#ai-marketing

#ai-marketing

Introduced yesterday, Photoshoot uses Google's powerful generative AI tools, including Nano Banana, to create "professional" images of a product. Users simply click on 'Create a Product Photoshoot' and upload a photo of their product. It can be any photo, no matter how bad. "Don't worry about polish - we'll take care of it," Google says facetiously. From that user-generated image, Photoshoot will create various shot templates, including 'Studio', 'Floating', 'Ingredient', and 'In use'.

.Most e-commerce returns stem from guessing; personalized marketing builds shopper confidence.(photo credit: Courtesy of GetSelene.AI)By TAMI DEMSKY For ecommerce operators, returns have become a structural profit leak that hits in three ways: shipping and processing costs, inventory stuck in limbo, and the long-term damage to trust that lowers repeat purchase rates. The scale is significant. Retailers estimate that 15.8 percent of annual sales will be returned in 2025, totaling approximately $849.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns .

Nearly half of 15,639 adults from 16 countries surveyed by VML's research practice Sonar put the high cost of living in the top five problems facing society, while 86% said they find that people are more divided and unwilling to listen to one another. Nearly two-thirds say they sometimes struggle to find meaning in the day-to-day. But consumers are choosing to feel optimistic.

By the end of 2026, more than 80% of small businesses will be using artificial intelligence for marketing. That's the picture emerging from Constant Contact's Q1 2026 Small Business Now report, which surveyed over 1,500 SMB owners across five countries. The numbers tell the story: 54% of small businesses already use AI marketing tools, and another 27% plan to start this year. In a single calendar year, AI will go from a slight majority to near-universal adoption among small businesses.

With artificial intelligence reshaping nearly every aspect of how we work, reaching customers has become even more challenging. Search is increasingly less effective, people are overwhelmed by continuous noise on social media, and brands are struggling to find their voice. In 2025, AI upended traditional marketing strategies. It drastically reduced the effectiveness of search engine optimization, yet it also allowed savvy brands to reach new potential clients with well-honed, engaging content.

"Definitely within the last year, we've all from a marketing perspective have had to look at things a little bit differently and focus on being the best answer and not just the loudest bidder," said Sarah DeCiantis, chief marketing officer at United Wholesale Mortgage. "It's challenging all of us to think about things a little bit differently and from more of a consumer-first, consumer-why or consumer-intent perspective, than just focusing on the paid side of things."

In last year's report, the main disruption was inside marketing: established vendors vs. upstart AI-native tools, or the challenge of managing ever-expanding martech stacks. This year, the main disruption is outside of marketing's control: The consumer use of tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for research and buying decisions is turning everything upside down. Half of all consumers already use AI-powered search, putting as much as 50% of traditional search traffic at risk. That's an enormous power shift.

"There is the plan that targets the end buyer," said Van Pelt, the CMO of Plante Moran. "And there's now going to be the plan that targets the AI."

It's not just their creativity or hustle, it's their ability to embrace innovative tools that give them a competitive edge. Enter ChatGPT, the AI powerhouse that's quietly transforming the way elite marketers work. Imagine crafting hyper-targeted campaigns in minutes, uncovering hidden customer insights, or predicting market trends with uncanny accuracy. These aren't futuristic dreams, they're the everyday reality for marketers who know how to harness the full potential of AI.

The founders said Klipster is intended to replace the multiple tools agents and buyers typically use during the home-search process and characterized it as bringing the TikTok effect to real estate. Consumers can buy everything from sneakers to sofas in seconds on TikTok Shop and Instagram, so why should real estate feel stuck in the past? Dine said. Klipster takes that shift to the next level, giving agents and buyers a seamless way to tour, chat and apply in real time.

AI is no longer a niche in marketing; it is a must-have for powerful, measurable, and effective performance. There was a time when Artificial Intelligence looked like a futuristic project, mostly present in movies, cinemas, and books. Nowadays, AI is present in most use cases and industries around the world, making our lives easier. Speaking of use cases, AI is being widely used in marketing, opening the path to success in many industries.

If you haven't seen them yet, OpenAI's launched new ad campaign of short 30 seconds videos that embed AI into an idealised, warmly analog, version of the past. They're quite visually pleasing, to be honest, with a slight VHS grain and muted colours, and depict very relatable everyday scenarios like wanting to impress a girl or getting fitter. They lean hard on 80s soundtracks and cheesy movie vibes.

If you haven't seen them yet, OpenAI's launched new ad campaign of short 30 seconds videos that embed AI into an idealised, warmly analog, version of the past. They're quite visually pleasing, to be honest, with a slight VHS grain and muted colours, and depict very relatable everyday scenarios like wanting to impress a girl or getting fitter. They lean hard on 80s soundtracks and cheesy movie vibes.

So when he heard about Toast's AI Marketing Assistant , Kostas saw an opportunity to keep marketing on track without adding hours to his workload. For busy restaurant managers, tools like Toast's AI Marketing Assistant can have a huge impact. With one easy-to-use feature that removes guesswork, suggests data-driven campaigns, and tracks real results, restaurants can finally make marketing work for them, not against their schedule.

When shiny new tech meets reality I've always been a bit of a geek. I love trying out the latest technology, especially when it saves time or helps me create something better. I've also learned that shiny new tools don't always live up to the hype. Some take longer to master than the time they're supposed to save. Others are unreliable or rough around the edges until years of updates smooth them out. And sometimes, they never deliver on their promise at all.

Marketers' days are still filled with content creation, switching between far too many tools and balancing software and human partnerships, but AI has now entered the chat. Marketers charged with driving growth now spend a significant amount of time prompting, training, and cajoling artificial intelligence. There have been breakthroughs and AI is starting to fulfill on the long-awaited promise of turning loyal marketers into department heroes.

You should know that in this crazy, often upside-down word, no matter what, AI loves you. You should also know that the love AI offers is 100 percent a marketing strategy. As an inventor of one of the first AI platforms and a heavy user of the current crop, let me kick off this article by recklessly speculating that the makers of some of today's AI platforms want to be - in short - a single solution to all the world's problems.

The ad kicks off by trying to instill some nostalgia by telling us that Ted, our aimless everyman, was born in 1998, the 'year of the first Google search.' Fast forward to him as a kid, Googling 'james blunt music video.' The song 'You're Beautiful' plays as his life, in the form of Google queries, flashes forward until he's an unfortunate 26-year-old, who has a huge house to himself, soul-searching in our age of predatory dating apps and AI sexbots.

Mango's revenue from social media ads has quadrupled since implementing Smartly, an AI-driven performance marketing tool, which allows for quick toggle of different versions of ad creatives.

Healthline is fined $1.55 million for violating CCPA due to misuse of user data through ad targeting during streaming, highlighting consent issues and regulatory scrutiny.