Edition #515
On how chat shifted from BTC to AI at thanksgiving, all the AI developments and a POV on next year for brands.
A week of OpenAI calling code red, us seeing maybe ads coming to their android app but oh no they’re being delayed to combat Gemini.
But really last week was the AI Thanksgiving, because the amount of traffic from AI to retailers websites went up 805%. And, next year we’ll see another leap up.
It’s like almost 8 years ago, where everyone was asking you about this bitcoin thing, and how to buy some (and hats of to those that did buy and did hold!). But how each of us gets value from AI is different. So we’re all learning more and different ways when we get together.
Benedict Evans shows in his AI eats the world, we’re still at low single digit percentages of daily use amongst the population. In other words, there’s still a lot of market to be had. And a lot of change yet to come.
I hadn’t realized, that the whole ‘buy via ChatGPT’ wasn’t actually live yet, when announced, I thought that meant fairly soon. But ChatGPT did have app integrations (i.e. with Target) to bring functionality in. But some users confused these as ads. So they have some fine tuning to do in their language with users. What it does teach us, is that users do expect ads to come.
One of my takes for next year is that we’ll see more brand discourse, on how AI is disrupting the buying cycle, the purchasing funnel – and what does that mean for marketers. GEO is just the tip of the iceberg.
This example of Parallels homepage, having a version for the machines, this is sage.
Happy Friday! Love to hear from you – which podcasts do you really rate in our space? Where can you have a good thoughtful discussion? Love to hear any personal recs. Even if slightly adjacent. I feel like everyone’s podcast listening behavior is often more diverse than I would have thought.
Notable stories this week
- Criteo CEO Michael Komasinki on agentic commerce, experiments with LLMs, and M&A rumors.
- WashingtonPost launches a ‘For You’ newsletter. Smart use of AI.
- Nvidia’s quite ad tech deals point to its next big move in AI.
- Will you trust ChatGPT once it has ads?
- Why your company needs a Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer.
- X Convert, is a pay only if the ads perform program.
- Inside Web Publishers quest to stamp out AI bots posing as humans.
- Avid Collective to launch new operating system for direct IO media partnerships.
- OpenAI slammed for app suggestions that looked like ads.
- CNN strikes prediction data partnership with Kalshi.
- BI launching a pilot program called Business Insider AI News Desk that I’ll use AI to “help publish quick news stories”.
- Google adds LLMs.txt to Search Developer Docs Portal.
- X money is coming.
- Taboola partners with LG to bring TV performance ads to open web.
- Announcing the Dynamic Content Ledger: A New Economic Model for the Open Web.
- iHeartRadio exec says company won’t ‘play AI music’.
- Brands rush to Reddit boosting ad spend and gaming AI search.
- Apple News loses CNN.
- Ghost passed $9m ARR.
- News publishers embrace vertical video with in-app “watch” tabs.
Deals/M&A
- Daily Mail owner strikes £500m deal for Telegraph.
- InMobi Founders buy back SoftBank stake in $250m deal.
- Eikona raises $5m to generate content to help companies retain their customers.
- Louder.ai launches $1.5m to scaled its crowdfunded digital advertising platform.
- Former MrBeast staffer building an AI startup to help creators make viral videos.
- xAI raising $15b at $230b valuation.
- Food52 is exploring a sale.
Campaign of the week
- Winners never stop learning. Never stop asking. Cristiano Ronaldo with Perplexity.
- Julius Baer with the FT – Make the most of.
- Red Bull backed I skied down Mount Everest.
- Holiday on Italian Time with Stanley Tucci.
Smartest commentary
- “For 30 years we’ve had infinite product, infinite media and infinite retail. Now we have a machine that sees all of it, and sees us. What does it recommend?” –Benedict Evans.
Datapoints of note
- Similarweb, referral traffic from ChatGPT for desktop users stay on site longer, view more pages, and are converting at 7%, a higher Tate than Google. 15 minutes vs 8, 12 p/vs vs 9 and 7% conversion rate to 5%.
- A ChatGPT referred session on Ridge.com converts at 12% and is worth over $5 per visitor.
- Adobe: Cyber Monday Hits Record $14.25 Billion in Online Spending with Over $1 Billion Driven by Buy Now Pay Later.
- Gemini was Google’s top trending search term in 2025.
- FeedMe’s audience grew over 140% YoY and revenue grew 280% YoY (in part due to advertising).
- AI traffic to US retail websites during Black Friday grew 805% compared to Black Friday 2024. According to Adobe, shoppers who landed on a U.S. retail site from an AI service were 38% more likely to convert to a sale, versus coming from a non-AI traffic source.
- Gemini 3’s launch boosted Gemini’s market share from 23% to 30%.
Events
- Final of the year – coming up December. Open to any newsletter readers.
That’s it for this week.
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