On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Meta right now: Why isn’t Wall Street satisfied with Meta’s seemingly incomprehensible growth? Where should Meta be focusing its AI efforts? And what happens when the company creates an AI version of CEO Mark Zuckerberg? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Emmy Liederman and Principal Analyst Max Willens. Listen everywhere, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.
AI can outperform doctors at some clinical tasks, but narratives overstating the tech’s advantages in patient care could erode physician trust.
Cloudflare ties AI overhaul to layoffs: Q1 revenues jump 34%, but a 20% workforce cut may test investor faith in an agentic model.
The company’s agentic commerce expansion underscores diverging adoption trends in the US and China.
AI product links go mainstream: Nearly 30% of users turn to AI for links, making discovery a cross-generational entry point.
Alphabet’s AI stack fuels ad economics: Anthropic’s $200 billion deal boosts Google Cloud, while TPUs and Gemini may lower ad costs.
AI Email A/B testing has an AI quality problem: Without rigor, AI crowns false winners and locks in flawed templates.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Google right now: If Google is winning at search, where is its ad machine quietly losing? Is its self-driving car unit, Waymo, a sleeping giant for the company? And are its new traditional TV-style “Stations” the right model for YouTube as it tries to take over the living room? And more. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Marisa Jones and Senior Forecasting Analyst Drew Spink. Listen everywhere, or watch on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
OpenAI widens ad footprint: International rollout aims to lure in advertisers, using scale to offset weak CTRs and steep revenue goals.
Willingness to pay for social media isn’t signaled by time spent: Lighter users overindex on interest in premium tiers, favoring control and utility over endless feeds.
Social feeds fuel, wallets drain: Prediction markets convert clicks into cash for a few but result in losses for many. The trend risks regulation and brand safety.
Disney plots a super app future: A unified Disney+ platform could fuse streaming, parks, and merch into one data-rich loop for ads and ecommerce.
Google Health app will use device data and medical records to deliver health insights, intensifying competition among consumer health wearables and AI tools.
28% of social media users worldwide say their top brand turn-off is posting unlabeled AI-generated content, the No. 1 grievance in Sprout Social's Q1 2026 Pulse Survey, beating engagement bait by 5 points.
AI-referred traffic has become a year-round structural feature for retailers of how consumers find and buy products.
AppLovin proves AI pivot is paying off: Q1 revenues grew 59% YoY. Its AI ad engine is driving higher mobile spend amid broader privacy headwinds.
Google boosts links in Overviews: New AI search features aim to recover clicks as zero-click queries sap traffic and ad performance.
Linear falls further behind as video ad spend grows at a mature rate, forcing TV players to compete on digital-native terms.
As more consumers turn to AI for health advice, embedded clinical tools aim to build trust where confidence remains low.