YouTube's Big AI Push
At its "Made on YouTube" event, Alphabet went big on AI. It rolled out a host of new features:
- Veo 3 video gen inside Shorts,
- "Edit with AI" - a tool to make rough edits quickly
- Ask Studio (a conversational optimisation bot)
- Smarter dubbing
- Title A/B testing
- Likeness-detection for spotting AI fakes.
The pitch: AI as co-pilot, not replacement.
For marketers, YouTube is now an end-to-end creative OS: ideate, edit, test, translate, safety-check - all native. That means faster speed (concept → Shorts in hours) and tighter control (built-in A/Bs, likeness protection, real-time optimisation). The trade-off? Lock-in, plus brand-safety headaches when remix culture turns messy.
Why it matters
Treat YouTube Studio as both acquisition channel and creative lab. Ideate and release shorts, set a weekly A/B cadence, and get legal/creator teams aligned on likeness use before the next AI remix blows up your weekend.
The 5 stories marketers should care about this week
Amazon drops an AI "creative partner" inside Amazon Ads
Amazon introduced a conversational assistant that researches audiences, storyboards, and generates/edits images, scripts, videos and voice-overs - deployable across Amazon's inventory (including Prime Video and partner placements). The Wall Street Journal
Why marketers should care: Retail media + AI creative means faster asset turnarounds mapped to real shopping intent.
Adobe's AI "agents" for CX and marketing go GA
Adobe made its Experience Platform agents generally available: Audience, Journey, Experimentation, Data Insights, Site Optimisation, Product Support - with an Agent Orchestrator to chain them together. Think: context-aware, multi-step automations across targeting, testing, forecasting and on-site optimisation, plus a Composer to build custom agents. TechRadar
Why marketers should care: If your team lives in AEP, this is the moment to turn playbooks (segmentation, hold-out tests, next-best-action) into agents.
Microsoft to auto-install Microsoft 365 Copilot on Windows
From October, Microsoft plans to auto-install the 365 Copilot app on Windows devices with M365 apps. Separately, Copilots for Sales, Service and Finance are being folded into the core 365 Copilot price, trimming stack complexity and total cost. Yahoo Tech
Why marketers should care: Two impacts: a) your wider org will suddenly have AI in the tray - expect an internal usage spike; b) cost optics improve for rolling Copilot to revenue teams.
EU AI Act: GPAI obligations are now active
Rules for general-purpose AI models took effect in August. Member States were required to designate market-surveillance authorities by 2 Aug. Expect guidance to harden into audits and fines over 12-18 months. Digital Strategy Europe
Why marketers should care: If your stack relies on big-model vendors, procurement and legal need a compliance paper trail (copyright, safety, risk). Your AI vendors' homework is now your problem too.
TikTok policy shifts: more labels and "branded" defaults ripple into reach
From 1 Sept, scheduled TikTok videos may be auto-tagged as "Promotional content." TikTok is also expanding AI-generated content labels and accessibility features like AI-generated alt text. Labels mean new creative choices and potential reach effects. Bazaarvoice
Why marketers should care: Audit your scheduling tools and disclosure flows; mismatched labels can throttle distribution. Train creators on AI tags to avoid accidental "limited" status.
Chart of the Week
Which industries are adopting AI the fastest? Hint: it's not retail.
One Tool We're Trying - Figma's multi-reference AI images
Figma now lets you attach up to 6 reference images when prompting its AI to generate or edit an image. In practice, that means you can feed the tool last quarter's brand shoot, your icon set, and a texture swatch - and get variations that actually look like you, not "stock AI brand blob."
Who should care: social and performance teams who live on fast variants, plus brand managers trying to stop rogue shades of teal. It's not Midjourney-level art, but that's the point - it sits inside your actual design system with handoff to dev.
Verdict: Worth a play. Faster on-brand variants without leaving your design stack - and fewer "can you just tweak the blue?" Slacks. Figma
Meme of the Week
At Meta's AI event, a live cooking demo went about as well as you'd expect.
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Matt, Ravi, Jacopo.
