The trend: Consumer perception of healthcare providers worsens when they find out the doctor uses AI, according to research recently published in JAMA Network. Our take: Healthcare is inherently emotional, and many consumers might be under the impression that their doctor is using AI as a shortcut. In reality, the opposite might be true. Physicians use AI to make them more efficient and free them up to spend extra time with patients. But language and details matter, and providers and marketers must ensure this is reflected in their messaging.

The news: Google is looking to sign licensing deals with more publishers, per Bloomberg, to improve its products and address the threat of dwindling AI training resources. It’s launching a pilot project to partner with about 20 national news outlets, which could help ease tensions between Big Tech players and the publishers that are demanding compensation for their content. Our take: Google’s increased effort to license more media content shows its gearing up for a future in which AI-generated summaries dominate search. As this shift occurs, brands will need to focus on generative engine optimization (GEO) to get their content into AI summaries, such as by including concise takeaways that LLMs can surface. Preparing for a world where more premium content is behind paywalls could also include deeper publisher partnerships.

Conversational analytics tools like Adverity’s Data Conversations are helping marketers bypass traditional data bottlenecks by enabling instant, plain-language access to performance insights. No longer dependent on engineers or BI teams, marketers can now ask natural-language questions and receive real-time analytics—reducing inefficiencies and encouraging deeper experimentation. This shift coincides with growing investment in AI and analytics, especially amid economic pressure to optimize spending. With autonomous agents and AI assistants poised to automate reporting and flag anomalies, the landscape is moving toward faster, more agile decision-making—so long as teams implement governance, training, and clear frameworks for responsible adoption.

The news: Salesforce’s Agentforce has handled over 1 million AI support chats from its customers in the past nine months, resolving 84% of queries and cutting customer support case volume by 5%. The impact on business? About 500 Salesforce support engineers were reassigned to higher-value service roles, per VentureBeat. Our take: For brands, the lesson is clear—automation alone won’t win loyalty. Build or refine AI that reflects a brand’s voice and emotional intelligence. Lean on clarity, empathy, and easy handoffs to humans to reinforce user experience, which in turns drives loyalty and satisfaction.

The news: OpenAI’s new “ChatGPT agent”, which started rolling out last week, goes beyond chatbots by acting as an autonomous “digital worker,” per TechCrunch. Available to OpenAI’s Pro, Team, and Enterprise subscribers for $200/month per user, the agent operates software, browses websites, fills out forms, and creates documents within a secure sandbox, potentially rivaling tools like Microsoft Office. Our take: As AI companies combine their models into autonomous tools, marketers, researchers, and pilots should test agents on repeatable, low-risk tasks like generating decks or summarizing reports. Exercise human oversight, track time saved, and evaluate ROI and output quality against legacy tools like Microsoft Office to determine if agents are a viable replacement.

AI is rapidly becoming foundational to marketing strategy, with 63% of teams now using it for planning—up from 28% in 2023, per Boathouse. Customer service and analytics have seen similarly sharp increases, supported by rising investments in CRM systems, CDPs, and automation tools, according to Twilio. As AI’s footprint grows, marketers are reallocating spend toward digital formats like social, CTV, and video, where AI can optimize targeting and performance. This trend reflects a broader shift: the most successful marketers are embedding AI into the fabric of their decision-making, not treating it as a plug-in. The gap is widening fast.

The news: Perplexity is in talks with smartphone manufacturers to make its new Comet browser a default app on smartphones to drive adoption and user engagement, per Reuters. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said it aims to reach “tens to hundreds of millions” of users in 2026 after a desktop rollout to a “few hundred thousand” testers, a plan that could be aided by expanding Comet access on phones. Our take: While Comet itself is a browser, its integrations with Perplexity’s AI could streamline access to mobile AI search tools, changing mobile search behavior and forcing marketers to rethink traditional search marketing practices. Getting Comet onto phones could also supercharge Perplexity’s data on user behavior and boost its ability to improve its AI search tools.