Lab Weekly - 07/10/2025
How AI is helping brands\ scale influencer campaigns; Plus, the latest news about AI browsers, Apple’s AI choices, and more must-know news and stats
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Digital Twins and AI-Scaled Influencer Marketing
What a viral Dove x Crumbl campaign tells us about the new era of scalable, AI-enhanced influencer marketing
In case you missed it…
How Beauty & Wellness Enter a Post-Viral Era
As trend fatigue sets in, consumers are trading fleeting fads for wellness rituals, athlete role models, and AI-aided self-discovery
Apple WWDC 2025 Recap: AI Hype Seen Through the “Liquid Glass”
Apple’s AI strategy re-focuses on delivering quality-of-life improvements across shiny new UI design
Airbnb’s Rebranding & What It Says About the Service Economy
The issue with scaling local services and experiences, and how AI might play a part in Airbnb’s future
Perplexity launches Comet, an AI-powered web browser [TechCrunch]
The “AI browser wars” is about to begin, as tech analyst Casey Newton laid out in a recent column. Besides Perplexity, companies like Opera, the Browser Company (Arc), and reportedly OpenAI are all developing new AI-integrated browsers. Unlike traditional browsers, these AI-first browsers are designed to let AI agents do the browsing and task-completion on behalf of users. While switching browsers remains a tough ask for most users, the goal of turning the web browser as a productivity companion rather than a passive viewing tool certainly sounds compelling.
The irony here is that this wave of renewed interest in reinventing the web browsers came at a time when most web publishers’ business models are in sharp decline, thanks to tools like Google’s AI Overviews replacing traditional search and drawing users away from publisher sites. Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024, per data from a zero-click search study. That percentage might get even worse in the coming years. And while ChatGPT referrals to news sites are growing, it is far from enough to offset the search declines. Yet, as AI becomes the primary “user” of the web, it raises questions about what will remain worth publishing and what will just be intermediated by AI agents and regurgitated to the real human users.
Related: OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome [Reuters]; The AI browser wars are about to begin [Platformer]
Streaming Subscriptions May Get Tougher to Cancel [THR]
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down the FTC‘s “click to cancel” rule, which was intended to eliminate drawn-out cancellation processes aimed at trapping users in unwanted subscriptions. But because the FTC apparently skipped a key procedural requirement in implementing the initiative, an appeals court has now struck that measure down.
So for now, hard to cancel stays the norm. Needless to say, this ruling is a setback for subscription transparency and consumer rights. Subscription-based businesses can continue using multi-step, often confusing cancellation processes that discourage users from unsubscribing. But, these friction-heavy experiences may further fuel frustration with big tech and media, particularly as platforms raise prices and limit password sharing. With AI agents on the rise, perhaps canceling a hard-to-cancel subscription would be one of the first tasks to be outsourced.
Related: A new “Manage Subscriptions” tab in Gmail is made for unsubscribing from unwanted emails [The Verge]; Disney and UK's ITV tie-up in joint streaming deal [Reuters]
Apple Weighs Using Anthropic and OpenAI to Power Siri [Bloomberg]
Apple is reportedly considering replacing its in-house Apple Foundation Models with AI technology from Anthropic or OpenAI to power a new version of Siri. If true, this move would represent a significant strategic pivot for the company, which had been relying on its own models and planning to launch an upgraded Siri powered by that technology in 2026, as it looks to revitalize its lagging AI efforts.
As analyst Ben Thompson lays out in his column on this story, while Anthropic may make more sense for Apple from a product perspective, the company’s interest in Anthropic likely goes beyond performance alone. He suggests Apple is also navigating tensions tied to OpenAI’s close relationship with Microsoft. Meanwhile, OpenAI sees Apple’s massive user base as highly valuable and may be willing to subsidize integration costs in exchange for access—unlike Anthropic. This leaves Apple with a stark choice: pay a premium to white-label Anthropic’s models for a better Siri, or save money by simply replacing Siri with ChatGPT.
Ben’s analysis is sharp as usual, but I fear that it might have underestimated Apple’s flexibility in this matter. Given that Apple, a company notoriously controlling of its ecosystem, is unlikely to outright replace Siri with ChatGPT, it is far more likely to invest in a more long-term solution like Anthropic or its own models. In the meantime though, ChatGPT would continue to be a reliable third-party partner to tap in. As long as their foundational on-device models are good enough — and a recent study by 9to5Mac has indicated that they are – Apple could have more room to maneuver and catch up with competitors than the AI-crazed Wall Street deems it.
Related: Apple COO Jeff Williams to step down later this month [TechCrunch]; Amazon weighs further investment in Anthropic to deepen AI alliance [Financial Times]
Situational Awareness:
Apple bids for Formula 1 rights in US after success of Brad Pitt film [Financial Times]
In today’s fragmented sports media landscape, a lot of the value of owning the rights to a sports franchise is not only captured, but also promoted through companion content. Sports docu-series and athlete-led projects are becoming as influential as the games in driving fan engagement. Apple knows this, and bidding the rights to F1 could signal a further commitment to owning the whole content ecosystem surrounding this surging sport franchise.
Taco Bell targets Gen Z with golf-themed collab with apparel brand Bad Birdie [Brand Innovators]
Speaking of capturing the value of sports via affiliated content, Taco Bell is getting in on Gen Z’s retro golf craze with a golf-themed collaboration with apparel brand Bad Birdie By sponsoring a youth golf tournament that blends traditional play with a relaxed, creator-driven vibe, while also giving each young competitor a $2,500 grant to donate to a nonprofit, the QSR brand aims to tap into Gen Z’s demand for purpose-driven experiences.
Paramount+ AI-Powered Campaign Lets Fans Own Plots of Land From Favorite Shows [AdWeek]
This AI-powered “Fan Frontier” campaign encourages fans to lay claims to virtual plots of land from their favorite show by answering questions on social media. While it may seem unusual and pointless to outsiders, it’s actually a clever and on‑trend way to deepen fan engagement with younger generations that value digital goods and personalized experiences. By tapping AI via Adobe Firefly, the campaign personalizes each land deed, invites fans to participate through social prompts on Facebook and Threads, and even extends the experience to Comic‑Con with printed scrolls.
Ikea plans to launch more than 20 Matter-over-Thread devices [The Verge]
As part of its plan to relaunch its smart home line , Ikea has announced over 20 new Matter-over-Thread devices, which will hit the shelves in January 2026, and released a beta update for its Dirigera hub for easier management of its smart home devices. Overall, Ikea is embracing Matter in a move to make its smart home simpler and more affordable.
While Gen Z and Millennials are known for embracing affordable streaming options, free streaming also outperforms paid streaming in reaching Gen X, Boomers, and women—groups that may still watch linear TV but increasingly use free streaming as a supplement. A recent joint study by Roku and MAGNA found that free streaming reached 6% more Gen X and 7% more Boomers than paid streaming.
Google noted that since the release of Veo 3 in May, users have created more than 40 million videos across the Gemini app and Flow tool. It has now added a new feature of image-to-video generation to Veo 3 in the Gemini app for Pro and Ultra subscribers;
Microsoft Corp. is using artificial intelligence tools to boost productivity in areas such as sales and customer service, according to Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff, who reportedly said in a recent presentation that AI saved Microsoft more than $500 million last year in its call centers alone and increased both employee and customer satisfaction.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
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