Is it still news when a vendor announces a generative AI offering? Probably not, but Zeta Global does make some exceptionally broad promises about using it for pretty much every marketing role from business analyst and media strategist to campaign manager and retail merchandiser. So far, their tool only delivers marketing strategy recommendations but the more exciting features are on their roadmap.

Klarna is best known as a Buy Now Pay Later service, but its presence on retailer websites opens other opportunities. One is a retail media network, which it has just enhanced with a self-service ad buying platform. The company has also added an AI-powered personalized shopping feed, prefilled listings for second-hand marketplaces, and customized storefronts for creators.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.