Ad fraud and brand safety will still be issues even when third-party cookies are just a fond memory. The online ad industry Is building support for buyers.json, a proposed standard from IAB Tech Lab that lets ad sellers identify ad buyers and shut down the bad guys. Related: content classification vendor GumGum is enhancing its brand safety ratings to include news site quality scores from NewsGuard.  

Another day, another AI survey.  This one by Morning Consult for IBM offers a good overview of AI adoption and obstacles.  Key findings: adoption stalled during the pandemic but is set to accelerate; 51% of companies have a unified view of their data; and data issues trail only expertise as adoption barriers.  Fun facts: marketers invest less in AI than most other departments and 77% of companies with over 1,000 employees draw on more than 50 systems for AI and analytics inputs.

Salesforce has agreed to buy Troops.ai, which helps sales teams use CRM data without actually opening their CRM system.  Modules include tools to update CRM records, send Slack notifications of changes in CRM data, and collaborate on deals using a hub within Slack.  Troops.ai will be part of Salesforce’s Slack division when the deal closes some time this summer.