There is a special corner of the marketing automation world for “multi-location” businesses, in which a central brand coordinates with (often fiercely) independent local dealers or franchise holders. SOCi lives in that corner with clients including Ford, Ace Hardware, and Stanley Steemer. They just raised $120 million in financing, which they’ll use to integrate with – you guessed it – OpenAI to help local partners make better, faster marketing decisions.

Can’t we just agree that all software will include generative AI-based assistants for most tasks, so I don’t have to report on each one? The latest announcement is from Microsoft Dynamics 365, whose “Copilot” will do cool things like help find customer segments in your CDP and create draft emails. Most features are in a limited preview mode.

Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation.  The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.