CDP Institute

Kin.art is a new tool that aims to protect artists’ portfolios hosted on its site primarily by using image segmentation to prevent AI from poaching complete images. It is one of a number of tools that have recently entered the arms race between AI data scraping and content protection on the creator’s side, such as the University of Chicago’s Nightshade. At time of writing, texts remain vulnerable.

At the end of February, LinkedIn will stop updating lookalike audience data. It appears that the audiences will still be available for use but will essentially be static, thus quickly declining in value. It’s not clear why LinkedIn has taken this decision, but it is recommending Predictive audiences and Audience Expansion as alternative options.

Pega, the AI-powered low code CRM platform has announced the launch of Gen AI Knowledge Buddy. Buddy will be able to draw on content scattered across many enterprise siloes to respond to natural language prompts. It will also be possible to create custom Buddies, specifically for marketing, sales and service use cases.

CDP Tealium has announced new solutions to promote agile, real-time customer engagement. Tealium Moments will collect, process and activate first-party and zero-party customer data in real time. Other new solutions include Tealium for AI — delivering consented data for use in AI models — and Tealium Consent Orchestration to streamline the collection of consented data.

Google’s Gemini large language model has been deployed for U.S. and U.K. advertisers to help them build better Search campaigns through a conversational workflow. A pilot with selected advertisers showed them able to improve campaign results with less effort, Google said. The news comes against a backdrop of concern that AI-powered conversational responses (the Search Generative Experience) will lead to fewer clicks on links to websites.

More than 50% of companies planning to launch loyalty programs in the next two years will base them on emotion rather than rationality, according to loyalty cloud Antavo based on a survey of 600 corporate respondents and analysis of more than 30.5 million member actions on the Antavo platform. Over 80% thought that their existing programs were helpful during the economic turndown. Nevertheless, nine out of ten expect to refurbish their programs in the coming year.

Advertisers delivering personalized ads to European Union audiences must take immediate steps to comply with Google’s EU User Consent Policy. In particular, to preserve campaign performance, app and web advertisers need to send verifiable consent signals back to Google. This will be necessary for advertisers to continue using measurement, ad personalization, and remarketing features.

Event and marketing engagement platform Banzai has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Boast. Boast captures video testimonials from customers that can then be shared across a range of channels to drive leads and conversions and build trust. Its customers include HubSpot, Whole Foods and The North Face.

Generative AI is creating a “tectonic shift” in tech go-to-market. AI categories gained 643 new products between Sept. 2022 and Sept. 2023, showing more than twice the growth of the second fastest-growing software market (design). Vendors in almost every category are adding AI use cases.

Some news travels slowly, so we just learned that Netherlands-based Spotler Group purchased the CrossEngage CDP in late December and Datatrics CDP in October. Both will become part of Spotler’s Squeezely division, based on the Squeezely CDP that Spotler purchased in 2021. Venture-backed Spotler has bought about a dozen email, CRM, and related companies since 2020.

SEO and content marketing platform Brightedge estimates that 84% of Google search queries will prompt generative AI responses, impacting over $40 billion per year in search ad spend.  Google’s Search Generative Experience is likely to reduce click-through to advertisers’ websites.  Said Brightedge, “businesses need to prepare themselves for a Search revolution.”

It’s easy to put AI at the top of the list of digital customer experience trends for this year, but in its new report, “2024 Digital Customer Experience Trends,” DXP Contentsquare lists other factors expected to influence the space. These include immersive experiences, digital trust and digital accessibility alongside more predictable candidates like personalization. This is based on a survey of more than 2700 business professionals in marketing, UX and product roles.