Amazon's $15B beauty business proves AI search is the new storefront. Rufus users (300M in 2025) spend 80% more, signalling discovery has shifted to conversational AI queries. Brands not optimized for machine-readable content—ingredients, attributes, benefits—risk algorithmic invisibility before consideration begins. K-beauty's 340,736% search spike shows AI detects trends faster than traditional research. The imperative: optimise for AI comprehension or become beautifully ir

The integration of Google Earth into WPP Open marks a shift from digital-only signals to real-world intelligence in marketing. By incorporating geospatial data—such as mobility, weather, and location context—brands can move from reactive targeting to predictive demand sensing. This enables more dynamic audience strategies, real-time optimisation, and hyper-local execution. As access to such data becomes standardised, competitive advantage will shift from data ownership to orc

AI has levelled the playing field in advertising—tools are no longer the differentiator. The real edge now lies in data quality. The brands that win will be the ones feeding AI with accurate, privacy-first, and continuously refreshed data—not just automating faster, but making smarter decisions.

Retail Media : sponsored products to autonomous commerce decisioning At CES 2026, the most important story in advertising didn’t play out on a TV screen or a social feed. It unfolded in the retail aisles—physical and digital—where artificial intelligence quietly started running the shelves, the search results, and increasingly, the media plans. Retail media stopped behaving like a bolt‑on performance channel and started to look like core infrastructure for brand building, com