Artificial intelligence may no longer be a guaranteed attention getter, but it still adds value. Adtech vendor Magnetic has launched an AI-driven media buying platform that it says completely automates campaign execution from audience selection to bidding and optimization. Audiences are drawn from Magnetic’s 260 million consumer profiles and the AI screens for fraud when placing bids. Magnetic says campaigns using the automated system have performed 2 to 10 times better than manual campaigns. Also, media buyers’ time is cut at least by half.

So if brands shouldn’t take policy positions, how about hiring influencers who probably have strong opinions of their own? Well, there’s certainly the risk of an influencer going off the rails but most followers presumably agree with them. This Nielsen study doesn’t address risk but did find that influencer marketing is better than TV commercials at generating engagement and improving brand metrics. TV is still best at building awareness.

Continuing its early fall shopping spree, Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire data protection and management company Own (it is also acquiring voice agent vendor Tenyx). In addition to analytics capabilities Own will enhance Salesforce’s existing data security tools. It has been a Salesforce AppExchange partner for over 10 years.