The AI Edge Podcast

YouTube just overtook Reddit as the most-cited source in AI search results. Meta's ad revenue is funding a $135 billion AI spending spree. And marketers are about to see a wave of AI ads during the Super Bowl. But here's the question nobody's answering: should advertisers have to disclose when they use AI? This week, hosts Shiv Gupta and Myles Younger sit down with Caroline Giegerich, VP of AI & Marketing Innovation at the IAB, to discuss the AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework: the industry's first attempt to answer when, how, and why marketers should label AI-generated advertising. Caroline breaks down the core questions: Do we disclose AI use in advertising? In what circumstances? Who's responsible: the brand, agency, or platform? What's the threshold for requiring a label?  Caroline walks through what the IAB is building, why it matters, and shares some surprising research: turns out advertisers think consumers love AI ads way more than they actually do. They also dig into Meta's massive earnings, why YouTube citations are changing content strategy overnight, and what marketers should be watching during the Super Bowl. New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here. Links to IAB's research and framework discussed in this episode:  Research: https://www.iab.com/insights/the-ai-gap-widens/ Framework: https://www.iab.com/guidelines/ai-transparency-and-disclosure-framework/

It finally happened. OpenAI announced ads are coming to ChatGPT in February at $60 CPMs with under-$1M spending commitments. The entire advertising industry is about to change overnight. Hosts Shiv Gupta and Myles Younger sit down with Patrick O'Shea and Kevin O'Malley, co-founders of AdDaptive Intelligence, to break down what this means for marketers. Patrick and Kevin have been business partners for 20 years, deep in B2B marketing automation since the programmatic days, and they're here to cut through the noise. They discuss why this isn't just search ads 2.0, OpenAI's 4% commerce fee (while Google and Microsoft charge nothing), Google's "we'll never do ads in Gemini" response, and why B2B marketers are uniquely positioned for this shift. Plus, the new cottage industry of AI ad services about to explode, and why the best advice is simple: start testing now. Every other LLM will rush to launch ads. Budgets are being carved out. The AI ad ecosystem is emerging overnight. Let's dig into it. New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here.

Akaash Ramakrishnan, Co-founder of AdSkate, shares insights on the transformative world of zero-click commerce, where AI agents redefine shopping. He emphasizes the necessity for creatives to be machine-readable, shifting the focus from aesthetics to data-driven design. The discussion includes Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, the implications of Apple's partnership with Google for Siri, and how personalized advertising is evolving. Akaash also highlights the importance of creative metadata and its impact on ad effectiveness in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Mike Ditter, Diageo's Director of AI Strategy and Emerging Technology, shares insights from the CES 2026 floor. He discusses how voice technology is revolutionizing human-AI interactions and the importance of building AI capabilities over simply acquiring tools. Ditter dives into AI-powered content creation while stressing the need for real-world applications within Diageo's iconic brands. He offers pro tips on effective AI adoption and reveals a quirky project involving dinosaur pee for his child, proving that AI can add value even in the most unexpected ways.

Meta spent $2 billion on a company most people have never heard of, and it might be their smartest move since Instagram. A special episode recorded live from CES 2026, hosts Shiv Gupta and Myle Younger sit down with Sarah Caputo, independent consultant and former CDO, to figure out what Meta's really up to with this acquisition. Sarah's got theories: protecting their small business revenue, making a play for wearables as the next big ad platform, and maybe finally figuring out what people actually want AI to do. They also talk about why every ad platform now has basically the same "AI does everything" product with a slightly different name, why being operationally efficient isn't special anymore, and Sarah's take on how OpenAI should actually make money (spoiler: not by copying Google's playbook). Plus, why these new autonomous tools might shake things up for DSPs and what agencies better start doing if they don't want to become irrelevant. You don't want to miss this one. Straight from the CES floor with perspectives you won't get anywhere else: practical, honest, and built for marketers. New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here.

No guest this week, just Shiv and Myles answering listener questions in their first-ever mailbag episode. And the questions got deep. Will agency jobs disappear or are we headed back to a Mad Men era? What does a fully AI-enabled agency actually look like (and which ones are about to fail)? How do you trust AI to build client profiles when ChatGPT is basically a sycophant telling you everything's brilliant? Your hosts unpack this and so much more. Then things get existential: How can we tell if AI is speeding up good judgment or slowly eroding it? And what AI workflows do Shiv and Myles actually trust enough to use every day at U of Digital? Shiv confesses his secret Claude projects, Myles admits his "workflow" is just opening another browser tab, and they both tackle whether we should be measuring the quality of human judgment before worrying about AI making it worse. Plus: synthetic audiences, B2B data garbage, and why anti-sycophancy technology might be the thing nobody's talking about. New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here. 

Simon Poulton, EVP of Innovation & Growth at Tinuiti, shares his insights on the current AI landscape in marketing. He believes Google has triumphed in the AI platform wars due to its distribution power. The discussion covers the implications of AI-generated ads, why brands should focus on Google for SEO, and the concept of 'context debt' in personalized marketing. Poulton also addresses the practicality of agentic advertising and advises marketers on building meaningful AI tools instead of chasing trends.

In this discussion, Andrew Lipsman, an independent analyst and consultant specializing in media and commerce, challenges the hype around agentic commerce, describing it as a "collective hallucination." The conversation dives into Disney's $1B investment in OpenAI and the implications of licensing beloved IP. They also explore the role of data in retail, urging retailers to reclaim first-party data while evaluating AI-assisted shopping's limits. The notion of autonomous shopping agents is dissected, raising critical questions about the future of retail media.

Heather Macaulay, President of MadConnect, dives into the exciting changes reshaping marketing technology. She reveals how Black Friday 2025 marked a turning point, with AI shoppers proving more effective than ever. Discussing the breakdown of the long-standing divide between AdTech and MarTech, Heather emphasizes the integration challenges many brands face. She shares insights on Amazon's strategies, the requirements for AI visibility, and the importance of quality data—warning that AI can amplify bad data rather than fix it.

Chad Reynolds, Founder and CEO of Vurvey Labs, discusses the revolutionary concept of synthetic audiences created from real human data. He explores how these models can transform market research by allowing brands to test ideas without recruiting actual participants. Chad dives into their effectiveness, the validation process against real behaviors, and the looming question of whether traditional market research will become obsolete. The conversation touches on ethical implications and the future impact on the $50 billion industry. Don't miss these fascinating insights!