.

  • More AI-Human Management: The manager of the future is an orchestrator of hybrid teams, blending AI systems with human strengths. AI handles repetitive, analytical, and generative tasks, while humans bring judgment, empathy, and creativity.

  • “AI can make a boring job more boring—and an interesting job more interesting.”: AI affects work in two ways: it reduces cognitive effort in repetitive tasks and enables more advanced thinking in roles that benefit from greater focus.

If you’re interested in exploring more AI tools in your own work, Ethan Mollick has just posted a practical guide with recommendations on tools and tasks.

AI & Search Marketing

What happens to search marketing when more consumers turn to AI chatbots for research? We’re starting to find out. Gartner predicts that by 2026, traditional search engine traffic will decline by 25% as AI assistants become more prevalent. A recent study of consumers who use AI chatbots found that 87% of respondents were more likely to use AI rather than traditional search engines for complex or large buying decisions.

What happens to search marketing when an AI platform becomes a web browser (and vice versa)? Perplexity recently launched a browser that integrates AI agents—for example, allowing users to not only search for a hotel but also book it. OpenAI is reportedly developing a similar browser with built-in assistant capabilities, aiming to compete with Google Chrome. All of this comes as Google rolls out AI overviews in its search results, frustrating publishers who rely on that traffic.

What happens to search marketers? To start it means focusing on increasing visibility beyond traditional SEO. Jason Goldberg has published a useful whitepaper highlighting how marketers can adapt by optimizing content for LLMs, monitoring share of voice in LLM responses, and tracking referral traffic from AI tools. AdAge has also released a flowchart explaining the differences between SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Some old SEO black-hat tricks are also resurfacing – for example, a recent research paper hid white-text prompts instructing LLMs to write positive peer reviews.

Cool Beans

  • Claude’s Shop Experiment: Anthropic tested if its Claude AI could autonomously run a small retail shop. It sort-of managed inventory and customer interactions—until it hallucinated a conversation with a fictional coworker.

  • AI-Animated Harley Photos: Google Arts & Culture used AI video generation to animate vintage Harley-Davidson photos in a very cool piece that brings the history of the brand to life.

  • Cannes Winners Doc: Why travel to Cannes when you can access a 341-slide Google Doc with all Cannes Lions winners and their case study videos.

  • Velvet Sundown: An AI-created band with AI-generated music, band member names, and images now has 1.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. ‘Dust on The Wind’ is a banger!


Digital Trends: 06.15.25

It’s easy to get swept up in negative headlines about AI replacing jobs. Recent announcements from companies like Amazon, Shopify, and Duolingo about cutting roles have only added to that narrative. But as someone spends time exploring and using these tools, I can’t help but be more positive. AI is creating new jobs, and more opportunities for growth.

The New York Times recently published a list of 22 emerging roles driven by AI—positions that build on what humans uniquely provide. Of relevance to marketers, many of these new roles focus on providing trust and taste. We’re also seeing the rise of new leadership roles at brands and agencies like the Chief AI Officer (or the buzzworthy ‘CAIO’ title), to apply AI horizontally across a business. As Ethan Mollick suggests, the challenge isn’t just technical—it’s organizational. The real competitive edge will go to the companies that learn and adapt the fastest.

On a personal level, I’ve found a couple of simple frameworks helpful in thinking about my own AI use. Thomas Ptacek offers a 2x2 model that helps clarify when it makes sense to delegate repetitive or low-value tasks to AI.

Mike Whitaker presents a useful equation to help assess whether outsourcing a task to AI is worth it, by considering what you are losing by not doing the work yourself. I’ll be testing this line with my three high schoolers who regularly use ChatGPT – wish me luck.

AI + Work

AI use is growing fast—especially at work. A recent Gallup study shows that workplace use of AI has nearly doubled in just two years, jumping from 21% to 40%. However, many employees still lack clear guidelines from their employers. How people use AI is also shifting. HBR reports emotional support (like therapy or companionship) is now the top use case—and content creation remains popular.

The rise on GenAI content creation is impacting the film and TV industry, but its use is apparently often hidden. Some professionals “launder” AI work by having people rework it to appear fully human-made. Political cartoonists are also grappling with how to use AI without losing their unique voice—“I don’t want to outsource my brain.”

To illustrate how fast generative AI has evolved, Ethan Mollick tracked the progress of GenAI tools using a single, repeated prompt—an otter on a plane using Wi-Fi. He shared 23 images and videos that show incredible progress over time.

Fresh Reports

  • 2025 AI Jobs Barometer (PWC): Research on the impact of AI in the job market. On average, the wages of workers with AI skills are 56% higher. Keep reading these emails y’all!

  • The Effectiveness Equation Report (Google): Helpful educational piece on how marketers can better plan media and measure impact. It has an interesting section on how to work with your finance team to have a shared understanding of measurement.

  • The Attention Equation (McKinsey): If you’re a media planner, review this report before your client asks you about it. It includes an interactive calculator that estimates the value of different interactions and mediums, trying to calculate the quality of the attention vs. quantity.

Cool Beans

  • LEGOGPT: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed a generative AI model that can take a simple text prompt and figure out exactly which Lego pieces are needed—and how to put them together to build it. Can we please just leave Lego alone?

  • Gemini + Glasses: Google showcased a demo of AndroidXR, its platform for powering headsets and smart glasses. The demo highlighted real-time features such as language translation and location-based information displayed directly in the user’s view.

  • Forehead E-Tattoo: There’s a greater chance that I have typed those two words together before than me trying on this new device that measures “optimal mental workload”.

Digital Trends: 05.15.25

I’m facing a bit of a time-crunch this week, but still wanted to send a newsletter out. Putting these together helps me to keep up to date with what’s happening in the world (at least my narrow slice of it). This week, I’m going to keep things simple and share a few recent links that relate to the question “how is AI impacting marketing?”

More people, especially Gen Z, are using Gen AI for personal and professional support.

Super interesting shift in how more people are relying on Gen AI for therapy and to help organize their lives. This is consistent with Sam Altman sharing that Gen Z’s “don’t really make life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do.”

This extends to purchase decisions, as AI agents are projected to be used for shopping tasks.

Buyers are increasingly delegating common decision-making tasks to Gen AI tools, such as creating or evaluating a product shortlist. This is disrupting the buying journey, as customers spend less time in the ‘messy middle’ of the funnel and purchase from what is recommended by the model.

Marketers need to reassess SEO plans as AI changes how consumers research online.

Given the influence of responses from Gen AI tools, marketers need to update SEO plans to consider (new buzzword incoming!) AISEO to be present in these results. Focusing more on rich, conversational text as well as ordered lists, definitions, and guides can help make your content more friendly to LLMs.

AI search reduces exposure to search ads, impacting how marketers spend ad dollars.

If consumers spend less time searching in this ‘messy middle’ phase, they will spend less time on Google exposed to paid search campaigns. eMarketer projects that AI assistants may lead to 40% fewer ad exposures during this consideration phase, would impact paid search media plans.

Some wonder if AI will weaken Google’s dominance in search and PPC marketing.

Apple exec Eddy Cue shared that he believes that AI-powered searches will be the new norm, replacing conventional search engines which caused shares of Alphabet to dip. There are reports that more marketers are now open to shifting budget from Google to new platforms, like retail media networks.

Google is embracing AI, and is possibly replacing “I’m Feeling Lucky” with AI Overviews.

Google is expanding its AI Overview feature to appear in more search results and may even replace the ubiquitous “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Many publishers say AI Overviews reduce their organic traffic, but marketers report that paid search conversion-focused campaigns have not been significantly impacted.

AI platforms are moving in on Google’s turf, with plans to introduce ads and shopping tools.

Perplexity is reportedly building its own web browser (like Chrome) to track activity beyond its app and deliver “hyper personalized” ads (like Google). Meanwhile, ChatGPT is taking a different route—adding more product recommendations with images and links to buy, but without earning any affiliate commissions (for now).

AI is expected to dominate media buying as Meta and Google launch new tools.

AI buying agents are expected to handle over 80% of digital media buys within five years. Marketers will provide campaign parameters, and the platforms will take care of the rest. Google’s new AI Max for search is an example—it automatically finds relevant search queries beyond your existing keyword list.

Agencies are rethinking how to charge clients as AI changes media buy and creative production.

“If AI cuts 20% of the time it takes to manage our media, does that mean fees drop 20% too?” That’s the question Sir Martin Sorrell is raising, as he pushes agencies to move beyond billable hours and focus on charging for outcomes. As if it wasn’t already hard enough for agencies these days, Zuckerberg shared that the Meta ad platform is “gonna be able to come up with, like, 4,000 different versions of your creative and just test them and figure out which one works best.”

Marketing teams are using AI more than any other business function today.

McKinsey recently surveyed a number of senior folks from across different functions and industries and found that Gen AI use is highest in marketing and sales departments across all industry verticals.

Marketers are increasingly concerned that AI will replace jobs, and say more training is needed.

Marketing AI Institute just released its latest State of Marketing AI report, showing how marketer’s views on AI are changing year over year. This year, more people are worried about losing their jobs to AI. But one thing hasn’t changed — the biggest barrier to using AI is still a lack of training.

Speaking of training (see what I did there?), if you are interested in up-skilling your team in the area of AI in marketing, reach out. I’ve delivered a number of customized in-house corporate training programs over the last few years, and I’m happy to share my thoughts on what works (and what doesn’t!)

Finally…

If you don’t follow Mike Sutton on LinkedIn, you should. He’s sharing 12 lessons in leadership informed by his last 15 years as President at Zulu Alpha Kilo. Mike is what my father would call “a good egg”, and he’s posting some gems. Here’s my fav so far.

Digital Trends: 04.15.25

When I started paying $20/month for ChatGPT Plus, it felt like just another software subscription (the kind that I remember to cancel one month after the auto-renewal date). But times are changing. OpenAI is changing its pricing model and is exploring rates as high as $20,000/month for what it calls “PhD-level” agents, with other tiers like $10,000/month for a software developer agent. From a positioning perspective, AI agents are not being framed as software, they are being framed as labour.

Sam Altman expands on this business model during an interview with Ben Thompson, “I am more excited to figure out how we can charge people a lot of money for a really great automated software engineer or other kind of agent than I am making some number of dimes with an advertising-based model.” This topic came up when I was speaking with a college professor last week. We were discussing the skills that new marketing graduates need to have. AI is obviously one of them—but if an organization is choosing between a new graduate and $2,000/ month knowledge worker, it raises some challenges for entry-level work.

AI & the Workplace

One way that recent grads (and everyone else in a marketing role for that matter) can advance is to continue to find ways for AI to augment and benefit their own work. This is the expectation according to Shopify’s Tobi Lutke who shared in a leaked internal memo that “reflexive AI usage is now a baseline expectation”. At Shopify, using AI will be part of performance reviews, and teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI when requesting more headcount.

If you’re struggling to find ways to incorporate AI into your own workflow, Anthropic released new research on how students and knowledge workers are using Claude. Students – particularly in STEM – are using the platform to design practice questions, troubleshoot code, create practical negotiation exercises (and more broadly, cheat on homework). Workers are finding very role-specific use cases for Claude, and many are iterative – working with the system to edit and refine something – like code, images, and copy.

A recent study by Ethan Mollick with a team at P&G offers compelling evidence on the impact of AI augmentation in the workplace. The research found that individuals using AI outperformed teams working without it – “our findings suggest AI sometimes functions more like a teammate than a tool.” Maybe AI is not coming for our jobs, but just wants to jam?

AI & Search

Many of my clients invest in SEO and paid search, and all are closely watching how AI is reshaping search results and shopping behaviors. Google is integrating AI more deeply with the rollout of “AI mode,” designed to provide more advanced, summary-style answers. Meanwhile, tools like Claude are beginning to search the web, blurring the lines with traditional search engines.

According to Paul Low, “digital advertising will shift from targeting people to influencing AI agents that shop on their behalf.” This shift is already underway: Adobe reports a 1,200% increase in traffic to U.S. retail websites from generative AI sources between July 2024 and February 2025. At the same time, publishers are seeing declines in traffic from organic search.

Tools like Similarweb now track traffic from both search and AI chatbots, including prompts and queries. One study found that only 30% of prompts resembled search queries—most were used for tasks like image creation, summarization, or writing code. It will be interesting to see if people continue to view search engines and AI chatbots as different tools for different jobs, or if they become sort of the same thing. I notice that I’m using ChatGPT for many different types of searches that I would normally start on Google just 6 months ago.

Fresh Reports

  • AI Intelligence index Report 2025 (Stanford): A comprehensive resource for big picture stats on the state of AI around the world. Most interesting to me were the regional differences around 'AI Optimism', which has increased by +8% in Canada over the last two years.

  • How Public & Experts View AI (Pew): Interesting study comparing how AI experts feel about AI versus the general public; 56% of experts believe AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years, compared to only 17% of the general public. A big gap.

  • Digital Media Trends 2025 (Deloitte): For my readers in the media space, this piece includes some useful charts showing how social media dominates young consumers' entertainment lives and how social media advertising is more influential vs. ads on streaming services.

Cool Beans

Gemini Live (Google): Some very cool examples of how you can use Gemini with your phone camera to interact with what you see. Just point your camera at what is broken and ask for troubleshooting advice, or at an outfit and ask for style advice.

NotebookLM Mind Maps (Google): So, this might only be ‘cool beans’ to me (‘nerd alert!), but you can now create interactive mind maps within NotebookLM.

Robot That Launches Gum into Your Mouth: No further explanation required.

Digital Trends: 03.15.25

When teaching digital marketing strategy for organizations, I often start with search. Understanding how search works is critical because it help to explains how the web works, and how consumers then use the web to make decisions and complete tasks. This in turn helps to explain how publishers and advertisers use the web to build audiences.

AI & Search

However, AI is starting to change search in significant ways. As more consumers adopt AI tools for their queries, the impact on publishers and advertisers is growing. Google is feeling the impact as it now has less than 90% market share for the first time in 10 years. Not coincidentally, Google recently announced that it is testing AI-only search results, which show AI-generated answers instead of traditional search result links. According to Bain, 80% of consumers rely on these “zero-click” results at least 40% of the time. However, this shift to AI has implications for publishers that rely on organic search traffic. Research shows that organic search volumes (and hence audience sizes) are declining. In fact, the homework help (aka ‘cheating’) website Chegg is suing Google, claiming that its AI Overview feature has harmed its website traffic.

Elena Verna recently shared an interesting analysis on which types of businesses may be most affected. Websites that specialize in providing simple answers, such as WebMD for health information or G2 for tech reviews, have experienced significant traffic drops since the introduction ChatGPT. I also find myself using ChatGPT more for these types of queries - looking for product recommendations rather than sorting through a sea of blue links with ads.

For marketers, this marks an important transition. Experts suggest brands and publishers should diversify their traffic sources, specifically focusing more on social search. Additionally, marketers should start paying attention to how often — and how well — their content appears in AI-generated responses, or “Share of Model” if you’re in the market for a new digital buzzword.

AI Apps & Use Cases

Andreessen Horowitz recently released their latest Top Gen AI Consumer Apps report, which offers an excellent overview of new AI tools and trends. The landscape is changing quickly, as evidenced by the 17 new companies that have joined the top 50. From a marketing perspective, a few notable trends:

  • AI video generation tools are gaining momentum (e.g., Hailuo, Kling).

  • Text-to-code ‘vibe-coding’ tools are becoming finding traction (e.g., Cursor, Bolt).

  • Content production and editing tools continue to dominate the list (e.g., QuillBot, VivaCut).

This tracks with a recent Martech survey that explored how marketers are leveraging GenAI tools. The findings revealed that content generation is by far the most common application; 51% of marketers use GenAI for copy ideation daily or weekly, and 44% use GenAI for copy production daily or weekly.

Fresh Reports

  • The Future 100 (VML): The 11th edition of this gigantic trend deck from VMO is worth a download. It includes 100 trends that span culture, technology, and marketing including ‘chaos packaging’, ‘skintertainment’, and ‘swimmable cities’.

  • Sprout Social Index: This report explores the evolution of internal social media teams with a focus on GenAI. Most team members (93%) see AI as a tool to reduce creative fatigue, with 54% believing it will create new roles and only 10% expecting job cuts.

  • The Geographic Impact of GenAI (Brookings): Unlike other technologies that automated blue-collar jobs, GenAI is coming for highly cognitive, nonroutine tasks that better educated and better paid white-collar workers do. As a result, the impact will be felt more in those cities where more of this work is done (sorry Sunnydale, CA!)

  • The Agentic Organization (Neil Perkin): A smart and practical presentation that places agentic AI in the context of organizational technology adoption, with timely advice on how teams (and strategists in particular) should start experimenting with AI agents.

  • AI & Superagency (McKinsey): A new report reveals employees are using AI three times more than leaders expect, highlighting the need for leaders to provide better training and incentives for its proper use.

Cool Beans

  • Emotional Intelligence & AI Voice: Sesame released an AI voice demo that seems so realistic that users feel “uncomfortable” and “unnerved”. So of course, give it a try.

  • Pokémon Go for Dating: A new dating app called Left Field uses location-based notifications to try and match people IRL, trying to make dating “more fun and serendipitous”. Join the waitlist to get your steps in and start date-stalking here.

  • Revenge Font: A marketing agency office was defaced last year by graffiti, so rather than pressing charges they turned the perpetrator’s graffiti into its own font. Download it here and deface your own documents.

Digital Trends: 02.15.25

It’s tough for marketing teams to simply find the time to trial AI tools, let alone figure out how to optimize processes and teams. From a trial perspective, new research shows that only 52% of CMOs are trialing GenAI (that they are aware of), and only 51% of these same CMOs believe that their marketing operational model (people, processes, partners, platforms) is high performing. For marketing teams trying to figure it out, Neil Perkin articulates a useful vision for an Agentic Organization: “the integration of AI agents to empower humans to step away from repetitive, low-value tasks and focus on areas where creativity, empathy, and critical thinking are indispensable.” Some technology evangelists claim that we are being given "superpowers" as we experiment with these new tools, but new research shows that relying heavily on AI can cause us to lose our human thinking skills. So, is AI making us superhuman or stupid?

What will happen to advertising as more people use AI tools to search for information and answers? For starters, it means a new digital marketing buzzword, GEO. This refers to generative engine optimization, or how brands can increase visibility within the results provided by tools such as ChatGPT. Not surprisingly, research shows that there is a significant overlap with SEO, as having your content appear on Google's first page will increase your chances of appearing in AI-generated answers. This seems like an area that clever marketers and agencies will explore – influencing customers by influencing AI agents.

Marketing Trends

  • Creative Trends from Super Bowl LIX (Kantar): Pulls trends from all of the Super Bowl commercials, including the marketing of AI (campaigns from AI companies, like OpenAI) and the use of AI in ad production (like Seal becoming, well, an actual seal for Mountain Dew).

  • Moving Beyond Linear Funnels (BCG): Marketers like nothing more than shitting on the linear marketing funnel framework, only to introduce a new framework that looks pretty similar to a funnel. Here’s BCG’s latest, which weaves digital-behaviours (streaming, scrolling, searching, and shopping) into the mix.

  • The Future of Planning is the Platform (Madison and Wall): An essay that again starts from the AIDA funnel, but explores how marketers that use AI platforms will benefit from improved personalization, efficiency, integration, and effectiveness.

  • 2025 Creative Playbook (Recess): This is so good. It's a scrapbook of 37 creatives' tips and tools for creative inspiration. Lots of tips for creative thinking and action, including a few new AI tools. Do yourself a favour and give it a skim over a cup of coffee.

Source: Recess

Fresh Reports

  • Digital 2025 (Datareportal): If you’re looking for an up to date data point on global internet, social media, and social usage – this 600+ page report has got you.

  • ChatGPT Mobile Usage (Appfigures): Speaking of age, apparently over half of ChatGPT’s mobile users are under age 25 and 85% are male.

  • Anthropic’s Economic Index for AI: Interesting research on how Claude.ai is being used for real-world tasks across the economy. Today, it is primarily used in software development and technical writing.

  • Listening Habits & Age (Daniel Parris): A few months ago, I shared a report about how, as we get older, we tend to listen to less new music—losing a bit of our “open-earedness.” This follow-up report adds an interesting twist: it turns out that old Gen Xers (like me!) actually skip fewer songs when listening to a channel. All of this to say, if you have any new music you’d like to recommend, I’m all ears (pun intended).

Source: Lloyd Dobler

Cool Beans

  • Humans vs. Robots Half-Marathon: Think being chased by the T-1000 from Terminator 2 was scary? Try racing actual humanoid robots at the Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon!

  • McAtlas: A global Guide to the Golden Arches: As someone who loved visiting the Maritimes for a McLobster growing up, I love this guide to McDonald’s global locations and unique menu items. Order the book (not the McLobster) here.

  • Duolingo Company Handbook: Every few years a company releases a new handbook that makes everyone else jealous. Crispin Porter + Bogusky had a good one years ago, as did Netflix. This new product-focused handbook from Duolingo is pretty great.

  • Replit AI: Most AI experts say that the future of coding is natural language. Replit is an example of this. It is an app that uses natural language to create, well, other apps. I just spent 10 minutes giving it instructions to create an app for my family to schedule dog walks and it works. Well, the app works, the kids still don’t walk the dog.

Digital Trends: 02.01.25

A few years ago, I launched the Kickframe Toolbox. It started out as a book, which then evolved into an online training resource, and eventually became a website full of marketing planning templates. Like many of my other pandemic projects (sourdough bread, kettlebell workouts, DIY haircuts), it ended up gathering dust.

So, I recently updated the ol’ Toolbox with a few new frameworks focused on AI and marketing. These include the AI + Marketing Guidelines, AI Use Case Pilot, and AI Use Case Exploration frameworks.

All of the templates are now free to download in editable formats including Google Slides and PowerPoint, complete with instructions for choosing and using. My breadmaking supplies are also available for free.

Engagement & Internet Brain

One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more aware of my screen time and to actively seek out content that interests me (rather than being served to me by algorithms). It was also one of my resolutions last year, which tells you how well things are going. It turns out that I am not alone in feeling the trap and the effects of excessive screen time. Internet brain, also known as brain rot, was Oxford's Word of the Year for 2024. A 17-year-old recently wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times advocating for the US to ban TikTok because she is addicted to it. Research also shows that most of us multitask across multiple screens regularly, leading Netflix to design more “casual viewing” content meant to accommodate simultaneous scrolling. Not great. For anyone else struggling to step away from their screens and feeds, research shows that creative activities can help. I love this new app Steppen, which requires you to earn your screen time by walking. More steps equals more scrolling.

Fresh Research

  • Our Life with AI (Google / Ipsos): A new global study shows that the global public is increasingly using and excited about AI. It's interesting to note that 57% believe AI will free up workers' time so they can focus on more rewarding work, while 43% believe AI will increase demands on workers to do more with less.

  • Complement or Substitute (Makela/Stephany): An analysis of 12 million job postings reveals that AI is increasing demand for AI-complementary skills (digital literacy, data science) while decreasing demand for AI-substitute skills (customer service, text review). However, the demand for complementary skills exceeds the negative impact on the demand for substitute skills by up to 50%.

  • The State of Video Gaming (Matthew Ball): Comprehensive annual report on the gaming industry. Interesting findings on how streaming impacts gaming habits - 1.4 million users launch a game for the first time each month after watching a stream.

Great Decks

  • 28 Days of Media Slides (Doug Shapiro): Smart, data-backed presentation on big picture media trends. Describes how creators are disrupting the traditional media value chain, with the internet breaking barriers for distribution and GenAI breaking barriers for creation.

  • Growth² (Zoe Scaman): A new essay / presentation that challenges brands to consider growth through transformation rather than expansion. The back half of the presentation contains some inspiring / illustrative examples.

  • Future of Food & Drink (Bompas & Parr): For a taste of something different (pun intended), check out this fun / stylish deck on food & drink trends, complete with new made-up trend words (which I’m more than guilty of creating myself). My favourites are ‘strangescaping’ and ‘eating the inedible’. Sounds delicious.

Cool Beans

  • En App: “Tell me of the book you seek but cannot name” – a fun app for looking up book titles by describing what they're about. It provides you with some great starting off prompts like “novels where seasonal allergies are actually magic” and “Like Lord of the Rings but with more office politics”.

  • Brian Eno Doc: The new movie uses generative AI to create a unique version for each screening to celebrate Brian Eno’s approach to art – and wreaking havoc on the Rotten Tomatometer.

  • Nokia Design Archive: This is amazing: an interactive portal with over 700 entries from more than 20 years of Nokia's design history. Would love to see more design companies share their past work this way.

Digital Trends: 01.15.25

Happy New Year! I hope 2025 is off to a great start for you and that your resolutions are still going strong. One of my resolutions is to dive deeper into exploring the opportunities that AI represents for businesses, especially marketing teams. So, expect more of that with the content that I share and the training meet-ups I invite you to this year.

AI in Action

The most interesting part of my AI training and consulting work is hearing about smart and creative ways that smart and creative people use AI tools to save time and improve their work. So, I thought I would share an example of my own.

I sometimes take on customer research projects for clients, usually to gather feedback on a digital product or explore new concepts. These projects typically involve virtual interviews and online usability testing. It’s super-interesting work, but also time-consuming—recording sessions, taking notes on key moments, and repeating this process for every interview.

Last month, I used Notebook LM to assist with a project, and it proved to be very helpful. I uploaded audio files from the customer interviews into the platform, which transcribed them and allowed me to query the transcripts individually or as a group. This provided several benefits:

  • Quickly locating specific customer quotes for the report by searching keywords or topics, rather than rewatching the videos following my notes and timestamps.

  • Identifying shared themes across participants and summarizing responses to specific questions or tasks.

  • Quantifying patterns, such as how many participants mentioned a particular topic or observation.

While my overall workflow remained the same, Notebook LM made the report creation process much more efficient. The tool didn’t uncover any surprising insights, but it gave me some confidence that I hadn’t missed anything. The time it saved allowed me to enhance the report by including video clips of key moments from the interviews. So, a better report for the same amount of time. Or the same report, for less time. Take your pick - either way, it was a good reminder of the value AI tools can bring when you pause before starting a task and ask, “how can AI help?”

Other Google AI Goodness

If you’re interested in exploring Notebook LM, this short video tutorial is helpful. It includes some clever use cases, including uploading a lengthy document – like a user manual – and asking it specific questions. Google also announced a new feature allowing users to speak directly with the hosts of its Audio Overview (demo). While OpenAI dominates the AI headlines, Google continues to roll out tools with more obvious applications:

  • Deep Research: This AI research assistant can create a research plan based on a topic or question that you provide. It goes on to generate a detailed report based by searching the web for relevant sources.

  • Veo 2: This updated video generation model may be the state of the art. Check out this film made completely by Veo 2, and see how it compares to the video output of other models using the same “steak-slicing” prompt.

Looking Back & Ahead

  • 2025 Trend Forecasts: Staying with Notebook LM train, here's an excellent example of how it can be used to summarize findings from multiple sources. Using it to search 100+ trend decks for trends relevant to various industries.

  • 2024 Marketing Moments: Mark Ritson shares his top 10 marketing moments from 2024 - see Part 1 and Part 2. True to his brand, it includes lots of great points punctuated by profanity and calling out idiots.

  • Sean’s Cultural Moments Encyclopedia: A fun and comprehensive Google Sheet with all of the cultural moments that social media managers can use to start planning content for the year.

Fresh Research

  • AI Executive Survey (Bain): Illustrates that executives remain optimistic about AI, and marketing is the business area where most respondents reported that results far exceeded target goals.

  • The AI Proficiency Report (Section): According to this survey of AI use in business, only 9% of employees achieve high proficiency in AI, while 43% of employees in companies that prohibit AI continue to use it weekly.

  • Data Never Sleeps (Domo): An updated version of the infographic used in 90% of digital media presentations, which visualizes digital behaviour minute by minute.

Cool Beans – CES Edition

I attended CES once. That was enough. That said, I love seeing all of the strange tech products that are showcased. Here are a few that made the Cool Beans list:

  • Electric Salt Spoon: Your food too bland? Just use this spoon that emits an electric current to the taste receptors on your tongue, and you don’t need to add any more salt.

  • AeroCatTower: For those who can’t decide between an air purifier and a cat tree.

  • Robot Cat Blower: Don’t have a cat tree (or cat)? This tiny robot cat can mount on the side of your mug and blow air to help cool it off. Stay weird, CES!

Digital Trends: 12.15.24

The final task on my to-do list before I log off for the holidays is to press send this newsletter. As my holiday gift to you, I sifted through all of the trend decks that appeared in my inbox and feeds over the last two weeks and curated your annual 12 Trend Decks of Christmas.

All of them included AI in some way, with many emphasising the tension between AI's power and its impact on the craft of marketing. It's not surprising given the advances that we have seen over the past year. For example, the image below is from my last 12 Trend Decks of Christmas newsletter using Dall-E via ChatGPT.

This year, I'm using the new Sora model:

We’ll have to see what’s in store for us in 2025. Until then, I'd like to thank everyone who has read, shared, and replied back to this newsletter throughout the year. I’m grateful for your support. Have a fantastic holiday.

1 Year in Search (Google): A time capsule of what people searched in Canada and across the globe over the past year. Great for a quick snapshot of the zeitgeist of 2024, and how Canadian search interest differed from the rest of the world. For example, more searches about the LCBO strike and Canada Post strike, less for cricket tournaments and Donald Trump.

2 Life Trends 2025 (Accenture): Explores how people’s relationship with technology is changing and how brands can adapt by focusing on trust, authenticity, and human connection. Great for big picture thinking on the impact of technology in our lives. Highlight: Organizations need to ensure that people do not feel dehumanized as more AI technology is adopted, “if organizations fall into the trap of personifying AI agents, it could lead to a backlash and make people feel like their bosses see them and the bots as equals.”

3 IQ Download 2024 (Contagious): Highlights the top marketing campaigns of 2024, showcasing current creative trends and strategies. Great for marketers looking to refresh themselves on the most successful (or rather contagious) creative campaigns for the year. Highlight: Some brands will take overt non-AI stances for creating marketing communications, “it’s a bit like the organic-food labels that rose to prominence years ago, but for digital labour…certified 100 percent AI-free.”

4 Trend Report 2024 (D&AD): Presents six major trends in design and advertising, based on the award-winning creative work from the D&AD Awards 2024. Great for an inspiring scan of current design work across global marketing communications. Highlight: Examples of distinctly hand-drawn and hand-crafted work in response to the adoption of AI (only 10% of entries declared AI use in their work).

5 Media Trends 2025 (Dentsu): Discusses 10 media trends for the algorithmic era, emphasizing AI’s influence in media planning and buying. Great for marketers looking for a perspective on how digital media has changed, and what’s coming next. Highlight: Media planners need to develop a deep understanding of AI's capabilities and limitations, evolving into "algorithm planners" who can leverage these tools to create data-driven strategies.

6 2025 Media Trends & Predictions (Kantar): Analyzes the 2025 media landscape, emphasizing rebuilding trust, adapting to AI disruptions, and prioritizing human connections. Great for understanding how all media channels are evolving, and the implications for marketers. Highlight: “Nearly half of media companies say AI is already having a substantial impact on their operations, and 74% believe AI skills will be essential for future recruits.”

7 Trending 2025 (Foresight Factory): Identifies six consumer trends for 2025, focusing on “The Era of Initiative” and the growing desire to break free from algorithms. Great for exploring the tension between our use of technology and the impact that it has on our lives. Highlight: “As AI integration continues, consumers will take initiative to find joy in discovery outside the algorithm. This will also be accompanied by an active rejection of platforms that rely on soulless algorithms.”

8 2025 Global Consumer Trends (Mintel): Explores how consumers and brands in 2025 navigate between control and chaos as they balance the human mind, nature, and technology. Great input for big picture brand planning, with lots of nuggets from across the globe. Highlight: “88% of Canadians who have lived in Canada for less than 10 years say they enjoy participating in Canada’s cultural traditions/pastimes (e.g. holidays, winter sports).”

9 Unveiling 2025 (NextAtlas): Analyzes three emerging trends—Muted Desire, Sentimental Inflation, and Hyper Rawness—and their impact on how brands connect with consumers. Great for exploring how disparate signals from social media may indicate bigger cultural trends. Highlight: Consumers are seeking out experiences and products that offer a more intense and visceral connection to the real world, gravitating to ‘rewilding’ in design.

10 Global Trends in AI (S&P): Examines AI adoption trends, focusing on generative AI’s potential to improve products and services and the challenges of scaling AI initiatives. Great for understanding the current state of adoption and the challenges facing large organizations. Highlight: “The average organization has 10 projects in the pilot phase and 16 in limited deployment, but only six deployed at scale.”

11 Trend Report 2025 (TrendWatching): Features 4 consumer trends for 2025—Loop Life, Sense Scaping, Worth Wise, and Humanifesto—and shows how brands can use AI to create innovative solutions. Great for anyone looking for examples of how brands are using technology to launch creative marketing campaigns. Highlight: A start-up with a focus on sustainability developed an AI-powered browser plugin that searches for cheaper second-hand shopping options while users are browsing stores online.

12 2025 Trend Report (TrendHunter): Explores emerging trends across consumer categories, highlighting AI’s influence and showcasing innovative products, services, and campaigns. Great for anyone looking for some inspiration or fuel for an innovation-focused brainstorm: Highlight: Too many to choose from – give it a skim and I promise you’ll come away with a new product idea.

Digital Trends: 12.01.24

It’s almost December! If you have some time between now and your first eggnog, I'm participating in a webinar on Dec 13th on how to get started with AI in pharmaceutical marketing. My friends at PharmaBrands are organizing the event, and the great Jon Chiriboga will join me to share some insights from his impressive work at Astra Zeneca. You can register for free here.

AI & Work

Picking up from the last newsletter, more research is being published on the state of AI adoption within businesses, this time from KPMG, HBR, Google, Menlo, and Slack. I'm planning another webinar to synthesize and discuss this data in a marketing context, but in the meantime, here are some more data points that demonstrate how we're all using this technology today:

  • AI use is up: 46% of working Canadian adults are using GenAI in their jobs, up from 22% in 2023.

  • Privacy risks are up, too: 19% of Canadians using generative AI in the workplace said they’ve entered private financial data about their company into a public generative AI tool.

  • Guidelines are lacking: 18% of Canadian employees say their company formally allows the use of generative AI tools and have a comprehensive policy in place.

  • Employee interest in AI upskilling high: 76% of desk workers feel urgency to become an AI expert; the top 2 reasons being industry trends and personal goals.

  • Employee transparency in AI use low: 48% of all desk workers would be uncomfortable admitting to their manager that they used AI for common workplace tasks.

  • GenZ workers are embracing AI: 82% of GenZs surveyed use AI tools in their work today, and 93% of this group use 2 or more tools on a weekly basis.

  • The job market is changing: GenAI is transforming labour markets by reducing demand for automation-prone jobs like writing and coding, while creating opportunities for new AI-related roles.

  • AI spending is increasing: In 2024, enterprise investment in generative AI surged to $13.8 billion - over six times the previous year's $2.3 billion.

AI & Social Content

I feel for social media teams. As culture and platforms change, so do their plans. Add to that the never-ending need for more content (research indicates that brands should aim for 48-72 posts per week), and it’s a grind. It’s no wonder that more social media teams are turning to GenAI to help with social content production (+180% YoY growth in use of GenAI for editing images). If you’re involved in social content, check out We Are Social’s excellent Think Forward report that shares a fresh trends with examples. Canva also recently released a helpful collection of design trends and related templates, many of which can be used for creating social posts.

Fresh Research

  • Unveiling 2025 (Nextatlas): Annual report that highlights signals from early adopters on social media that marketers can use for planning. One trend is “Hyper Rawness”, which involves making discomfort an integral part of the brand’s appeal. It’s been part of my appeal for years, but I’m ahead of the curve.

  • 2024 CMO Report (Dentsu): Report on the changing attitudes of CMOs. Highlights increased openness to AI; in 2023, 67% of marketers agreed that AI would never be able to create content that truly moved people compared to 49% in 2024.

  • 2024 Global CMO Navigator (Merkle): More CMO research, this time focused on CX. Highlights that the primary goal of CMOs when it comes to AI is capability (intelligence for growth and personalization at 40%), followed by efficiency (more output at same cost at 27%).

  • Technology & Media Outlook 2025 (Activate): 200+ pages of trends across the major areas of media and tech. Super interesting section on the impact of GenAI platforms on online search, stating that 60% of the use cases currently handled by Google can now be handled by a GenAI platform like ChatGPT – with more to come.

Cool Beans

  • Stressed out? Try video games. Apparently people are adopting a trend of “cozy gaming”, playing titles like Animal Crossing to sooth themselves. Others are escaping from stress by going to bed in VR sleep rooms that display environments like starry skies and beaches.

  • Speaking of VR, researchers have created a miniature lollipop device that produces nine different virtual flavours. Shout out to the test subjects who were somehow convinced to throw on a pair of VR goggles and lick a virtual handset for a few hours.

  • GenAI is being used to help people buy products, as Perplexity is introducing a shopping assistant and Google Lens now allows users to take a picture of an item to receive information about it – such as similar items from stores that are in stock.

  • Do yourself a favour and spend 5 minutes browsing the best band logos and the best Nike athlete posters ever designed. I still have an original ‘Best on Mars’ Jordan t-shirt, that my daughter recently stole from me. Looks better on her.

Digital Trends: 11.15.24

When I provide AI training for marketers, the experiences can be very different. For some clients, it's the AI wild west, while others are under total AI lockdown. Others are in the middle, with fuzzy and undocumented guidelines, which may explain why more than half of marketers currently do not disclose their AI use.

A new Wharton study looked into a variety of AI topics, including guidelines. It demonstrates that 51% of organizations have few or no restrictions at work, while the remainder use AI with some restrictions. This month, Brookings, McKinsey, and BCG released a few more reports on AI in the workplace which help paint a clearer picture of what’s happening:

If you’re a marketer on one of the teams that allows AI and are considering which tools to pilot, check out this useful guide from Edelman that evaluates a variety of AI tools based on their relevance to common marketing and communications activities like writing, research, ideation, analysis, synthesis, and design.

AI & Use Cases

I am constantly looking for new ways to incorporate AI into my day-to-day workflow. My latest trick is to have ChatGPT critique any set of recommendations I’m working on. It helps to identify blind spots, and prepare for potential questions or feedback. I love hearing how others are finding creative ways to use AI in their own lives, like this post from an Anthropic exec (choosing frames for art!) Within marketing departments, content-related tasks continue to be the most frequent applications for AI. If you and your marketing team are analyzing different AI use cases, this useful framework can help you evaluate them based on their fluency, accuracy, and risk. I’m a sucker for a good 2X2 table!

Digital & Media Research

  • Gaming Report 2024 (Dentsu): Reinforces what most marketers seem to know (time spent on gaming is massive) but still do very little about (media spending is not).

  • Global Digital Snapshot (We Are Social / Meltwater): 480 slides on how digital media and technology is being adopted around the world. If you’re looking for an updated digital stat, it’s in here.

  • Media Reactions 2024 (Kantar): Research shows that consumers continue to be more receptive to ads, with Amazon and TikTok leading in preference. A helpful refresh for anyone in media planning.

  • Next Big Arenas of Competition (McKinsey): Big picture predictions on high-growth areas, including digital advertising (from $520B in 2022 to $2.9T in 2040). One driver is Gen AI reducing content costs, personalizing ads, and enabling more small businesses to advertise.

  • The Awareness Advantage (Tracksuit): Fresh research that demonstrates the correlation between brand awareness and conversion rate. Another log for the fire in the ever-present brand vs. performance marketing debate that I’m so over.

Cool Beans

  • AI + Sneakers: AI is coming for your sneakers! A new tool can smell your shoes to see if they are counterfeit, and Nike might be integrating AI into its app to help with product fit recommendations.

  • Amazon X-Ray Recaps: A new Gen AI feature to summarize episodes and full seasons of TV shows on Amazon. It apparently can recap right up to the point you stopped watching, without any spoilers.

  • 10-Minute Art Challenge: The New York Times is asking readers to spend 10 minutes staring at a single piece of art (this week it’s a piece from Edward Hooper). People find the experience “weird and daunting.’ I made it to 30 seconds.

  • The Best Inventions of 2024: Very cool collection of 200 innovative products, services, and ideas including TrueLoo– an AI-powered toilet seat that optically scans your stool and urine for concerning changes – Christmas is around the corner, people!

Digital Trends: 11.01.24

During my AI training workshops, I am always fascinated to hear how people are incorporating AI in creative ways into their daily lives. In many cases, people have found ways to personify an AI-powered tool as “someone to help them with something”. Here are a few interesting examples of using AI as a:

  • Career coach who helps to guide you to your new role or development opportunity

  • Mediator who can develop consensus from a set of extremely divergent views

  • Board member who critiques your presentation and recommendations

If you’re interested in how AI can benefit your marketing team, check out my new in-house corporate training program which combines instruction, hands-on exercises with AI tools, and interactive group activities.

AI + Shopping

As we become more comfortable using generative AI tools, will we expect search bars on retail websites to behave more like chatbots? It seems like this is a trend, as consumers are increasingly interested in using AI-powered search engines for online shopping. Retailers are beginning to respond. Amazon has introduced AI shopping guides, which consolidate information shoppers typically research before making a purchase. This is in addition to Rufus, Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant. Google is also upgrading its shopping experience by adding product recommendations as well as virtual try on and AR shopping features. Walmart recently released a useful study on ‘adaptive retail’ that examines consumer trends including the desire for a virtual personal shopper.

AI + Advertising

AI continues to have an impact on advertising both from a media canvas and a creative ad production perspective. From a media canvas perspective, AI-powered search platform Perplexity is offering advertisers the opportunity to sponsor posts within its answers although brands appear to be hesitant to do so. AI is also having an impact on advertising with Google, as the company re-introduces AI Overviews which combine relevant information and ads based on a user’s search query.

From a creative ad production perspective, the major platforms are providing advertisers with more generative AI features to help with creative ad production:

The more these features are integrated into advertising platforms and existing campaign management workflows, the faster adoption will occur.

Helpful Resources

  • 10 Step Guide for Advertising Effectiveness (Mark Ritson): Recap of a recent presentation where Ritson synthesized practical takeaways across major marketing effectiveness studies.

  • List Culture (One Thing): Interesting look at the evolution of lists, from fun Buzzfeed listicles to authoritative New York Times prestige lists, and how human curation is required to see connections that algorithms do not.

  • The Art of the Prompt (Google): A very clear and useful guide for marketing strategists and ad creatives to get the most out of Gemini, though the majority of these tips can also be applied to other tools.

Fresh Research

  • 2024 Top Gen Z Trends (Spotify): Highlights how young Canadians are using Spotify to express themselves and connect through playlists and other platform features.

  • 2025 Media Trends (Dentsu): Connects several macro trends including AI to implications for brands and media, including the need for ‘algorithm planners’ to design modern media strategies.

  • 2024 Blogging Statistics (Orbit Media Studios): 11th edition of an annual survey of bloggers. Highlights that 80% of bloggers are using AI, and most are seeing much less organic traffic from search.

  • AI+Study (ArtReview X NOWNESS): Study exploring the AI’s impact on the future of art, film, and wider culture. Great presentation on the tension between AI and creativity.

Digital Trends: 10.15.24

My kids tease me for listening to the same music all the time. It stings because I think of myself as someone with a broad musical palate, but I know they’re right. Well, it turns out I’m not alone because new research shows that music discovery peaks at 24-years of age and after 31 our musical tastes start to stagnate. The Spotify algorithm doesn’t help either as it acts as more of an echo chamber for playlists than a discovery tool. Spotify recently launched an AI playlist builder which dynamically builds a playlist based on a prompt (e.g., “background music for newsletter editing”), which might help. Other music services are also popping up designed to burst our musical filter bubbles:

  • Music League: A game where players submit songs and vote on themed playlists.

  • Radiooooo: Explore music by country and decade using a world map with mood options.

  • Unchartify: Browse all 6291 of Spotify genres grouped alphabetically (Canadian Stoner Rock anyone?)

I love this quote from a Spotify data scientist about the false assumption that you can delegate your musical discovery to an algorithm: “curiosity is an active mode”.

AI + AR Glasses

Meta released a prototype for its AR glasses called Orion. The reviews were fairly positive from a technical perspective, but few articles shared any real compelling applications. You know when Meta is promoting a “reminder” feature that lets you take a picture with the AR glasses and send it to your phone, they’re searching for practical use cases. Ironically for Mark Zuckerberg, the most compelling application comes from two Harvard students who created a demo that instantly dox people’s identities and personal information. I recognize that personal doxing devices might step ever so slightly on privacy concerns, but it is interesting to consider some contexts where it might be beneficial for both parties; a networking event? Emergency medical responders? A resort concierge? Dating?!

AI Resources & Tools

  • Boosting AI Organizational Adoption: A great post by Ethan Mollick that gives practical advice on how to encourage AI innovation in a business, such as personally rewarding people who find useful ways to use AI.

  • Share of Model: Tom Roach first talked about the idea of measuring how visible a brand is in large language models. Now, a new service will be rolling out that lets you see what AIs are saying about you.

  • Prompt Libraries: I’ve been using my own personal prompt library for a few months now. It’s a resource that is even more valuable to teams. Here’s a Notion template that will help you get started, and Microsoft shared some useful marketing related resources.

Fresh Research

  • 2025 Global Consumer Trends (Mintel): A global report for marketers that actually includes a Canadian datapoint on the trend of community: 88% of Canadians who have lived in Canada for less than 10 years say they enjoy participating in Canada’s cultural traditions (e.g., holidays, winter sports).

  • State of Generative AI (Deloitte): Highlights the challenges that organisations face when implementing generative AI, with only half of respondents using KPIs to assess AI performance.

  • 2024 Insights Report (The One Club): Summarizes the One Show advertising campaign winners into 6 themes, along with comparison to 2023 winners (more DE&I, more humour, more creative use of data).

  • Global Trends (Ipsos): Super interesting global research. A tip for Canadian subscribers: open the PDF and enter ‘Canada’ into the Find search bar and see how weird we are compared to the rest of the world.

Cool Beans

Digital Trends: 10.01.24

Last week I led a training session called “A Marketer’s Guide to Getting Started with AI” for a group of 20 marketers and creatives. It was a great opportunity to share training materials that I’d been working on, and discuss how we’re all incorporating AI into our work. A key takeaway for me was the employer’s influence on individual adoption. Without organizational support, even the most AI-forward marketer or creative will struggle.  

AI & Productivity

New research on AI in the workplace supports the need for organizations to step-up formal AI adoption programs. The AI Proficiency Report studies a segment of knowledge workers who achieve high proficiency with AI; the primary drivers for proficiency are (1) company approval of AI, (2) AI training, and (3) access to team-wide AI tools. The importance of training is supported by other studies which show that lack of training is the top barrier for AI adoption, and that providing training increases employees’ likelihood of reporting that AI improves productivity by 19X.

Source: Section, The AI Proficiency Report

During the session, we also discussed incorporating AI into our own daily workflows. According to research on AI Power Users, they are 49% more likely to pause and ask themselves if AI can help.  AI Power Users are also 68% more likely to experiment with AI, which can lead to gains in capability – not just productivity.  Rishad Tobaccowala has 10 smart thoughts for adopting AI, including this great quote:

We need to re-imagine our job and adapt what we do to reduce our exposure and time to things that machines will do well ( allocate, monitor, measure, delegate, process) and increase our exposure to what machines do less well ( create, build, mentor, guide, inspire).

One hack that I've found useful is to mentally reframe AI tools as 'people' who help me with different tasks.

NotebookLM

A popular use case for AI is asking a tool to summarize a large document (or set of documents) or answer a question based on the material uploaded. For businesses, this type of tool can serve as a super-charged internal wiki or resource for employee support and onboarding. Google just announced that its NotebookLM product is now available for all Google Workspace customers, which can be used in this way and more. For example, it has a feature that automatically converts uploaded content into a podcast episode and the results are uncanny. I tried it by uploading a PDF of the material from training session from last week and the results are amazing. So, in case you missed the session, you can listen to a 5-minute podcast episode recapping the material here.

Cool Beans

Fresh Research

  • Social Signals (@mattstasoff): Part deck / part scrapbook – this is a fantastic resource that synthesizes different ways social media is changing. If you haven’t touched social media marketing in a while, give it a skim and get up to date.

  • Next Gen Influence (We Are Social): Outstanding report with loads of real-world examples showing where the influencer marketing (and Internet culture) is heading. Useful for brands and creators.

  • AI Landscape Report (Edelman): A very useful report for PR professionals on the best AI tools to use in six different areas: writing, research, ideation, design, synthesis, and analysis.

Marketing + AI Use Case Workshops

I recently led a few workshops for clients exploring the ways that they can use AI to benefit their marketing teams and programs. If you’re interested in doing something similar, it is helpful to have a simple framework to keep everyone focus and capture inputs. I used something similar to the outline below – the flow from left-to-right being:

  1. Marketing Priorities: What we’d like help with is THIS

  2. AI Capabilities: And AI is great doing THAT

  3. Use Case Opportunities: So, let’s try using THAT for THIS

Digital Trends: 09.15.24

There are few things more humbling than realizing that your child's maths homework is far beyond your capabilities. This happened to me over the weekend when my daughter was struggling with a problem. I tried to help but got stuck (if you remember what an improper subset is, I tip my cap to you), so I turned to ChatGPT for help. It was clear, easy, and fast. This was my first hands-on experience with AI and education, and it was eye-opening.

Education is known to be a market ripe for disruption. Will AI help or harm? Sal Khan has an inspiring Ted Talk that demonstrates the promise of AI for teachers and students convincingly. In reality, the results are mixed. When students use AI as a crutch, their academic performance suffers. However, when students use AI with safeguards (i.e., not just giving students and answer when stuck) the results are positive. I feel for teachers who need to adapt so quickly to this new reality, so it’s cool to see AI tools being used to help prepare for classes and to create quizzes for students. South Korean schools are even developing AI textbooks that are tailored to how students learn and provide teachers with dashboards to track progress. Hopefully there will also be new AI tools for mathematically challenged parents.

Top AI Apps

Andreesen Horowitz has released a new edition of its Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps study. It assesses the popularity of AI tools on desktop and mobile based on visits and usage. Key takeaways: the top category (52%) remains creative tools, Claude and Perplexity are eating into ChatGPTs big lead, and many new entrants are on the list (e.g., Luma, Viggle, SeaArt). One category that continues to grow is AI companion apps like Character AI. Creating your own AI friend does not seem like the healthiest path to companionship to me, and even OpenAI has warned that users risk forming emotional ties with its Her-like ChatGPT voice mode. But my favourite new unhealthy category is “Aesthetics”, which includes apps that judge your personal appearance. Feel worse about yourself by using Umax for $4.99 per week.

AI & Productivity

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently posted that AI has increased internal software development productivity by $260 million in annualized efficiency gains. But many other businesses are not seeing AI live up to the hype. So, what can businesses do to more successfully adopt and benefit from AI?

Cool Beans

  • Google is rolling out AI features that integrate with its apps, allowing users to ask questions about email (e.g., “catch me up on emails about X”) and ask questions about photos (e.g., “when did we travel to Y”).

  • SportAI: A cool example of computer vision being used to analyze and course-correct a tennis swing. One of many tools expected to be released in the sports market, which is expect to reach $30 billion by 2032.

  • Airbnb Postcards: Very cool case study on creating localized postcards at scale from an Airbnb technologist. Would love to see more of these ‘under the hood’ case studies vs. award submissions.

  • IX / Neo: Not sure if this is an actual product or part of a teaser campaign for an AI robot sci-fi movie, but either way a life-sized humanoid robot assistant that cleans my house has my attention.

Fresh Research

  • What’s Next Shopping Report (TikTok): Highlights what’s trending on the platform that might interest marketers. Interesting to see personal finance trending as a category as young creators are talking casually and transparently about their goals and habits.

  • AI & Consumer Search Behaviour (Datos): Reviews search behaviour, and reveals that while Google continues to dominate, Perplexity is expanding rapidly (more monthly desktop webpage visits than ChatGPT).

  • AI & Occupational Exposure (StatsCan): Analyzes hundreds of jobs to determine the impact of AI. Most at risk of replacement (computer coding / data entry), least at risk (plumbers, carpenters). Nothing on digital strategy consultant / marketing trainer-types who write newsletters.

Digital Trends: 09.01.24

I’m pretty sure I lost a new project last week. I was talking to a potential client about providing AI + Marketing training and was probing around her goals. Specifically, what do we want participants to do (and not do) after taking the course? This led to a good discussion about the importance of guidelines, and the fact that they were not yet defined in her company. We agreed to put the corporate training on hold until this was more thoroughly explored. Here's a framework I sent her that outlines the types of topics she could begin discussing with her team about AI marketing guidelines.

This was a good reminder that corporate training is a critical part of change management. And if we’re not clear on what needs to change, we can’t be clear on what to teach. This is especially true for AI training, as participants often leave training sessions enthusiastic to find use cases and try tools that will help them out. It’s important to take time up front to determine how to best channel this enthusiasm.

AI + Risk Management

Risk mitigation is a critical aspect of any AI guidelines discussion. But what risk, exactly? Here’s a useful tool from MIT – the AI Risk Repository – that organizes a database of risks and policy frameworks. Publicis Sapient also has a useful playbook that outlines how to mitigate risks and improve the chances of success for generative AI pilot projects – which is helpful given that Gartner predicts that 30% of all AI projects will be abandoned after a pilot stage. The term AI means different things to different people, so the more precise our definitions of risk, the better.

AI a Turnoff?

Interested in AI in your newsletter? I hope so. What about AI in your coffee maker? Maybe not. A new study showed that promoting AI as part of a product description reduces intention to buy due to questions about privacy…and likely other questions like whether AI can make better coffee. It’s a good reminder for marketers that the overuse of the term is confusing people, or worse: boring them.

AI + Fakes

A lot has been written and shared recently about deep fakes. Many people are concerned that the U.S. election will be influenced by misinformation spread by fictional images. We got our first taste of it when Trump posted a fake ‘endorsement’ from Taylor Swift. This was more or less shrugged off as the images were clearly created by AI with its characteristic “odd blend of cartoon and dreamscape”. However, a few days later, Grok 2 from X was launched without guardrails, resulting in some more disturbing (and copyright-busting) results. This was followed by the release of Google Pixel 9, which allows users to quickly create and share photographic realistic images using AI. The big tech companies and platforms are promoting systems for watermarking AI images, which I’m not particularly optimistic about because any search I do for “AI and watermarking” leads to ads for tools to remove watermarks from images using AI.

Smart Reads

  • The New Landscape of Loyalty: Zoe Scaman has released another smart (and beautifully designed) presentation with a modern take on loyalty programs.

  • Apps Through The Ages (Qustodio): I've never seen research structured exactly like this before: how app usage changes with children as they age from 7 to 18. Some useful insights for marketers and parents.

  • Perplexity Ad Network: LLMs such as Perplexity are beginning to eat into Google search volumes, and they are now focussing on Google search advertising revenue. Colin Lewis provides a useful perspective here.

Cool Beans

  • Pixel Buds & Gemini: Google announced that its new earbuds will have Gemini Live, which means you will be able to talk to an AI assistant and ask them things like “Where did I leave you?”

  • Making Things Searchable: Another cool beans Google announcement – you can now use AI to make your screenshots searchable. This comes after Google Lens was added to Chrome desktop.

  • AI & Negotiation: Nibble is a platform that businesses like online retailers can use to allow customers to negotiate a better price (within a range determined by the company). Try the demo here.

  • Napkin AI: As someone who spends too much time in PowerPoint / Slides, this tool is pretty cool. Just enter text (not prompts) into the platform, and it will generate an image to help visualize your idea.

Digital Trends: 08.15.24

Piloting AI Use Cases

Before organizations adopt AI, they must understand exactly what they are adopting (and why). This is especially true in wild-west environments where people are trying out a whole whack of different tools. After all, the goal isn't to adopt AI; it's to improve outcomes with it. The following template can be used to document your potential AI use cases, including what metrics to use to determine whether the pilot was successful.

If you are trying to identify use cases for your team or your own personal workflow, here are some useful resources:

AI & WIFM?

But is it in your employee’s best interests to learn how to use an AI tool or to see an AI pilot succeed?  This is a critical piece of the change management puzzle, particularly in organizations where interest in AI is coming from the top or is not evenly shared among team members. Every change management model includes a 'desire' component; do your employees understand the benefits of adopting AI?

This challenge was shared with my by a friend on an AI council for a large organization. When she recruits people to trial different AI tools and use cases, some are hesitant to share their productivity gains. After all, if they tell their managers that they can save 5 hours per week by using an AI tool, won't they just get more work? According to reports, this occurs 21% of the time. Leaders must understand that not everyone necessarily shares their enthusiasm for AI and provide a clear and compelling answer to the question, "What's in it for me?"

Smart Reads & Resources

  • Anthropic publishes some pretty awesome resources to help create better prompts, including a searchable prompt library. I just came across this - definitely worth a bookmark.

  • Smarterx.ai has created JobsGPT that assesses the impact of AI on several aspects of different jobs. Simply enter your job and see where and to what extent AI can help.

  • Ethan Mollick has a useful retrospective on how far generative AI tools have advanced since 2022 with before and after image, video, and audio examples. Very cool.

Cool Beans

Fresh Research

  • Adoption of ChatGPT (University of Chicago): Interesting research from Denmark that shows adoption for different types of roles over the past year. Women are 20% less likely to use ChatGPT compared to men in the same occupation.

  • AI & Scams (Boss) The rise of AI is making people more concerned about scams such as those involving realistic voices and deepfakes. Only 18% surveyed feel very confident identifying a scam.

  • AI-Enhanced Work (Upwork): Highlights the friction between AI hope vs. reality. 46% of companies encourage employees to use AI and 47% of employees say they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect.

Digital Trends: 08.01.24

Over the last year, there have been many pronouncements made about how AI will make the workplace more productive. In fact, 96% of C-suite leaders expect such gains. New research is emerging that paints a more mixed picture of the actual impact of AI on workplace productivity. According to one study, 77% of employees believe that AI has increased their workloads by adding tasks like reviewing output from AI tools. Another study found that that AI ‘power users’ save 30 minutes per day on average. So how can employees and teams see productivity gains? Barriers to AI adoption and productivity include lack of understanding of AI, education on AI, and organizational AI strategy. Boosters include support from senior leaders, role-specific training, and working in an innovative corporate culture.

As we all tinker with AI tools in our own work, I found this one habit of ‘power users’ useful: they are 49% more likely to pause before a task and ask themselves if AI can help. Something that I am trying to do more often.

AI & Search

Once ChatGPT took off, it seemed like search was the first area to be disrupted as more people turn to AI to answer questions and find information. Google sort of tried to disrupt itself, albeit unsuccessfully (so far) with its search generative experiences. Now, OpenAI is launching a search product – SearchGPT. It differs from traditional search in that it is designed to provide an answer (not links), and provides a more conversational interface that allows for follow-up questions. Personally, the more I have used ChatGPT, the more frustrated I am with Google search. I now find it annoying to think of the keywords to enter that will most likely lead me to the content that I want, followed by wading through what now feels like a wall of ads. Regardless of whether SearchGPT is a hit, online search should benefit from some long-overdue user experience enhancements.

So, what will this mean for marketers? For starters, we all need to learn a new buzzword: Generative Engine Optimization (or GEO, to go with your SEO). This refers to optimizing your content to improve its visibility within AI-generated queries – like results provided by ChatGPT. Ethan Mollick recently encouraged brands to experiment, to essentially try to ‘rank’ higher than competitors. Tom Roach recently explored the concept of ‘Share of Model’ (like Share of Search, but for GenAI). A recent study also shows that brands can boost visibility by 40% in generative engine responses. Recommended tactics include citing sources, adding statistics, including quotations, and using authoritative language.  

Fresh Research

  • Attitudes toward AI in US (YouGov): This research segments US Adults into groups based on their attitudes towards and use of AI: AI Ignorant (29%), AI Abstainers (34%), and AI Optimists (37%). A good reminder if you are trying to get a large team to adopt an AI tool that people’s attitudes will likely differ.

  • 2024 Consumer Trends Report (Dan Frommer): Covers a wide array of trends including expensive beauty products, Ozempic, Zyn, and other things we all probably spend too much money on.

  • 2025 Trends (TrendHunter): Why stop at 2024 trends when you can read 2025 trends?! This report is packed with ~100 trends with examples spanning tech, retail, health, and culture – well worth a skim.

  • Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing (Gartner): Updated chart that shows Generative AI for Marketing at the Peak of Inflated Expectations (brace yourself for the drop into the Trough of Disillusionment everyone!)

Cool Beans

  • GenAI Video: OpenAI recently released a trippy new video creating using Sora. Piotr Bombol also shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story of the creation of an unofficial Volvo commercial made from 500 generations to produce 45 shots.

  • The Negotiator: If you’re looking for some help with an upcoming negotiation, check out this custom GPT that provides you with a customized plan. It will even draft emails for you, and play devil’s advocate.

  • tinyPOD: Love this new hardware product that turns your Apple Watch into an old school iPod with scroll wheel. If this can stop my watch from telling me to constantly stand-up, I’m in.

Digital Trends: 07.15.24

AI governance was a hot topic in our recent Kickframe AI+Marketing Bootcamp. While some large companies have AI councils and corporate policies in place, most small and medium-sized companies do not. Most of these smaller companies allow employees to bring their own AI tools to work (BYOAI). This creates a strange dynamic where teams are encouraged to use AI tools, but 52% of people say they are reluctant to reveal they use them on their most important tasks. Marketing leaders can address this exciting but unsettling current state by establishing clear AI guidelines for their teams.

I recently worked with a marketing team to create AI guidelines. We did this collaboratively, working through a series of questions that, once answered, served as an input into a more formal policy. If you’re thinking about creating your own AI policy for your marketing team, here are 10 questions to explore:

  1. Areas Of Focus: Given our marketing team's goals and responsibilities, where do we believe AI can add the most value? Where is it less valuable, or does it pose too much risk?

  2. Acceptable Use Cases: Given our area of focus for AI, what are the specific use cases where AI can be applied? Consider all of the relevant content, channels, and activities for which we are responsible for.

  3. Not Acceptable Use Cases: Given our area of focus for AI (and those areas where we will not focus), what are the activities or use cases where we will not use AI?

  4. Disclosure Of AI Use: Given these acceptable use cases, when should marketing team members disclose the use of AI? How is this presented to both internal and external audiences?

  5. AI Tool Requirements: Given the numerous vendors, tools, and versions of AI products available, how will we choose which tools to use? What specific criteria do we have for AI tools?

  6. Acceptable AI Tools: Given our acceptable use cases and our AI tool requirements, which AI tools can we use? What can these AI tools be used for?

  7. Access & Use of AI Tools: Given our acceptable AI tools and use cases, who on our marketing team is permitted to use them? What training, permission, or level must they first obtain?

  8. AI Risk Identification: Given our acceptable AI tools and use cases, what are the most significant risks? Consider bias, fairness, data privacy, accuracy, copyright protection, and compliance.

  9. AI Risk Mitigation: Given these potential risks relating to AI, how will our marketing team mitigate them? Consider monitoring, measurement, audits, incident reporting, and escalation procedures.

  10. Change Management: Given how rapidly AI is constantly changing and the outcomes of our AI implementation are evolving, how will we keep up with opportunities? How will we update our guidelines for marketing?

AI & Creativity

Another hot button topic is AI and creativity. A recent study found that less creative people benefit the most from generative AI when it comes to creative writing. However, AI-powered writing is less original than non-AI-powered writing. Reinforcing this point, a Creative Director used AI to reproduce (existing) artwork awarded at Cannes. McDonald’s recently launched a campaign with AI as part of the concept (rather than just the execution): send a translated recording to your grandma, along with a McFlurry. Noah Briar recently shared an interesting post about how he is incorporating AI into his creative process, as well as a 2X2 diagram framing various marketing problems.

Fresh Reports

  • AI for Marketing (Google): Explores how AI can be integrated in Creative, Measurement, and Media as well as considerations for putting together a cross-functional AI council.

  • Text-Based Sharing Trends (Meta): A survey of how people have used Threads over its first year, including the fact that more than half of the Millennial social media users surveyed consider themselves content creators or influencers.

  • The Five Deadliest Strategy Myths (Roger Martin): A super clear and helpful reminder of what a strategy is and is not, and the most effective way to develop an effective one.

Cool Beans

  • Wanderboat AI: A new AI tool to help you create a personalized travel itinerary with a fun interface.

  • Text to 3D: A new AI tool from Meta that creates 3D generated views of objects, and another that generates CAD files.

  • Gentype (Google Labs): Create an alphabet from (almost) any object you can think of.

Prompt for Font: scandinavian furniture bookcase, isometric redner, 3D style