Report: “Intel will outsource marketing to Accenture and AI, laying off many of its own workers” (June 20) – OregonLive.com

Quote:“The company said it believes Accenture, using artificial intelligence, will do a better job connecting with customers.”

Thought bubble #1: Wow. Intel lets go of their brand? Not entirely, but the change appears to be severe.

This feels like a risky move by Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and his shrinking company which has lost the AI chip wars to companies such as Nvidia and AMD. Still, Intel has a $91.5 billion market cap as of Friday (was $131 billion a year ago).

The “outsourcing” is good news for consultants -at least, in the short term. On the other hand, if Intel keeps shrinking, Accenture could take the blame for suggesting the idea. Regarding AI’s involvement, Intel could say, “We were just a little early.”

From Intel management to their marketing workersaccording to OregonLive:

“While we expect that lower costs will be a natural end result of this decision, the reality is that we need to change our ‘go to market’ model to be more responsive to what customers want. (…) We have received feedback that our decision-making is too slow, our programs are too complex, and our competitors are moving faster.”

Thought bubble #2: Will Intel’s outsourcing start a trend?

Finally, from an article on Tom’s Hardware on who will stay at Intel:

“The number of positions affected was not disclosed, but Intel confirmed changes will significantly alter team structures, with only ‘lean’ teams remaining. Workers will be told by July 11 whether they will remain with the company.”

“Among other things, the aim of the restructuring is to free up internal teams to focus on strategic, creative, and high-value projects, rather than routine functions.”

more: Just prior to Friday’s marketing layoff announcement, equity research analyst Nicolas Baratte took note on his Substack about Intel changes already afoot and made an argument for Intel strength due to its weakness. Hopium? –read the details.

The new RMN: AI solutions

Similar to how many scaled, B2C businesses have launched a retail media network (RMN) of their own, maybe the next step will be opening an AI business, too?

Late last week, Uber was eager to tell Forbes about Uber AI Solutions (was Uber Scaled Solutions) in the wake of Meta’s 49% stake in Scale AI.

Uber AI Solutions executive Megha Yethadka told Forbes that her company is expanding its AI services.Among the updates:

“…a new service that provides ready-to-use datasets, including audio, video, images and text, to customers training their own models.“
“The company will also license out the platforms it uses internally for managing data labeling projects and accessing its network of contracted clickworkers, making them available for clients to use.“
“Beyond just training models, Uber is now also offering clients tools to develop AI agents, which can take specific actions for users, like helping with customer support.”

Delivering stats, outcomes

A new Forrester study titled, “It’s Time to Get Serious About AI’s Business Value,” and sponsored by publicly-traded Zeta Global, says that using AI strategy in marketing organizations is still in its early stages.

Given Zeta’s sponsorship involvement, there should be no surprise to see the finding that an AI technology partner is important.

Nevertheless, there are stats from 300 respondents such as: “Marketing decision makers expect AI to deliver tangible outcomes, including increased ROI (64%), higher customer retention (63%), and revenue growth (58%), signaling strong confidence in AI as a strategic lever, even as execution lags intent.”

Read the press release (June 17), which includes a link to the study with a required signup.

Podcast: AI measurement FTW

Louise Owen, Chief Performance Officer at IPG’s UM agency, told the “Ad Tech Heroes” podcast that – when it comes to the use of AI on behalf of brands – the one thing she is really excited about is AI for measurement.

Ms. Owen attributed her enthusiasm to [24:25] “having a system to finally customize the measurement model, and measurement framework, to the brand by analyzing all the data points -[as opposed to] the agency, marketers or analytics teams trying to retrofit it into a [Media Mix Modeling solution].”

She wondered aloud, “How do we measure engagement? (…) Is it viewability? Is it re-visits? We have these conversations for the last 10 years, even more. I’m very happy that somebody else will be taking it on in this way in AI.“

Hear more on Apple Podcasts (30 minutes – published June 3).

more:Ms. Owen also lamented the fact that the CMO, CFO, CTO and CLO at brands today were not unified on how to use company data.

Podcast: Cloud impact in 5 years

On the “All In” podcast, the tech investor hosts were focused on AI transformation as well as winners and losers among the “Magnificent 7” over the next five years. Tesla and Google were winners – Apple, not so much, according to the group.

Thomas Laffont, co-founder of investment firm Coatue was an “All in” guest and suggested another way to invest IFit was possible [1:35:11]: “I think all four of us would agree that if we could synthetically own AWS, Azure and [Google Cloud Platform] – if I could somehow ‘automagically’ create an index of all three of those businesses, right, over the next five years – you wouldn’t need to own anything else.”

Hear more from “All In” on Apple Podcasts (June 21).

more: Jobs related to the cloud would increase over that time period was the group’s consensus. And the increase will be driven by “application dollars.”

Podcast: Media planning & AI

As part of Cannes Lions ad festival coverage last week, Marketecture’s Ari Paparo interviewed Oleg Korenfeld, CTO of CMI Media Group, a WPP agency, to talk about how his agency is using AI. Specifically in regard to media planning solutions, Korenfeld ran into accuracy issues with AI during development.

He explained [4:41], “To me, the biggest surprise was that in generative AI, (…) when it comes to crunching a lot of different (…) numbers-based datasets, it was not that accurate in returning consistent results.”

Korenfeld continued, “We could ask the prompt the same question multiple different ways or the same ways. It would come back sometimes with different answers. So from the standpoint of us giving this power into the hands of hundreds of planners, that became an issue.”

Hear how Korenfeld approached a solution on Apple Podcasts (June 19).

Prompt: How will advertiser targeting evolve in five years given AI?

Response fromxAI’s grok:

In five years, AI-driven advertiser targeting will likely be hyper-personalized, predictive, and privacy-conscious, shaped by advancements in machine learning, data processing, and regulatory shifts.

Here’s a breakdown:

Hyper-Personalization: AI will analyze vast datasets—real-time behavioral data, biometrics (with consent), and contextual signals like location or device usage—to create dynamic user profiles. Ads will be tailored to individual preferences, moods, and even predicted needs, moving beyond demographics to psychographics and intent. For example, generative AI could craft unique ad creatives for each user in real time, optimizing for engagement.
Predictive Modeling: AI will leverage advanced predictive algorithms to anticipate consumer behavior, identifying purchase intent before users explicitly express it. Techniques like reinforcement learning and neural networks will forecast trends based on historical data, social signals, and macroeconomic factors, enabling advertisers to target audiences at optimal moments…

AI opinion

- David Yovanno, CEO, impact[dot]com on LinkedIn: “We’re pouring a trillion US dollars into strategies this year that no longer work—while the real power has shifted to people, not platforms. AI is accelerating discovery, but it’s human trust that still drives decisions. This isn’t just a trend. It’s the next era of performance marketing.” (June 18)

(Yovanno was a former ad tech leader at Marin Software, Conversant and Gigya)

- Ben Trendaon LinkedIn: “If you’re wondering what will happen to Google as Perplexity and other AI providers gain ground, history can offer some perspective.” (June 20)

(Trenda was a former ad tech leader at Parsec, Rubicon Project and isocket)

Apple M&A

Without a definitive AI strategy given previous missteps with tools such as Siri, Apple may be on the verge of a big acquisition. Bloomberg broke the news on Friday (subscription) that both Apple and Meta have been looking at Perplexity.

In “The $14 Billion AI Google Killer,”Gizmodo reviews Perplexity, its chatbot product as well as potential suitors. (June 22) Read more on Gizmodo.

Rumors persist that Perplexity could replace Google search in the iPhone, too.

more analysis:“A look at Apple’s conservative approach to M&A, which may need to change to catch up in AI by acquiring a startup like Perplexity, Cohere, Sierra AI, or Mistral” – Bloomberg (subscription)

Cannes in review

“The Advertising Industry Parties in Cannes, With AI as Its New +1“(June 20) – “And research published Monday raised some red flags for agencies, most of which have been racing to build up their AI arsenal. Agency trade association the 4As and consulting firm Forrester found that although 75% of agencies are using the technology—up from 61% last year—75% of those using it are also funding it directly without passing on the costs to clients, up from 41% in 2024.” The Wall Street Journal (subscription)
“AI and sports were hot topics at the ad industry’s Cannes Lions bash. Just don’t mention ‘brand safety.’“ (June 20) – Business Insider
Madison Avenue Braces for the AI Apocalypse (June 18) – The Hollywood Reporter
Cannes: “AI is turning the ad business upside down“ (June 18) – The Economist (subscription)

More stuff

‘Stop hiring humans’ viral AI billboard campaign sparks outrage in NYC (June 21) – NY Post
Oakley to Debut New Meta AI Glasses Product Line in July (June 20) – Adweek
AI avatars as influencers: “It only took a duo 7 hours to rake in more than $7 million” (June 19) – CNBC
LinkedIn CEO says AI writing assistant is not as popular as expected – TechCrunch

Intel Outsources Marketing To AI, Accenture