CDP Institute

Bloomreach, the AI-based omnichannel marketing platform, has announced a new partnership with Snowflake AI Data Cloud to connect customer data stored in Snowflake with Bloomreach’s personalization capabilities. A native integration will sync customer attributes and event data from Snowflake into Bloomreach for activation. It will also be possible to automate campaign triggers in Bloomreach using Snowflake events.

Not content with regular agentic AI, Walmart is placing its bets on four so-called “super agents” designed for shoppers, store employees, suppliers and developers. Sparky, already available to shoppers on the Walmart app, is a genAI tool ready with product recommendations and answers to questions. Associate will give employees a unified channel to interact with the company; Marty will onboard suppliers and manage the order process; Developer will be where future AI tools are built.

Google is all set to help you shop too, as its “try on” tool, debuted as an experiment in April, becomes generally available in the U.S. It allows shoppers to upload a selfie and try on the latest fashions without going near a store. Among other innovations, Google is also rolling out price alerts so that you can track when that hat, coat or scarf falls within your budget.

Google’s recent earnings report is not only bullish about AI Overviews, which boast two billion monthly users; it also says the new feature has not reduced traditional search. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said AI Overviews, if anything, encourage more searching. This is at loggerheads with a recent report from Pew Research that says users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results.

European customer engagement platform SALESmanago has acquired Thulium, an AI-powered, ecommerce-focused customer service solution. Thulium will add omnichannel customer support capabilities to SALESmanago’s B2B and B2C marketing automation offering. The acquisition should also almost double the size of SALESmanago’s customer base.

Ninety-seven percent of respondents to a survey by SocialTrait say AI-generated content should be labeled. Only 1% called for no such disclosure, so that’s not exactly close. Three percent of all respondents said they felt fully prepared to navigate the AI media world (of course, baby boomers are three times less confident than GenZ).

Australian data governance platform Marketsoft is launching IdentityPulse, an identity verification tool with global reach. IdentityPulse powers encrypted identity verification, across borders, without exposing or storing personally identifiable information. It is live across 21 markets including the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Spain, South East Asia and Australia with more to come.

The average enterprise marketing and marketing ops stack boasts some 62 tools, according to a survey of over 200 global CMOs and marketing leaders by LXA. As the figure suggests, enterprises are leaning towards a best-in-breed, composable stack for “agility and precision.” The report does find investment in CDPs; nevertheless, 61% still struggle to activate data effectively.

More than 70% of U.S. teens have experimented with AI-generated virtual friends or romantic partners, according to the nonprofit Common Sense Media. More than half of the over 1,000 teens surveyed use AI companions regularly, a third because they find it entertaining. This comes as Elon Musk’s Grok puts more AI companions on the market.

X is refusing to comply with the demands of French authorities relating to a probe into alleged manipulation of the platform’s algorithm and fraudulent extraction of users’ personal data. X says the probe is politically motivated and an attempt to interfere with free speech. It is far from clear that X’s suspicions allow it to refuse judicial requests.

The British Standards Institution has issued the first global standard for AI audits in a bid to tame the “wild west” of unregulated AI providers. The standard lays out criteria for AI certification rather than addressing the AI solutions themselves. The aim is to ensure both credibility and consistency across AI audit processes.

Reported data breaches increased by 11% in the first half of 2025, putting the year on course to be a record-breaker. With 72 million victims, the breach at student information system PowerSchool was the most damaging, but the overall number of victims has actually declined. No wonder 74% of businesses are planning to improve their cybersecurity, according to a report from Beazley.