Lab Weekly - 10/18/2024
How Waymo won the Robotaxi war; Plus, the latest news on Google Shopping, Adobe Firefly, & more must-know stories and cool stats
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Why Waymo Won For Now, And What’s Coming Next
On Tesla’s Cybercab, Waymo Robotaxi’s early victory, and the nearing future of self-driving cars
In case you missed it…
Meta Previews the Future of AR — Here’s What It Means for Brands
Meta maps a clear vision for the post-mobile future; Whether it can pull it off is an entirely different question. Regardless, smart brands should start future-proofing for a post-mobile computing paradigm today.
The State of Mobile AR
Given the recent development in AR wearables, it’s easy to get distracted by these shiny new gadgets and forget that the vast majority of consumers still interact with AR experiences through mobile devices today.
Shop As You Scroll: The Future of Social Commerce
Examining the current state of social commerce, the rise of Chinese ecommerce apps, and their potential to reshape online shopping.
Episode 163 Preview: The Early Days of MR Wearables
We’re set to release a brand new episode early next week, in which Adam and Ryan will be recapping the latest developments in mix-reality headsets and smart glasses, and how we think the MR market will play out with Meta, Apple, Snap, and Google all vying to get a slice of the pie. Keep an eye out for it on your podcast platform of choice!
Google Shopping to Add a ‘For You’ Feed of Products [The Verge]
This Google Shopping update aims to leverage users' recent searches and YouTube views to tailor a shopping experience unique to each individual, signaling an interesting way that Google could use its ecosystem-wide user data to enhance its shopping tools. The personalized feed will appear on both mobile and desktop versions of Google Shopping, showing a carousel of recently viewed products and recommendations, complete with in-line videos for further product exploration, similar to the algorithmic "for you" pages typically found on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
This new feed demonstrates how AI is moving from the background to the forefront of the online shopping experience, driving hyper-personalized and interactive shopping journeys. The integration of videos into product feeds, which aligns with modern content consumption habits, allows for a more immersive shopping experience.
This move also aligns with a broader trend, where leading ecommerce platforms like Walmart and Amazon are embedding AI at the heart of their shopping experiences. AI is enabling these companies to not only improve product discovery but also enhance the decision-making process through detailed, personalized guidance. The collective embrace of AI by these major players suggests that this shift will reshape how people shop online, placing intelligent assistants, real-time recommendations, and seamless user experiences at the forefront.
Related: Amazon debuts AI-powered Shopping Guides [TechCrunch]; Walmart tests in-app generative AI shopping assistant [CX Dive]
Adobe Launches Firefly Video Generative AI Model [The Verge]
Adobe's latest "Firefly update includes a text-to-video generator that can create short clips on demand. This is designed for minor adjustments and brief clips, with some limitations in terms of video length and resolution. However, they offer the distinct advantage of being commercially safe, as they are trained on licensed content, unlike other AI models that face legal challenges.
A notable example of Firefly’s impact is its use in Mattel's packaging design process. This holiday season, Barbie packaging created with the help of Firefly’s AI image generation will debut in stores. Firefly allows designers to quickly generate high-quality packaging concepts through simple text prompts, cutting down the time spent on revisions and improving collaboration between creative and marketing teams. Mattel’s successful integration of Firefly shows how generative AI can streamline design processes and inspire innovative concepts.
Related: Adobe teases AI tools that build 3D scenes, animate text, and make distractions disappear [The Verge]; All Gemini users can now generate images with Imagen 3 [9to5Google]; Gatorade launches generative AI squeeze bottle personalization to fuel athlete self-expression [PR Newswire]
Apple Debuts New Business Tools For Managing Presence Across Email, Calls, And Tap To Pay [TechCrunch]
Apple added new features to its Apple Business Connect service that allow brands to put their stamp on emails and calls to your iPhone, further extending the brand-friendly service to new corners of iOS. Launched in 2023, Business Connect enables businesses to control how they appear on Apple Maps, Siri, Spotlight, Safari, and Wallet. Now it covers email, phone calls, and the tap-to-pay interface as well. All this could be a roundabout way to get businesses to keep their Apple Maps listings up-to-date.
Also worth mentioning is that any business — even those without physical locations — can use the service to establish a profile, manage branding, and access insights on customer interactions. This allows for greater consistency in how brands are presented, helping build trust with customers by showcasing a verified and professional appearance.
Related: Apple Unveils New iPad Mini With A17 Pro Chip and Apple Intelligence [9to5Mac]; Apple’s first scripted immersive short film arrives on Vision Pro [The Verge]
Situational Awareness:
Ring adds AI-enabled 'Smart Video Search' as part of its upcoming $20 subscription service [Engadget]
Brace yourself for even more security camera footage viral materials coming to your TikTok feed. Charging people a monthly subscription to use their own video doorbell seems a bit of an odd value proposition though.
FTC’s ‘click-to-cancel’ rule will stop companies from making you take unnecessary steps to cancel a subscription [The Verge]
Canceling gym membership is about to become a whole lot easier, and so will pulling off the “subscribe, binge, and churn” cycle. It will be rather fascinating to see how subscription-based businesses would react to this impending law and try to retain customers who can now unsubscribe online.
Amazon announces first Kindle ever with color screen [CNBC]
It’s nice that Amazon has not given up on its e-readers and continues to update this popular lineup. In a world where reading for leisure seems to be increasingly going out of fashion, and with performative booktok influencers taking over, the release of new Kindles is somehow reassuring to me that at least some of us still read.
PayPal just opened a new ad business [Business Insider]
Everybody wants to be an ad platform now! This new one from PayPal should be interesting to financial service brands and retailers.
Netflix posted third-quarter earnings Thursday that beat on the top and bottom lines, CNBC reports. The streamer’s ad-tier memberships jumped 35% quarter over quarter, while paid membership overall increased by 14% to 282.72 million. Netflix is projecting revenue for the full year of 2025 to be between $43 billion and $44 billion, as it improves its core series and films offerings.
Last week, Amazon announced plans for new robot-powered delivery warehouses, TechCrunch reports.The 3-million-square-foot warehouse, located in Shreveport, Louisiana, will span five floors, constituting the rough equivalent of 55 football fields. Amazon has yet to announce specific figures in terms of robots deployed, only that it will bring 10x that of a standard fulfillment center. We do know, however, that the company already has nearly a million robotic systems deployed in centers across the U.S.
Food delivery service DoorDash has a growing ad platform, which also offers advertisers offsite media, helping them reach consumers across search engines, programmatic displays and social media platforms with campaigns powered by DoorDash’s first-party data. Offsite ad spending is forecast to grow by over 27% in 2025 in the U.S., per data cited by the brand, Marketing Dive reports.
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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