TBS 21.07.25 – Gloves off for Perplexity.
🚨 This week saw the real tectonic shifts: Perplexity’s CEO accused Google of bureaucratic inertia, drowning in ad-dependence, in a gloves off call to a brewing war: platform profits vs. marketer power.
We also saw that Google is forcing AI-driven brand targeting through its new AI Max framework where marketers must opt in to automation to control brand safety. Amazon launched its AI video‑ad generator to all US advertisers. Meanwhile, Meta is orchestrating a quiet AI takeover, tweaking campaign steering and gearing up for fully automated ads by 2026.
This week I wrote about the future of search in the context of AI, contributing to a fantastic article published by Campaign Middle East .
In news this week:
Perplexity CEO accuses Google of ad-dependence blocking AI evolution
July 17 2025 Perplexity's CEO said Google needs to rethink its stance in the AI browser wars. In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" on Wednesday, Aravind Srinivas said Google's business model is at odds with the rise of AI agents — the kind that power AI-native browsers like Comet, Perplexity's new product. Srinivas said the tech giant is constrained by its need to protect ad revenue. Marketers should ask: is Google’s AI innovation in your interest—or locked in service to its own business model? It’s a warning that strategic conflict may delay tools that could actually help us.
Google Forces Automation if You Want Brand Control
July 18 2025 This news shows Google is no longer letting you choose—embracing AI Max is now mandatory if you want to manage your brand inclusions/exclusions. The implication? Full throttle automation is here, and marketers who resist risk losing control over brand safety. It's a bold power play pushing everyone into algorithmic campaign governance, zero escape.
AWS launching AI agent marketplace next week with Anthropic
July 10 2025 AWS is unleashing an agent economy—third-party AI agents you can slot into workflows. For marketers, this means plug‑and‑play strategy bots that can manage segmentation, A/B testing, even bidding autonomously. But with agent proliferation comes complexity: do you trust dozens of off‑the‑shelf agents, or risk fragmentation?
Meta Provides Additional Parameters To Guide AI‑Powered Ads
July 16 2025 Meta is letting advertisers dial in campaign objectives—Value Optimization, Incremental Attribution—yet campaign setup increasingly readies for 2026’s full automation push. This feels like giving marketers a steering wheel on a self-driving car: you set the destination, but can't override the autopilot once it’s engaged. The sweep of automation is unstoppable.
Alphabet warned: AI chatbots threaten traditional search ads
July 21 2025 Analysts point to AI chatbots siphoning search traffic, weakening Google's bread‑and‑butter ad-revenue. For marketers, this means CPM pricing models might be uprooted—you're not just buying keywords, you're bidding against AI summaries that don’t show your link. Brace for a scramble.