Meta’s Q2 2025 earnings showed the company thriving despite softening engagement in mature markets. Revenue surged 22% YoY to $47.52 billion, largely driven by better ad pricing, AI-optimized performance tools, and growing monetization via WhatsApp. Although user growth was modest, Meta demonstrated strong pricing power—especially in North America and Europe—and continues to see big potential in Asia-Pacific. Operating margins remained healthy at 43%, even with record AI investments. As Meta extracts more value per user and expands monetization across platforms, its performance proves that engagement isn’t the only growth lever—it’s how well each session gets monetized.
Microsoft reported $76.4 billion in Q2 revenue, up 18% YoY, as cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and embedded AI drove strong performance. Microsoft Cloud grew 27% to $46.7 billion, and Azure's annual run rate surpassed $75 billion, overtaking Google Cloud. Enterprise adoption of tools like Dynamics 365 continues to rise, reinforcing Microsoft’s role in AI-powered operations. Following the report, Microsoft’s market cap crossed $4 trillion. The company plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while showing capital discipline. Microsoft is positioning itself as the foundational enterprise platform for the AI era.
The news: Microsoft’s latest earnings reflect more than just a Wall Street beat—they signal a deeper shift in how enterprises are adopting productivity software, cloud infrastructure, and embedded AI to run their businesses. It reported $76.4 billion in revenues, up 18% YoY. Microsoft Cloud made up $46.7 billion of those revenues, up 27% YoY, as cloud demand remains strong across all workloads. Our take: With strong recurring revenue, expanding AI use cases, and leadership across productivity and cloud, Microsoft is increasingly well-insulated from macroeconomic headwinds and well positioned to shape the future of work and software.
The news: More than half (51%) of customer service journeys start on search engines and third-party platforms like Google, YouTube, Reddit, and ChatGPT—rather than company websites—prompting businesses to meet customers where they are, per a recent Gartner survey. Our take: Brands need to research and identify the platforms their customers rely on and establish fast, responsive service on those channels. The goal isn’t to pull users back to official websites—it’s to meet them where they already are, with the answers they need, when they need them. Using generative engine optimization (GEO) best practices to boost customer service answers in genAI outputs could help younger consumers get digestible, fast answers in their preferred channel.
50% of US smartphone owners said they’re not willing to pay extra for AI features on their phones, up from 45% in September 2024, according to a May CNET survey.
The situation: Amazon and Google, once bound by a symbiotic relationship in which Amazon funneled ad dollars into Google Search and Google indexed Amazon’s pages, are now veering toward open conflict as generative AI (genAI) blurs the lines between ecommerce, advertising, and search. Both companies are determined to own the entire journey from discovery to checkout, and that ambition is unraveling what remains of their former détente. Our take: Amazon and Google are racing to define where and how consumers discover and buy products in the genAI era. If Amazon succeeds in walling off its marketplace data and steering shoppers to its own AI interfaces, the retail landscape could splinter into walled gardens where tech giants cooperate far less. That winner‑takes‑all dynamic might suit the victors, but it risks degrading the overall consumer experience with fewer choices and less transparent pricing. At the same time, it could lead brands and retailers into a margin‑sapping race to the bottom inside whichever closed ecosystem proves most dominant.
The news: OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5, a model that will combine traditional GPT capabilities with o3-series reasoning—marking a major leap in performance and model simplification. Our take: GPT-5 could streamline content creation, search, and CX workflows, leading to renewed industry adoption and customization. Enterprise customers should test GPT-5’s API early. Align adoption with marketing workflows and consider consolidating tools into a single platform to reduce costs. Early movers will shape the future of customer engagement.
The news: Amazon will pay The New York Times between $20 million and $25 million annually in a multiyear content licensing agreement that was announced in May. This amount, close to 1% of the Times’ total annual revenue, is one of the largest disclosed payments for news content licensing for generative AI (genAI) training. Our take: The Amazon–Times deal underscores the growing value of premium journalism in the AI era, setting a precedent for how tech companies can ethically license high-quality content. For advertisers, this signals a shift toward AI-powered platforms integrating trusted media brands, which could enhance user engagement and credibility.
The news: Cyata launched a platform that detects, authenticates, and governs “agentic identities” as adoption of autonomous AI agents is exploding—96% of IT leaders will increase agent use in 2025, Cloudera reports. Digital agents integrating into the workforce pose new risks—ones traditional identity and access management (IAM) tools are not equipped to handle, per VentureBeat. Our take: Managing mixed human and agentic workers won’t be optional for long—it will become a baseline requirement as AI agents move from edge cases to everyday tools. Companies that delay could risk operational blind spots, compliance gaps, and uncontrolled AI autonomy.
The news: Demand for AI-skilled workers is exploding as workplace adoption of generative AI (genAI) accelerates, creating a make-or-break moment for B2B companies trying to compete in a tech-driven landscape. The number of job postings for employees with agentic AI skills spiked 985% between 2023 and 2024, per McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook report. Postings for workers with general AI skills also rose, but at a much smaller 35% rate. Our take: CMOs should work closely with HR to identify high-potential marketing team members for upskilling programs to tackle tasks like generating and reviewing AI copy and pulling insights out of AI-powered campaign analytics.
OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 in early August. The newest and most powerful model combines traditional GPT capabilities with o3-series reasoning—marking a major leap in performance and model simplification. The consolidation play with GPT-5 could further cement OpenAI’s dominance if competitors are slow to respond.
YouTube is the top recipient of AI chatbot referral traffic, receiving over three times as much traffic than Facebook or Wikipedia, according to May 2025 data from Similarweb.
The news: AI is growing in importance for small and medium-sized businesses, saving SMB marketers time and money, often with benefits outweighing risks like public backlash. AI helps US SMB marketers save about 13 hours per person per week and cut operating costs by about $4,700 per month on each team, per ActiveCampaign. Separately, Thryv found that 90% of US small businesses save 11 or more hours per week with AI. Our take: As AI saves companies time and money, it's crucial to have plans in place for how to use them. Marketers should use that time to test new creative strategies, reach out to new customers, and act on campaign analytics gathered by AI. AI-driven cost savings can be reinvested in higher-quality marketing content and expansion of product catalogs.
The news: Z.ai’s new open-source GLM-4.5 model is undercutting DeepSeek and US rivals in cost and efficiency and intensifying global AI competition. Our take: For marketers, open-source tools like Z.ai offer affordable alternatives to costly AI platforms, levelling the playing field for smaller agencies looking to compete. But Z.ai (formerly Zhipu) is on the US Entity List due to its Beijing ties after OpenAI flagged its rapid progress. With this in mind, companies piloting open-source options should do so cautiously and consult with compliance teams before integrating.
The news: Employees are underreporting their generative AI (genAI) use and feel company initiatives add to their workload without benefiting them directly. 45% of US employees have used AI at work without telling their supervisors, per Gusto, with Gen Zers and tech workers being the top culprits. Our take: Offer incentives for AI use and encourage disclosure through establishing clear policies to help maximize AI initiatives and build a culture of honesty. Setting up company-specific prompts for employee use and offering free access to vetted tools will help motivate workers to use the right tools in the right way, protecting company data and maximizing AI use to increase productivity. Our take: Offer incentives for AI use and encourage disclosure through establishing clear policies to help maximize AI initiatives and build a culture of honesty. Setting up company-specific prompts for employee use and offering free access to vetted tools will help motivate workers to use the right tools in the right way, protecting company data and maximizing AI use to increase productivity.
58% of US adults have viewed a search result page that included an AI-generated summary, per a March Pew Research Center survey.
The trend: GenAI tools like ChatGPT are providing fewer disclaimers that chatbots are not a substitute for professional medical advice, according to a recent study cited in MIT Technology Review. Our take: Tech players must prioritize user safety—not winning the AI race. Health warnings should be standard, and marketers will need to scale back claims that AI accuracy surpasses physicians’.
The news: Facing mounting pressure from ChatGPT and other platforms, Google Shopping is stepping up its game to stay ahead in the product discovery race. Our take: The best way for Google to fend off the competition is by making Shopping indispensable. Features that mimic personal stylists, surface the right deals at the right time, and boost shoppers’ confidence through virtual try-ons can help ensure consumers keep turning to Google as their shopping companion.
Walmart is going all in on AI as it prepares for a future in which more people rely on the technology to work and shop. The company is making strategic AI hires while streamlining its agents to make them easier for shoppers, employees, and partners to use. Agentic tools are both a threat and an opportunity for retailers. Companies need to prepare for a future where tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity make purchases on behalf of shoppers—which will require them either to make their websites more accessible to these assistants, or to build their own AI agents to make those transactions seamless. AI agents are also a useful investment in the current era of uncertainty, given their ability to unlock cost savings at a time when every dollar counts.