OpenAI empowering the consumer’s agent

LLMS & CHATBOTS

OpenAI empowering the consumer’s agent

OpenAI CEO of Applications Fidji Simo announced on LinkedIn yesterday: “Big change to our product today: instead of waiting for you to ask questions, ChatGPT anticipates your needs and starts working on your behalf.”

And then, over on the OpenAI blog, a post titled, “A new paradigm of proactive, steerable AI” where Ms. Simo introduced Pulse. It’s the latest iteration of ChatGPT Agent launched in July where, now, autonomous assistants (agents) understand your goals:

“Once a day, Pulse combines information from your chats, your feedback, and connected apps like Gmail and Google Calendar to deliver a focused set of updates designed to make your life easier. That might mean following up on a project, suggesting resources to advance a long-term goal, or reminding you about an upcoming commitment.”

She concluded:

“This shift – from a chat interface to a proactive, steerable AI assistant working alongside you – is how AI will unlock more opportunities for more people. Pulse is rolling out now as a preview on the ChatGPT Pro tier on mobile and coming soon to Plus, with the goal of making Pulse available to everyone over time. So let us know what you think, and we’ll keep making it better.”

Read more on the OpenAI blog. (September 25)

See it now: “Introducing ChatGPT Pulse.” (September 25)

From tipsheet: For some, this latest capability will sound like an invasion of privacy. But for others (raising hand), does one want to work better, be more efficient and learn how to effectively integrate AI into one’s life going forward? Yes.

This is another step in empowering the consumer’s agent which also speaks to recent ad industry conversation about agentic advertising and how agents will be built.

How long until the OpenAI robot? A new OpenAI device of some kind lurks.

LLMS & CHATBOTS

OpenAI Exec on AEO and GEO

Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer at OpenAI, spoke about his AI company’s strategy in an interview with Auren Hoffman on the World of DaaS podcast this week.

Mr. Kwon offered his thoughts about the “gaming of AI outputs” —often associated with SEO in the world of search engines— which is now called GEO (generative engine optimization) or AEO (answer engine optimization) in the world of chatbots like ChatGPT.

Mr. Kwon was surprisingly unconcerned and explained [32:07]:

(lightly edited)

“I don’t know that we track this really that closely. Mostly we’re focused on training the best models, pushing the capabilities, and then having —in the search experience— trying to return relevant results that are then reasoned through by our reasoning engine and continuously refined based on user signal.

[In the long run,] if reasoning and agentic capabilities continue to advance, this ‘gameability’ of search results —the way people do it now—might become really difficult… It might be a new type of gaming….

But if users want to not have results gamed, and if that’s what model providers also want, it should be easier to avoid this because you can now tell the system: ‘Find me something objective. Avoid sites that look like SEO. Analyze the results you’re getting back to understand if there might be a financial bias or motivation. And get me back 10 results from these types of sources, publications, independent bloggers and synthesize it.’

Again, there’s skill involved here in terms of how to do this, but there’s also a desire that you don’t want the gaming to occur. And so that’s a capability that’s now at people’s fingertips that didn’t necessarily exist in the search paradigm where you’re restricted by keywords and having to filter stuff out.

I think that’s a new thing that people will have to contend with if they’re really trying to game results. And if there’s a way to do it, it won’t be based on the old way.”

Hear more on the Apple Podcasts app. (September 23)

From tipsheet: OpenAI honey badger don’t care about AEO or GEO? The company will care if for no other reason it will make OpenAI’s answer engine and LLMs better. AEO and GEO specialists help answer an important question: What content matters?

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Developments

Gemini Robotics 1.5 brings AI agents into the physical world (September 25) – Google’s DeepMind
Databricks will bake OpenAI models into its products in $100M bet to spur enterprise adoption (September 25) – TechCrunch
Trump approves TikTok deal through executive order, Vance says business valued at $14 billion (September 25) – CNBC

BRANDS

Forrester on agentic AI for B2C marketers

Forrester analysts Joe Stanhope and Jessica Liu tackle agentic AI and what B2C marketers need to do now in order to be ready for the big opportunity ahead.

The analysts write:

“Currently, marketers mainly use AI to augment existing processes, but agentic AI will enable them to rethink marketing processes for the sake of efficiency and performance. As agentic AI marches toward full autonomy, traditional marketing will evolve into agentic AI-fueled anticipatory experiences.

Forrester has identified seven categories of agentic AI use cases for marketing:

Customer data management and hygiene

Customer insights and analytics

Creative development and production

Building and managing marketing campaigns

Buying and optimizing media

Marketing performance analytics…”

Read more in a Forrester blog post titled, “The Odyssey Ahead: B2C Marketers, Prepare Now For Agentic AI.” (September 25)

The post shares elements of Mr. Stanhope and Ms. Liu’s newly-published report, “The B2C Marketer’s Guide To Agentic AI” (September 25) available through Forrester here ($$$).

BRANDS

Google testing Smartly’s creative automation

Google, the marketer, wants help with creative for its digital ad campaigns.

Digiday reported yesterday:

“Google is in the process of contracting with Smartly to test the ad tech company’s creative automation platform, according to people familiar with the matter, with the initiative expected to include a series of proof-of-concept pilots beginning in the fourth quarter.

Digiday understands the tests will explore how Smartly’s tools can help Google scale creative asset generation using AI, an increasingly common request from marketers, particularly around campaigns for its hardware, such as the Pixel and Chromebook ranges.”

SELL-SIDE

IAB 2025 ad spend outlook

A new IAB spending report predicted a slightly lower increase in U.S. ad spend for 2025.

Among other “key takeaways”:

“Nearly all buyers cite concern over tariffs, especially in auto, retail, and consumer electronics industries

Top overall challenges for the rest of the year: macroeconomic headwinds and shifting consumer behavior In response, advertisers are prioritizing performance: customer acquisition and repeat purchases

Key digital channels expected to post double-digit growth: social, retail media, and CTV, while traditional media will decline

In response, advertisers are prioritizing performance: customer acquisition and repeat purchases”

Read: Outlook Study September Update: A Snapshot of the Latest Ad Spend Trends, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth (September 25) – IAB

From tipsheet: No mention of AI in the report, but AI is definitely supporting ad spend across ‘walled gardens’ and the open web. Google and Meta’s spectacular Q2 2025 results were proof, in particular.

TECH

Explain AI video ads

In his latest Ad Tech Explained article, NBCUniversal programmatic ads executive Trey Titone takes apart the video ads landscape in an AI context.

He teased the piece on LinkedIn this week saying:

“AI video ads have arrived. With Magnite acquiring Streamr.ai and generative AI video tools lowering the barrier to entry, anyone can create and place CTV ads in your living room with minimal effort. But can publishers handle the flood of new creatives? And how will programmatic advertising workflows adapt?”

Read: Preparing for AI Video Ads – “Let’s examine the promise and pitfalls of auto-generated video ads as small brands flood into CTV and publishers brace for impact.” – Trey Titone, Ad Tech Explained (September 24)

TECH

More M&A after IAS acquisition

After the acquisition of ad verification company Integral Ad Science by private equity (PE) firm Novacap this week, London-based media consultant Stephen Adshead of Spark Ninety created a ‘hit list’ of ad tech firms with PE backing that may be on the move.

He shared on LinkedIn:

“More PE exits are likely to be on the horizon, with Operative, Raptive, Adform, RTB House and Smartly sitting in PE portfolios for over 5 years (a typical target holding period). And Liftoff Mobile, TripleLift, Simpli.fi, Mediaocean and Yahoo are now in the 4-5 year window. The ad tech market is obviously very different to that of 5 years ago, and potential investors will need to consider which companies are aligned with growing media (e.g. CTV, retail media, social), operating in growing value chain segments (e.g. data, custom algorithms, agentic AI), and are resilient to disruptive trends (e.g. commoditisation of some infrastructure, AI).”

HR

Now hiring

Former TubeMogul and Adobe marketer Keith Eadie joins Swift Ventures as Executive-in-Residence (September 25) – Brett Wilson, general partner, Swift Ventures on Linkedin

PROMPT

In advertising, what synthetic audiences will matter most in 5 years?

Response from Anthropic’s Claude:

The key shift will be from demographic-based synthetic audiences to behavior and intent-based models that can predict not just who might buy, but when, why, and through which channels they’re most likely to convert.

OpenAI empowering the consumer’s agent

LLMS & CHATBOTS