Lori Schafer in Ad Age: Emerging technology trends brands and agencies need to know about right now

Read the original article in Ad Age here.

Welcome back to Ad Age’s Emerging Tech roundup. This week, we’re looking at OpenAI’s decision to delay bringing ads to ChatGPT, Perplexity’s in-platform checkout tie-up with Abercrombie & Fitch, Albertsons’ new agentic commerce tool for grocery shopping and more. Got tips or stories? Reach out to asa.hiken@adage.com. And sign up for our Emerging Tech newsletter here.

Tech companies’ latest moves—what marketers need to know

OpenAI reportedly delays ads to focus on improving ChatGPT

The news: OpenAI is delaying its integration of ads in ChatGPT so that it can hunker down and improve the chatbot’s core capabilities, according to The Information. The move has to do with increased competitive pressure from Google, which last month launched its latest Gemini model that outperforms OpenAI’s model in key industry benchmarks. In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman directed his company to deprioritize ads in favor of improving ChatGPT’s personalization, speed, reliability and other core features.

Why it matters: Advertisers have been waiting quite a while for OpenAI to bring ads to ChatGPT, and recently there has been reason to believe that the integration would be imminent. For instance, OpenAI hired Fidji Simo, who helped build an ads platform at Instacart. OpenAI has also posted job listings for ad infrastructure engineers. However, brands may now have to wait even longer.

The delay follows a similar roadblock at Perplexity, which had been experimenting with ads in its chatbot but has since deprioritized those efforts.

Expert’s take: “OpenAI pausing its ad rollout is not a sign of hesitation,” said Yang Han, co-founder and chief technology officer of marketing platform StackAdapt. “With Google and others catching up, it’s logical for OpenAI to double down on core product fundamentals to reinforce its position before introducing new monetization models.”

Han added: “For brands, the pause is actually encouraging … building a robust ad platform is not to be taken lightly and must be tackled with the right focus at the right time. OpenAI must take the time to ensure that AI systems surface brands in a relevant manner when they align with the user’s intention.”

Perplexity’s agent can now buy from Abercrombie and Ashley Furniture within chat

The news: Perplexity enabled in-platform checkout for PayPal merchants, which include Abercrombie & Fitch and Ashley Furniture, and will expand to more brands soon. This means that consumers can now complete their Abercrombie shopping, as well as purchases from a handful of other retailers, within Perplexity.

Why it matters: AI platforms continue to grow as shopping destinations, and in-platform checkout is an important evolution. Perplexity, along with ChatGPT, had previously enabled in-platform checkout for Shopify retailers. But the inclusion of notable brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Ashley Furniture indicates Perplexity’s intention to bring bigger retailers into its fold. And that these brands signed on to the integration is a strong endorsement of AI-powered shopping.

Expert’s take: “[Perplexity’s] in-platform checkout move is another indicator of where AI search shopping is heading,” said Lori Schafer, CEO of AI enterprise platform Digital Wave Technology. “The discovery, consideration and purchasing processes are increasingly collapsing into a single, intelligent flow with the help of AI.”

Schafer added: “This shift puts a premium on trusted data, governed product information and clarity over execution so brands and retailers can properly influence outcomes and ensure that their brand promise remains at the heart of the shopping experience.”

How brands and agencies are using new technology

Albertsons launches AI agent for grocery shopping

Albertsons launched an agentic commerce tool that automates grocery shopping for customers and helps them find products across the websites of its numerous brands, including Jewel-Osco and Safeway. The AI shopping assistant can reorder frequent purchases, generate weekly meal plans, and add shopping list items to a cart, among other tasks. It currently exists as a web browsing tool but will eventually be integrated into Albertsons’ brands’ mobile apps. Over time, the assistant will take on more agentic duties, such as budget optimization.

Svedka to air first fully AI-generated national Super Bowl ad

Svedka is airing the first national Super Bowl ad fully produced by AI, Ad Age reported this week. The 30-second spot, which has yet to be revealed, will spotlight the vodka brand’s Fembot character. To make the ad, AI content studio Silverside utilized a host of generative AI platforms, including open-source models from ComfyUI and closed-source tools, such as Luma and Google’s Nano Banana and Veo. Previous AI efforts for the Super Bowl were shown mostly via regional placements, such as Holland America’s spot earlier this year.

Best Buy wins AI search during Cyber Week

Best Buy had the highest visibility among retailers in AI search on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to a report from AI marketing platform Bluefish. This visibility was in large part due to strong marketing around its top deals for categories such as computers, home appliances, phones and TVs, as well as its recognition by AI as a reliable source. Plus, articles such as this one from The New York Times’ Wirecutter may have helped the brand further bolster trust with AI platforms.

AI ad of the week

Valentino’s surreal and sloppy social ad

Luxury fashion house Valentino posted an AI-generated ad for a product that went heavy on the surrealism and the slop.

The Instagram video shows people crawling out of its DeVain handbag, before shifting into kaleidoscopic tangles of arms, hair and spontaneously generated bodies. The scenes are utterly incomprehensible, yet hard to look away from, as AI slop often is.

The strange creative direction was intentional, according to Valentino’s Instagram post. The brand teamed with visual artist Christopher Royal King, working under the moniker Total Emotional Awareness, whose style consists of purposeful AI-generated slop.

Unsurprisingly, plenty of viewers were not happy with the ad. In the comments section of Valentino’s post, users criticized the brand’s use of AI and what they deemed to be careless creative. The top comment, which had nearly 3,000 likes at the time of writing, said, “Call me a hater, but this feels cheap and not on brand.”