CDP Institute

Treasure Data has launched MCP Server powered by the open source connector Model Context Protocol. The Server will allow users to query customer data using natural language through its connection with AI assistants like Claude, GitHub Copilot Chat and Windsurf. The MCP Server bridge allows AI to access data in the Treasure Data platform directly and securely.

Over 60% of employees say AI has been significantly overhyped, including 49% of IT leaders, according to a survey of 2,500 respondents by cloud communications and IT platform GoTo. At the same time, 86% admit they’re not using it to its full potential, including 92% of Baby Boomers. Is AI on the brink of Gartner’s Trough of Disillusionment?

If you’ve made an impulse purchase on Instagram late and night and regretted it in the morning you’re not alone, according to WalletHub, even if 54% is not a huge majority of second-thinkers. Eighty percent would spend less if they deleted their social media accounts. Meanwhile, 86% of shoppers aged 18-44 say they miss being able to touch and handle real products (The Harris Poll).

In the latest twist of the AI and copyright violation saga, a California federal judge has ruled that Anthropic training its LLM Claude on copyrighted books was “fair use and “transformative” — “like any reader aspiring to be a writer.” The part of the lawsuit, brought by three authors, that focuses on Anthropic maintaining a central library of some 7 million pirated books, will proceed to trial. That claim could still result in damages.

Customer experience and reputation management platform Birdeye has unveiled a new, AI-powered social publishing agent that will help hyperlocal brands raise their profiles on social media. Social AI Publishing Agent will generate and automatically schedule brand-aligned content across channels. Users can configure post frequency and time, theme and channel selection. They can also choose whether to approve the content or allow it to be posted autonomously.

Nonprofit watchdog Media Matters has filed suit in D.C. district court to block FTC investigation of its reporting on Elon Musk’s X. Media Matters very plausibly sees the FTC scrutiny as a Trump administration and/or Elon Musk-inspired attack on its First Amendment rights. This follows the FTC blocking holding company Omnicom from refusing to place media buys on political or ideological grounds.

Klaviyo, the marketing automation platform and B2C CRM, has unveiled a series of platform enhancements for marketing’s AI and omnichannel environment. Omnichannel Campaign Builder (currently in beta; expected Q3) will help plan, launch, and measure campaigns across email, SMS/RCS, push and WhatsApp. Channel Affinity powered by Klaviyo AI will detect optimal channels and time for customer engagement.

In hopes of dodging threatened fines for giving preference to its own services, Google has unveiled a plan for vertical search services (VSS). VSS, selected on a non-discriminatory basis, would appear in a dedicated box at the top of the search results page matching Google’s own search in format and function, and featuring three direct links to services such as hotels, airlines or restaurants. Google is not conceding, of course, that there’s anything wrong with what it currently does.

Threatening to sue companies that don’t buy ads from you may sound like a protection racket, but it seems to be working for Elon Musk. The Republican-run Federal Trade Commission has expanded the opportunities by requiring that media buying agency Omnicom, as a condition of acquiring IPG, agree not to avoid placing ads based publishers’ “political or ideological viewpoints” or the viewpoints of content they publish, or rely on standard brand-safety tools such as exclusion lists.

A federal moratorium on state regulation of AI systems moved closer to passage last week when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it could be included in the Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill. The bill needs only a majority vote to pass, although it could still be modified. If the risks aren’t clear: Anthropic released a new report finding that most major AI will resort to blackmail to save themselves.

Synthetic audiences — AI agents trained to simulate the response of consumers to advertising programs — are one of the more benign AI applications. Evidenza, which creates such things, just landed a partnership with Dentsu to use its tools. They are still an exception: survey research firm Cint found just 2% of respondents are open to using it.

CDP Hightouch has announced that it has been accepted into the Mach Alliance, a global non-profit that certifies vendors who deliver open technologies and solutions. Hightouch says it aligns with a number of key Mach Alliance principles. These include composability, openness and interoperability, integration with a broader eco-system through APIs and incrementality (rather than “big bang” migration).