The daily briefing for AI marketers, growth hackers, and operators.

TL;DR — beehiiv data from 28 billion emails shows open rates rising to 41.24% in 2026, with paid subscriptions jumping 138% to $19M. Short subject lines (<20 words) drive opens, but long ones (80-100 words) double click-through rates to 7.78%. Tactical implication: Switch subject lines to <20 words for daily sends, but test long-form subjects for high-intent sales emails.

TL;DR — Gmail and Yahoo's AI summaries now act as gatekeepers, filtering emails before humans see them. Sinch data shows 42% of consumers demand personalized promotions, pushing brands toward "agent-ready" metadata over clever subject lines. Tactical implication: Audit email HTML to ensure key offers are machine-readable in the first 1KB of code for AI summarizers.

TL;DR — Anthropic is raising $10B at a $350B valuation, with 80% of revenue now coming from enterprise API customers. Claude Code alone generates over $1B in annualized revenue, signaling a shift toward industrial-grade AI utility. Tactical implication: Prioritize Claude 3.5 Sonnet for internal automated workflows where data privacy and complex reasoning outperform raw speed.

TL;DR — The Rundown AI highlights xAI's significant funding round to enhance its Grok chatbot and data infrastructure. Funding: $20 billion raised. Strategy: Scaling AI capabilities for marketing automation.

TL;DR — Salesforce breaks down essential tech trends shaping fast-growing businesses. Trends: AI integration, automation, and data utilization. Action: Adopt these trends to enhance marketing strategies.

TL;DR — Southwest Airlines faced prolonged reputational damage after AI summaries resurfaced 2022 crisis data during recent searches. MarTech warns that without fresh 'brand receipts,' AI models default to historical controversy. Tactical implication: Publish a 'Facts' or 'Timeline' page tackling common negatives and link it from your footer to provide clean source data for crawlers.

TL;DR — Digiday reports OpenAI expects to burn $115B through 2029 and pay ~$450B for servers (per The Information, cited), while Sensor Tower pegs ChatGPT at ~910M monthly active users vs Gemini at ~345M (125% YoY). Tools referenced: ChatGPT, Gemini, commerce integrations (e.g., Shopify/Etsy mentioned), and emerging AI ad surfaces. Data sources: Sensor Tower + The Information (as cited). Tactical implication: start an 'AI media buying' readiness plan now—define conversion events + server-side tracking + creative/offer testing rules so you can pilot ads the moment inventory opens.

TL;DR — Marketers report saving 5–6 hours weekly by chaining ChatGPT for drafting with n8n for distribution. One user reduced reporting time from 47 to 10 minutes using automated data fetching scripts. Tactical implication: Map your manual reporting workflow and replace the data-gathering step with an API-connected agent or script this week.

TL;DR — Daily AI search users in the US jumped from 14% to 29.2% in just six months (HigherVisibility). eMarketer analysis suggests Google is shifting to transaction-fulfillment while ChatGPT dominates high-intent research. Tactical implication: Audit your content for 'answer engine' readiness by placing key statistics and direct answers in the first 150 words of every post.

TL;DR — VML exec Tyler Murray: AI agents pose 'existential threat' to retail media as 60%+ AI searches end without clicks per Bain & Co. Walmart investing in 170,000 in-store digital screens as strategic moat against AI-driven zero-click shopping. Mastercard entered commerce media (Oct 2025), but space cooling after 3-year explosion. Data source: Bain & Co. + VML. Tactical implication: Shift 15-25% of digital retail media budget to in-store/physical activations where AI agents can't intercept the customer journey.

TL;DR — 38% of shoppers now use AI for product discovery, with 89% verifying details before purchase (IAB). eMarketer data indicates the 'middle funnel' is collapsing as autonomous agents handle evaluation and comparison tasks. Tactical implication: Structure product data with detailed Schema.org markup to ensure agents can parse pricing, specs, and availability without hallucinations.

TL;DR — Perplexity launched AI shopping agent Nov 2024; 2025 saw explosion from ChatGPT, Amazon Rufus, Walmart Sparky. McKinsey estimates agentic commerce could redirect $1 trillion in US retail spend, but Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says most agents 'fail to provide satisfactory experience' with inaccurate pricing/delivery. eMarketer forecasts AI platforms will drive just 1.5% of retail ecommerce sales in 2026 ($20.9B). Data source: McKinsey + eMarketer. Tactical implication: Launch controlled pilot with one AI shopping platform (Perplexity or ChatGPT Shopping) testing 10-20 SKUs to measure conversion rates vs. organic search over Q1 2026.

TL;DR — Bain & Company data shows 60% of searches now end without a click, as users pivot to AI assistants. Ryanair vanished from GPT-5 results despite high GPT-4 visibility, proving the volatility of 'compressed memory' indices. Tactical implication: Shift SEO focus from keywords to 'Cognitive Fit'—publishing structured data and direct answers that LLMs can cite without needing a click.

TL;DR — The IAB's new Agentic AI Roadmap defines the shift from 'serving ads' to 'serving agents,' outlining standards for machine-readable creative and autonomous media buying. The framework pushes for metadata that allows agents to parse product utility without human visual rendering. Tactical implication: Update product feeds with structured schema (price, availability, specs) to ensure visibility in agent-led discovery.

TL;DR — Salesforce portfolio data reveals Telepass now runs 36k agent conversations weekly with 80% resolution, while Nexo saves 90k employee hours monthly via agentic workflows. Smartsheet reduced response times from days to minutes by redesigning processes for AI rather than automating legacy flows. Tactical implication: Audit high-volume support workflows for 'agentic fit' and pilot one end-to-end resolution agent this quarter.