CDP Institute

We noted yesterday that tools to help companies improve their visibility in AI-generated search results have quickly become too common to count. MCP (Model Context Protocol) connectors are also well on their way to becoming table stakes. We have recent announcements of MCP connectors from Informatica (along with many other new features) and Audiense, as well as MCPEval, a tool from Salesforce researchers that tests agent performance using MCP servers.

Here’s another on-trend item: Opera has announced an “agentic browser” for public release later this year. Like similar AI Agent from OpenAI and Copilot mode in Microsoft Edge, the new offering will let AI agents autonomously execute tasks through the browser that would otherwise require the user to push their own keyboard buttons. What could go wrong?

Digital analytics vendor (and owner of ActionIQ CDP) Contentsquare continued its expansion with acquisition of Loris AI, which analyzes AI-based and human customer support conversations. The system identifies the reasons behind customer calls, emerging issues, and churn signals. Price was not announced but, for context, let’s note that Loris AI had raised $19 million (per Crunchbase) and has 68 employees (per LinkedIn).

You might have thought the window to launch new B2B marketing automation platforms closed long ago, but when the founders of Conversion “dove into marketing and became experts” they decided otherwise. Their efforts have borne fruit in a user base of 4,000 companies over two years and, now, a $28 million Series A to expand their platform which features a drag-and-drop email builder, “magic blocks” for dynamic content, real-time CRM and enrichment synchs, no-code workflows, and dynamic audience segmentation “that just works.”

Systems to help companies manage their appearance in genAI query results have gone from new to normal virtually overnight. Last week we were intrigued enough to note an offering from Meltwater; today we have announcements of roughly similar products from Optimizely, Kalicube Pro, Scalenut, and Adthena. And those are just the ones who made enough noise to gain our attention.

“Predictive media intelligence” may sounds like an especially frothy buzzword, but social media management provider Sprout Social sees enough substance to pay $55 million in cash (plus performance-based earnouts) for NewsWhip, which provides it. The idea is to forecast which stories will be most socially engaging, positioning brands to take advantage before the stories reach — wait for it — “peak virality.”

Helping brands to understand how they are appearing in AI-generated search results is definitely A Big Trend. The latest offering is from GenAI Lens from social media and consumer intelligence platform Meltwater. It analyzes responses from AI tools relating to brand, product, or competitors, so companies can monitor brand visibility and protect against reputational risk.