CDP Institute

The web search tool Perplexity looks like it’s taking on Google with its latest release, a web browser named Comet. Comet claims to move “from browsing to thinking,” surfacing information and search results in response to natural language queries. Comet is available immediately to Perplexity Max subscribers; others can join a wait list.

Ad platform StackAdapt is introducing Ivy, a new AI-powered campaign assistant. Supporting the whole campaign lifecycle, Ivy aims at delivering real-time insights to support faster decision-making by marketers. Ivy is available to StackAdapt users in North America.

Those old billboards are now offering digital engagement and the IAB is showing how to measure performance in the fast-growing DOOH space. In addition to collecting traditional vehicular and pedestrian data, the IAB guide looks at AI camera- and sensor-based detection of viewer behavior. It also emphasizes the importance of cross-channel measurement with DOOH assessed alongside TV, digital, social, and mobile.

With CDP vendors increasing their workforces by 3.4% in six months, compared with an average of 0.2% each six months over the prior two years, the sector seems to be growing again, according to our own semi-annual industry update. There is much talk of composable CDPs but they still employ no more than 5% of the sector workforce. What is a clear trend is the acquisition of independent CDPs by vendors interested in adding a CDP to a larger system (usually an activation system).

Auxia, a platform that uses AI to orchestrate 1:1 personalized customer journeys, has unveiled an enhanced version of its AI Analyst Agent. Using a natural language interface, the agent provides marketing teams with high-speed insights into campaign performance. This is seen as solving the “black box” issue: AI-powered campaigns can be effective, but it was hard to know why without complex data analysis — now marketers can just ask it.

Just prior to its coming into effect, the Eighth Circuit has completely nullified the FTC’s Negative Option (or “click-to-cancel”) rule, a consumer-friendly set of restrictions that were to be imposed on businesses deploying such options as auto-renewals and free trial conversion offers. It’s thought unlikely that the FTC as currently constituted will take another look at the issue. Meanwhile, speaking of courts interfering with agencies, The Supreme Court has ruled that U.S. district courts are not bound to follow a federal agency’s interpretation of a statute.

I’d like DX tool vendor Easysend better if “Accept” were not the only consent option on their website. But we’ll still note that they’re upping their AI game with AI-powered digital journeys, fillable form creation, and workflow management. They’ve also announced an integration that will permit the launching of digital journeys from within Salesforce.

Bluecore’s alby, an AI shopping assistant, wants to be less of a chatbot and more of a “true shopping companion.” Enhancements include a human-like, conversational product advisor, in-context product recommendations and recollection of a shopper’s in-session behavior. A Playbooks feature will help brands train alby to handle specific shopping scenarios.

Vendors love to tout their latest AI achievements, but the actual state of AI deployment is considerably less rosy. A survey of 60,000 COOs by PYMNTS finds that autonomous operation is still restricted to a few repeatable, low-risk use cases. Even tasks like accessing information or creating summaries of emails and reports need the human touch in 50% to 100% of cases (depending on industry).

Customer data and audience management platform Omeda is announcing a new integration with Shopify. This means order, product, and customer data from Shopify being imported directly into Omeda. Users will be able to see Shopify transaction activity in real time, use Omeda Audience Search to view customer order history from a connected Shopify store and use Omeda Audience Builder to create target audiences based on Shopify trends and behavior.

CX platform CommBox joins those vendors thronging to bang another nail into the coffin of traditional websites with the launch of CommSite, a conversational AI platform. CommSite is aimed at transforming static websites into sites of interactive engagement with AI-driven customer experiences based on an understanding of the business’s products and services. The hope is that this kind of interaction will replace poor search experiences on websites and the associated abandonment rate.

Meta’s Threads is breathing down the neck of X when it comes to numbers of daily app users, but still lags behind on web users, according to data from Similarweb. Threads now has 115.1 million daily active app users, representing almost 130% YoY growth (X has 132 million daily users). Healthy competition for those ad dollars.