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Digiday reported this week that CMOs cannot link AI visibility to sales. The piece, published August 13, surveyed marketers and agency leaders across the industry. The conclusion was consistent. Every team is triangulating. Nobody has a clean line from AI presence to revenue. Roast managing partner John Barham put it

A brand can appear in the first response of an AI reasoning chain and still lose the sale. This is the finding that keeps surprising the marketing and communications teams we talk to. It is worth explaining clearly, because it redefines what "AI visibility" must mean for any

A vendor sits down with a prospect and hears something familiar. I've seen something like this before, the prospect says. Spent a lot of time on it. Couldn't sell it internally. The vendor asks what would actually work. Not a resale arrangement, the prospect says. That

Summary Most predictions about TikTok Shop compare it to Amazon on Amazon's terms: fulfillment speed, catalog depth, trust infrastructure built over two decades. On those terms, Amazon wins comfortably, and will for years. That comparison asks the wrong question. Amazon and TikTok Shop are not competing to be

AIVO Journal · companion piece to AIVO Standard working paper, "The Influence Layer." Ask most people what "AI in commerce" means right now and they will describe some version of an agent quietly buying things on a shopper's behalf. Ask them how much of retail

Summary On August 6, 2026, Gartner published its first Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools, naming Profound a Representative Vendor. The report is a genuine milestone: it is the first time a major analyst firm has formally recognized that brands need dedicated instrumentation for how they appear inside AI-

Summary On August 4, 2026, Procter & Gamble agreed to acquire Thorne, the 40-year-old science-backed supplement brand, from L Catterton for $3.8 billion in cash — a 5.6x return for L Catterton on its $680 million take-private acquisition less than three years earlier. Reported publicly