the ad that won at Cannes was against ads 🏆

Welcome to this week's (and last week's) AI + Marketing Weekly! Plus: OpenAI told Cannes it is "clearly in the advertising business now" and Google put an AI agent on every Android phone.

Shopify’s new AI sales associate

~The AI + Marketing Weekly (from the past 2 weeks)~

what you need to know in ai + marketing (15-second version):

• Claude won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes. Mother London’s two Super Bowl spots for Anthropic, “Ads Are Coming To AI. But Not To Claude,” beat every other film entry by mocking AI advertising itself. (AdWeek)

• OpenAI told Cannes it is “clearly in the advertising business now.” ChatGPT ads have expanded to seven countries, 20% of queries have commercial intent, and the company projects $2.5 billion in ad revenue for 2026, rising to $100 billion by 2030. (AdExchanger)

• Amazon launched Alexa+ Agentic Ads. Consumers ask questions, review options, and complete purchases inside a conversation without leaving the Alexa interface. Papa Johns and Ticketmaster are launch partners. (Search Engine Land)

• Shopify made agentic commerce the default. The Spring ‘26 Edition (June 17) introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), co-developed with Google and backed by Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Stripe, auto-syndicating merchant catalogs to ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, and Gemini. AI-driven orders on Shopify grew 13x year over year. (Shopify)

• Women’s AI adoption nearly closed the gender gap. Per Pew Research (June 17), usage jumped from 28% to 47% in two years, nearly matching men at 50%. But daily use still skews male (27% vs. 20%), and men are more likely to use AI for work. (Pew Research)

Thanks for reading and for your patience as I get back to the regularly scheduled weekly Tuesdays next week, and some new goodies launching soon, too! <3

🗞️ top ai + marketing news

claude wins cannes by refusing to run ads

Claude’s Super Bowl campaign wins the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026
AdWeek | ~4-min read

Mother London’s two Super Bowl spots for Anthropic took Cannes’ oldest category. The campaign, “Ads Are Coming To AI. But Not To Claude,” positioned Claude as an ad-free “space to think.” Also picked up Gold and Silver Lions in Film and a Silver in Creative Strategy.

Why it matters: The best ad at the world’s biggest ad festival was an ad against ads. Anthropic turned “no ads” into a brand position OpenAI has to compete against every time it sells a placement.

openai goes all in on advertising

OpenAI tells Cannes: “We are clearly in the advertising business now”
AdExchanger | ~5-min read

At its first Cannes, OpenAI laid out the pitch: 900 million weekly active users, 20% commercial intent, ads in seven countries, $2.5 billion in projected ad revenue this year. Sponsored links sit below organic answers with a 50% drop in close rates since launch.

Why it matters: OpenAI is building a media business. If you run paid search, this is the second search engine you need a strategy for.

amazon turns alexa into a checkout counter

Amazon launches Alexa+ Agentic Ads
Search Engine Land | ~4-min read

Amazon launched Alexa+ Agentic Ads on June 23 with Papa Johns and Ticketmaster. A consumer sees an ad on Echo Show, starts a voice conversation, refines options, and buys without leaving Alexa. The LLM handles natural conversation instead of rigid commands.

Why it matters: First ad format where the AI is the salesperson, not just the delivery mechanism. If it works, every voice-enabled device becomes a point of sale.

shopify makes every merchant findable by AI

Shopify launches Universal Commerce Protocol, makes agentic commerce the default
Shopify | ~5-min read

Shopify’s Spring ‘26 Edition (June 17) introduced UCP, an open standard co-developed with Google and backed by Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Stripe. Merchant catalogs now auto-syndicate to ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, and Gemini. New order attribution shows which AI channel drove each sale. AI-driven orders grew 13x year over year.

Why it matters: If you sell on Shopify, your products are surfacing in AI conversations whether you optimized for it or not. First movers on AI channel attribution win.

google puts an AI agent on your phone

Chrome Auto Browse launches on Android
Google | ~4-min read

Chrome Auto Browse shipped on Android in late June, powered by Gemini 3.1. It books, orders, fills forms, and finds in-stock items without manual clicking. Pixel 10 and Galaxy S26 first, expanding to 200 million devices by year-end.

Why it matters: If your checkout flow confuses a bot, you lose the sale before a human ever sees the page.

meta wants more of your data

Meta expands off-platform business data use beyond ads
Common Thread Collective | ~5-min read

Starting in July, Meta will use off-platform business data to shape Feed content and Meta AI responses, not just ads. The old “Your activity off Meta technologies” control is being replaced. US and select countries; EU, UK, South Korea excluded.

Why it matters: Your Conversions API and pixel data now influences what people see in their Feed. If you are on Meta, review what you are sending.

the AI gender gap is (mostly) closed

Pew Research finds women’s AI adoption nearly matches men’s
Pew Research | ~5-min read

Women’s AI usage jumped from 28% to 47% in two years, nearly matching men at 50%. But men still use AI daily more (27% vs. 20%) and report higher productivity gains (35% vs. 25%). ChatGPT is dead even across genders; Copilot, Gemini, Grok, and Claude all skew male.

Why it matters: The access gap closed. The intensity gap has not. The audience that just arrived looks different from the one already there.

👩‍💻 thought-leader highlights

Allie K. Miller - “I built 34 AI agents and the most important one does no work”

Allie built 34 agents under an orchestrator, then added a 35th: a watchdog that only questions whether the work is worth doing. “Activity stops being proof of value.” The comments became a case for why enterprises need separate critics for value and compliance, and why agents that prevent bad output are the first to lose budget.

Allie K. Miller - “Women’s AI usage just caught up to men’s”

Allie also broke down the Pew data: women’s AI adoption jumped from 28% to 47%, nearly matching men at 50%. But daily usage still skews male (27% vs. 20%). Best comment: “Adoption creates access; influence creates advantage.” The usage gap is closing. Whether the power gap follows is the real question.

Jean Kang - “Anthropic released 13 free courses and everyone is taking them”

Jean listed all 13 free Anthropic courses. Standout comment: “The teams that spend a weekend on these will be building features their competitors haven’t thought of.” If you want to get serious about Claude beyond prompting, start with Claude Code 101 and Introduction to Agent Skills.

Elena Verna - “The AI era requires a different kind of experimentation”

Elena argues the 2022 experimentation playbook is dead. AI collapsed UI into conversations, velocity outpaces measurement, LLMs handle personalization, and token costs make monetization a first-funnel problem. Her advice: stop wasting engineering on minor UI tweaks and run monetization experiments focused on engagement lift instead.

Tayla Burrell - “The Claude x Notion mid-year review”

Tayla grew from 2,000 to 19,000 subscribers in six months using a Claude-powered goal system in Notion. The framework: pressure-test goals with Claude, track lead measures (actions you control) instead of outcomes, and run five-minute weekly reviews. Twelve-week cycles create urgency year-long plans never do.

Hannah Zhang interviews Danielle Matarasso - “The low-status, high-income AI opportunity”

Danielle left Big 4 accounting and an MBA at Booth to build an AI advisory firm for small businesses. She evaluated 150 deals before pivoting to AI consulting, where the leverage is compressing operating costs while keeping quality. Her advice: get into a revenue-generating role first. “It feels not intellectual,” but it teaches fundamentals isolated technical roles never will.

🛠️ latest ai + marketing tools

Alexa+ Agentic Ads
Conversational ad format where consumers ask questions and buy without leaving Alexa. Launched June 23 on Echo Show devices. LLM-powered conversations replace rigid voice commands. Papa Johns and Ticketmaster are launch partners. Consumers can refine options, compare pricing, and complete purchases entirely through voice.

Shopify Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)
Open standard that auto-syndicates merchant catalogs to every major AI platform. Launched June 17 in the Spring ‘26 Edition. Co-developed with Google, backed by Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Stripe. Includes new order attribution showing which AI channel drove each sale. Shopify Scripts fully sunsets June 30.

Google Analytics 4 AI Assistant Channel
Native channel that automatically tracks traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and Grok. Forward-only (no backfill). 35-70% of AI traffic still lands in Direct due to missing referrer headers.

Chrome Auto Browse for Android
AI agent built into Chrome that completes multi-step tasks like booking, ordering, and form-filling. Powered by Gemini 3.1. Rolling out late June on Pixel 10 and Galaxy S26. Requires AI Pro or Ultra subscription. Expanding to 200M devices by year-end.

Cursor for iOS
Mobile app for managing AI coding agents from your phone. Launched June 29. Start sessions, review diffs, merge PRs, give voice instructions, and take over agents running on your desktop via Remote Control. (Editor’s note: In the interest of transparency, my fiancé helped build the app.)

💼 cool ai + marketing jobs

Anthropic - Marketing Events Lead, Brand

Cohere - Product Marketing Manager

Scale AI - Product Marketing Lead, GenAI

Veho - Senior Director of Marketing

Figma - Marketing Engineer

OpenAI - Enterprise Relationship Manager, Customer Marketing

Reply anytime and let me know:

• Topics you’d like covered in future weeks

• Sections you love or could do without

• Questions about AI, marketing, or anything else

Love y’all,
Carley