logo
MarTech+ #2: Decoding AI shifts in search, creativity, and marketing economics

MarTech+ #2: Decoding AI shifts in search, creativity, and marketing economics

Time of India18-06-2025
Dear Reader,
AI isn't coming for your job, it's already rewiring it.
From reshaping how brands show up in search to challenging the soul of creative work, AI is shifting marketing's centre of gravity. The questions marketers must now answer aren't just tactical (Should we use AI?), they're existential (What does creativity mean in an AI-first world?).
In this week's MarTech+ newsletter, we're decoding three big shifts where tech isn't just a tool, it's a tension. A new kind of search. A creative conundrum. And an economic curveball.
Let's make sense of it all.
Is GEO the new SEO?
As AI-powered search grows up, it's eating into attention - and budgets. Our feature explores how
Generative Engine Optimisation
(GEO) is nudging brands to rethink traditional SEO strategies.
Read how marketers are navigating the GEO shift
Why you should care: Because where your brand appears and how is no longer a matter of keywords but conversations. GEO might not replace SEO but it's definitely rewriting the rules.
When AI ate my copywriter
Is AI the end of creativity or its latest muse? This sharp take confronts the discomfort many marketers feel as AI takes on 'right-brain' work, from writing copy to building concepts.
Read the creative conflict
Why you should care: Because rejecting AI won't protect your craft but learning to dance with it might. As Sam Altman put it: AI can do 95% of marketing tasks. The remaining 5%? That's your creativity.
The deflationary economics of AI
Infinite content. Zero marginal cost. Welcome to the era of
AI-led marketing
. This piece unpacks the deflationary pressure AI places on value creation, and why marketers must double down on what can't be scaled, yet.
Explore the economic shift
Why you should care: Because efficiency is cheap. Attention isn't. As AI floods the field with output, the intangibles, brand, trust, emotion, will define what cuts through.
Quote of the Week Resisting AI to save your job is the surest way of losing it.Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World
Over to You
What's your MarTech dharam sankat? Are you building workflows around AI or still figuring out how to brief it?
Tag @ETBrandEquity on LinkedIn with your take, we're listening.
Stories you might have missed
Adobe brings AI-image generation app to phones, adds partners
98% of Indian consumers buy more with real-time personalisation: Report
Meta brings ads to WhatsApp
The AI inflection point: Why every CXO must act now
Reddit unveils AI-driven ad tools to help brands tap into user discussions
About Us
Each week, we unpack the technology trends shaping marketing, without the jargon. Expect sharp insights, real-world brand moves, and smart signals to help you stay ahead. If you think technology is transforming marketing and want to understand its impact at the consumer level, this newsletter is built for you.
Stay tuned for the next edition of the MarTech+ newsletter, rolling out every Wednesday.
- Team ETBrandEquity
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

AI is listening to your meetings. Watch what you say.
AI is listening to your meetings. Watch what you say.

Mint

time31 minutes ago

  • Mint

AI is listening to your meetings. Watch what you say.

Tiffany N. Lewis was worried she was being duped. A potential client had reached out about working with her digital marketing agency on a pro-bono basis, but his message went straight to spam. Then he blew off several scheduled meetings with Lewis. Was he a fraud? When the client asked her to meet again, Lewis added him to a call she was already on with her assistant. Before he joined, Lewis joked: 'Is he, like, a Nigerian prince?" Despite the scammy red flags, he turned out to be a legitimate person. Lewis was relieved—until she realized her new client had received a full summary of the call in his inbox, including her 'Nigerian prince" remark. She was running an AI notetaker the whole time. 'I was very lucky that the person I was working with had a good sense of humor," said Lewis, who lives in Stow, Ohio. AI is listening in on your work meetings—including the parts you don't want anyone to hear. Before attendees file in, or when one colleague asks another to hang back to discuss a separate matter, AI notetakers may pick up on the small talk and private discussions meant for a select audience, then blast direct quotes to everyone in the meeting. Nicole and Tim Delger run a Nashville branding firm called Studio Delger. After one business meeting late last year, the couple received a summary from Zoom's AI assistant that was decidedly not work-related. Zoom AI documented a private conversion between Nicole and Tim Delger, who run a branding firm. 'Studio discussed the possibility of getting sandwich ingredients from Publix," one bullet point said. Another key takeaway: 'Don't like soup." Their client never showed up to the meeting, and the studio had spent the time talking about what to make for lunch. 'That was the first time it had caught a private conversation," Nicole said. Fortunately the summary didn't go to the client. Andrea Serra, an account-strategy coordinator at a communications agency, has experienced this firsthand. In one transcript, an AI notetaker caught her describing her frustration with the new Whole Foods in her neighborhood; though she'd set her preferences so that notes go to the host only, she shared the email with two other people on the call for laughs. Another meeting recap featured bullets of her discussing almost burning down her kitchen trying to make a new sweet potato recipe. 'It'll be like all of our action steps, all the strategy we discussed during the meeting, and then randomly in there, something about our personal lives that we had talked about last week and wanted to catch up on this week as well," Serra said. 'Just one little sentence as a surprise in there." Though her boss, Debora Lima, had hoped the AI summaries would reduce work for the team, she's still waiting for the technology to improve. Meanwhile, she and her colleagues have embraced them as comic relief. As she was looking over notes from a meeting she recently hosted, she noticed the phrase 'hey cutie pie" in the transcript. Lima said there should be a companywide Slack channel to archive the funniest examples. Notetakers can do a variety of tasks from recording and transcribing calls, generating action items for teams and recapping what's already been said to anyone joining late. Many signal to attendees that a meeting is being recorded and transcribed. A demo of what Google's AI notetaker looks like during a meeting. Zoom's AI Companion, which generated more than 7.2 million meeting summaries by the end of January 2024, flashes a dialogue box at the top of the screen to let participants know when it's turned on. As long as it's active, an AI Companion diamond icon continues to flash in the top right hand corner of the meeting. People can also ask the host to stop using the AI companion. 'We want users to feel they're really in control," said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom. Google's AI notetaker functions similarly, where only meeting hosts or employees of the host organization have the ability to turn it on or off. When it's on, people will see a notification and hear an audio cue, and a blue pencil icon will appear in the top right corner. 'We put a lot of care into making sure meeting participants know exactly if and when AI tools in Meet are being used," said Awaneesh Verma, senior director of product management and real time communications at Google Workspace. The automatic summaries can be informative and timesaving, or unintentionally hilarious. Kelsey Ogletree, chief executive of a tech platform for media professionals, received a Zoom AI summary titled 'Monty's Messy Morning," describing how her dog, Monty, ate leftover food on the counter and threw up in the house. It went on to say that 'Kelsey was disgusted by the incident and considered washing Monty's head with Dawn dish soap." It was a conversation between her and her husband, who's also her business partner. (And Monty is a cat, not a dog.) John Barentine, an astronomer and consultant in Tucson, Ariz., doesn't use AI notetakers but has been on plenty of calls with them. He was most recently surprised by the AI summary of one call that was sent to him, summarizing the small talk at the beginning of the call. It said: 'John Barentine humorously notes that there is a lethal dose of water for humans." Barentine said he was discussing the devastating Texas floods with a client; the AI had completely misunderstood the context. He says he's now more likely to use the private chat feature in meetings instead of saying something aloud while AI is listening. 'At least I know that if I make a remark to somebody privately for now, that's not being swept up by the AI notetaker," he said. Write to Ann-Marie Alcántara at

Apple Is Taking On ChatGPT AI Search With New ‘Answers' Team: What We Know
Apple Is Taking On ChatGPT AI Search With New ‘Answers' Team: What We Know

News18

timean hour ago

  • News18

Apple Is Taking On ChatGPT AI Search With New ‘Answers' Team: What We Know

Last Updated: Apple's AI push is going to get fiercer and the new Answers team will be hoping to compete with the best in the market. Apple is going to make some big moves in the AI arena to get started and the company is even ready to spend big on making it happen. However, new reports say Apple is working on its own ChatGPT search-like feature with the help of a new team. The company has set up an internal team codenamed 'Answers, Knowledge and Information' (AKI) that is being entrusted with developing an AI-powered search platform. As the name suggests, AKI will be using the web to crawl for responses and give answers to GK-based queries from the users. The Bloomberg report suggests this could be Apple's first real fist at making in-house AI chatbot. Working For The Future The AKI team, as given in the report, is going to help shape the AI infrastructure for search at Apple that will eventually offer its capabilities to Siri, Spotlight and even Safari, it adds. The company has relied on external AI support to offer features to iPhone users but it seems Apple knows that a strong AI future is relying on in-house backend architecture that not only delivers quality but also ensures privacy of the users. Can the new team help Apple find the answers? We'll know soon. We're hearing about the new AI search tool from Apple around the same time when the company is planning for some big moves in the market. Tim Cook has been trying his best to internally keep the motivation going, and recently made a rousing speech in front of the employees, asking them to put most of their eggs in the AI basket. 'AI is one of the most profound technologies of our lifetime. And I think it will affect all devices in a significant way," he was quoted saying in the meeting by Bloomberg. The company has even considered buying Perplexity and others might feature on its list now. Apple clearly has its work cut out to challenge OpenAI and Google, as the former is already close to releasing ChatGPT v5.0 in the market, which has Sam Altman scared about the power and future of the technology with its fast advancement and no oversight in place. view comments First Published: August 05, 2025, 07:34 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Too much ChatGPT? OpenAI will now remind users to take a break during long conversations
Too much ChatGPT? OpenAI will now remind users to take a break during long conversations

Mint

timean hour ago

  • Mint

Too much ChatGPT? OpenAI will now remind users to take a break during long conversations

OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT will now feature a gentle reminder for users to take a break if they are in a long conversation with the chatbot. The new feature comes as part of the initiative by the company to encourage healthy behaviour with its popular chatbot. 'Instead of measuring success by time spent or clicks, we care more about whether you leave the product having done what you came for.' OpenAI said in a blogpost announcing the gentle reminders feature. A sample reminder shown by OpenAI states the message, 'Just checking in. You've been chatting for a while is this a good time for a break.' Users will then have two options to click on, either to keep chatting or take a break by clicking on 'This was helpful'. OpenAI says it will keep tuning when and how gentle reminders show up in order to make sure they 'feel natural and helpful.' Apart from the gentle reminders feature, OpenAI also stated it will soon roll out a new behaviour for 'high-stakes personal decisions' where ChatGPT will help users think through their big decisions in life by asking questions and weighing pros and cons instead of giving a straight answer. The new features to ChatGPT come soon after a report by The New York Times in June revealed that the chatbot's tendency to agree with people, provide flattery and engage in 'hallucinations' (making stuff up), led users to developing delusional beliefs. The company itself had confirmed in April that its chatbot had become overly agreeable and sycophantic after an update to GPT-4o. This made the popular AI companion align with the opinions of users, even the ones that were factually incorrect or harmful. While OpenAI had pulled back that update, the new effort now seems like a way to encourage healthier habits for the users. Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also been teasing the company's latest GPT-5 language model. The new model is expected to be released very soon and Altman had earlier revealed that it will be the first ever OpenAI model without a model picker, meaning users won't need to switch between a reasoning model and a GPT model and the AI system would be able to make that decision on its own.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store