In an article titled, “ChatGPT’s Ad Play: A Direct Threat to Google’s Search Goldmine,” Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney told Investors Business Daily (IBD) yesterday that OpenAI would eventually turn to advertising to consumers.

According to IBD, Mr. Mahaney said:

“The opportunity is certainly there, for the same basic reason that Google has been able to so effectively monetize Search usage — it and ChatGPT both have extraordinary insight and access into individual intent and interests,” he said in an email. “And marketers will pay to access that intent.”

IBD also quoted RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg who said that ads were on their way. Quoting Mr. Hedberg, IBD reports: “While LLM providers are focused on the subscription model in this early phase of adoption, ads are coming eventually with the caveat they may look very different from legacy search ads with more of an emphasis on directly adding value to what a user was truly seeking and not biasing results towards sponsored placements.”

Read the article – a good summary of what Wall Street analysts are thinking when it comes to chatbots, ads and the evolution of Search.

Podcast: Commerce at the limit

In his latest podcast, Mobile Dev Memo analyst and investor Eric Seufert explores the limit of how much advertising could grow with automation.

He intros his episode as follows:

“I argue that the total automation of digital advertising through AI enablement presents a radically economically expansive opportunity that, while certainly disruptive for certain segments of the digital advertising ecosystem, will ultimately confer significant benefits on consumers, advertisers, and advertising platforms alike..”

Hear more on the Apple Podcasts app. (July 2)

Also see an intro on Mobile Dev Memo.

Unpredictable impact

On the impact of AI on the retail media space, Criteo’s MD of Retail Media Stephen Howard-Sarin is optimistic about the consumer and brands, alike, according to an interview in MartechSeries.

Nevertheless, Mr. Howard-Sarin warns, “Any judgment on the impact of AI will age worse than fish. Things are moving really quickly, and value is popping up in unexpected places as smart agencies and brands experiment. Criteo is doing a little of that, too….”

He divulges on LinkedIn, “I may have had a little too much fun in this interview.”

Read it anyway.

Spanfeller laments AI ‘shake up’

G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced yesterday that his media holding company was down to one property (Root) after selling off publishers such as The Onion, Lifehacker and Gizmodo among others.

He writes on LinkedIn:

“After nearly six years, the final chapter for G/O Media is being written. With Kotaku now sold to Keleops — following earlier sales of Quartz and The Inventory — we’re down to just The Root, an amazing brand that we’re still working to place with the right home. It’s the right moment to look back at why we chose this path, how it unfolded, and what we’ve learned along the way. We worked hard to get strong outcomes for our shareholders and our teams. Over 70% of our editorial staff received job offers as part of the divestitures — a number I suspect is rare in this business.”

“The media landscape has changed dramatically since we started. Walled gardens, AdTech chaos, and tough union dynamics have all played a role. And now AI is here to shake things up even more.”

And then, Spanfeller links to a tome on the G/O Media homepage titled “G/O Media Epilogue .” Read it.

More: G/O Media timeline of sales (July 2) – Axios

Google reflects on Cannes

The “Think With Google” blog published 3 reflections on the recent Cannes Lions ad festival. All are mostly focused on the marketer – the people with the budget.

Leading the list:

“AI is now at the core of creativity. Being human is a differentiator AI isn’t the headline anymore; it’s the infrastructure. At Cannes, this theme was front and center, in conversations around speed, interactivity, and storytelling at scale. ‘The line between creativity and technology is disappearing,’ observed Tata Motors CMO Shubhranshu Singh. ‘Today’s most effective campaigns are not just emotionally resonant, they’re also powered by data, algorithms, and automation.’”

Read the other two.

Wen ads?

Pushing the subscription limits – at least with consumers – AI chatbot provider Perplexity announced a new “Perplexity Max” plan for $200/month.

In addition to providing unlimited use of the company’s “Labs” product, users will also get first dibs on new products and features such as Comet, the company’s “new browser built from the ground up to be a powerful thought partner for everything you do on the web. We’ll also be launching even more premium data sources and benefits from leading brands exclusive to Max subscribers.”

The company also touts inclusion of AI models like OpenAI o3-pro and Claude Opus 4 in its Max product.

Prompt: By 2030, how will AI transform the Connected TV advertising market?

Response from Perplexity.ai:

By 2030, AI will fundamentally transform the Connected TV (CTV) advertising market, making it more data-driven, automated, and personalized than ever before. Here’s how this transformation is expected to unfold, based on current trends and expert projections:

1. Hyper-Personalization and Audience Targeting

AI will enable advertisers to deliver highly personalized ads by analyzing vast amounts of viewer data—including viewing habits, behavioral patterns, and contextual signals—in real time. This allows for precise audience segmentation, ensuring that viewers receive ads relevant to their interests, location, and even household makeup.
Smart content discovery and intelligent recommendation engines will become standard, helping viewers find content and ads tailored to their preferences, thus increasing engagement and ad effectiveness.

2. Real-Time Optimization and Automated Campaign Management

Autonomous AI agents will take over key tasks such as bidding, creative optimization…

Consulting on AI agents

Former Google and Facebook exec, now stealth startup founder (and pundit), Rob Leathern isn’t believing the reports from consultants on the transformative nature of AI and agents quite yet.

Teasing his Substack post on the topic, Mr. Leathern wrote on LinkedIn yesterday:

“Both [the BCG and McKinsey articles] are high-level marketing pieces that oversell the current state of AI agents. A truly excellent explainer would spend more time on what agents can’t do reliably today, common failure patterns, and the significant technical and organizational challenges most companies face in implementation…”

Read the BCG article from May.

Read the McKinsey article from March.

Podcast: Agentic weddings

In an entertaining podcast with David’s Bridal, AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff talks to a former PayPay marketing executive, Elina Vilk, the company’s president and chief business officer. She emphasized that the promise of agents and AI was merging with the wedding planning process today.

Ms. Vilk discussed a new, free AI tool launched by her company to help brides plan their wedding. This would seem to be bad news for wedding planners – but she said otherwise:

“[The tool] doesn’t take a wedding planner’s job because it won’t deal with your mother-in-law and it won’t deal with the venue. (…) The next gen of this, we’re going to create a planner version so that they can interface and curate more. (…) [When a wedding planner version comes out,] this will actually allow planners to create better contracts for themselves, where they can actually do a whole end-to-end thing because they can do all the legwork for [brides].”

Hear more on Apple Podcasts app. (July 1)

More stuff

Microsoft laying off about 9,000 employees in latest round of cuts (July 2) – CNBC
How Do You Teach Computer Science in the A.I. Era? – quote: “Universities across the country are scrambling to understand the implications of generative A.I.’s transformation of technology.” (July 2) – The New York Times (subscription)
How Future is using its own AI engine to turn deeper engagement into ad dollars (July 2) – Digiday (subscription)

OpenAI’s Future Includes Ads Says Wall Street