The AI Edge Podcast

OpenAI killed Sora. Disney pulled its billion-dollar commitment. The headlines called it proof that AI video is dead. It isn't. But the breathless takes — in both directions — are a pretty good sign that marketers are still figuring out how to think about all of this clearly. This week, Shiv and Tameka sit down with Melissa Grady Diaz, former CMO of Cadillac and now a senior leader at health-tech startup Measured Wellness, to talk about what's actually changing for brand marketers right now — and what most people aren't paying enough attention to yet. Melissa breaks down why performance marketing is about to have a real problem as agents take over the discovery layer, why brand building outside of paid media is becoming more important than ever, and why you should never fully hand your marketing over to a platform that's optimizing for response instead of brand health. She also gets into what it was like to experiment with AI at the CMO level at Cadillac, why incremental AI adoption can actually make things worse, and the right way to think about building from scratch versus improving what already exists. They also cover Apple's surprising decision to open Siri up to any AI model, what it means that ChatGPT has become the Kleenex of AI — and why that brand equity might be slipping away — and why agentic commerce is happening whether the skeptics like it or not. Ready to level up your AI skills? Join the U of Digital AI Accelerator. Now enrolling for May | https://uof.digital/ai/accelerator/ Learn more about the AI Literacy Alliance at uof.digital/alliance New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here.

Mark Zuckerberg says just tell AI what you want to sell and it handles the rest. Brian Tomasette — 25-year ad tech veteran, former Amazon DSP product leader, and current PhD researcher — says that's high school physics without friction. The business rules, privacy constraints, and data ownership that make advertising actually work don't disappear because the model is powerful enough. They just need better tools to operate them. This week, Miles sits down with Brian to get into the real plumbing behind agentic advertising — what's actually being built today, how far off the utopian vision really is, and why the tools aren't going away anytime soon. Brian is currently researching neuro-symbolic AI at Drexel University and contributing to the IAB Tech Lab's AAMP framework, which is building the buyer and seller agent infrastructure that could eventually reshape how media gets bought and sold. They break down why AI agents will use DSPs more optimally rather than replace them, what the IAB Tech Lab's buyer and seller agent SDKs actually do, and why Andrej Karpathy is right that it's not the year of agents — it's the decade. Brian also introduces the "AI vampire" phenomenon — the way vibe coding becomes as addictive as TikTok and drains you faster than actual genius work ever could — and why the right move is sometimes just closing the laptop and going for a hike. Links from this episode: AAMP — Agentic Advertising Management Protocol https://iabtechlab.com/standards/aamp-agentic-advertising-management-protocols/ IAB Tech Lab Buyer Agent Documentation https://iabtechlab.github.io/buyer-agent/ IAB Tech Lab Seller Agent Documentation https://iabtechlab.github.io/seller-agent/ Andrej Karpathy: "It's Not the Year of Agents, It's the Decade of Agents" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlVnGXEzFow The AI Vampire — Steve Yegge https://steve-yegge.medium.com/the-ai-vampire-eda6e4f07163 Beads — Steve Yegge's Claude Code library https://github.com/steveyegge/beads Neuro-Symbolic AI Research Paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05486 HAZ Lab at Drexel — Brian's Research Lab https://zharry29.github.io/hazlab/ Ready to level up your AI skills? Join the U of Digital AI Accelerator. Now enrolling for May | https://uof.digital/ai/accelerator/ New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here.

They debate whether ChatGPT pausing instant checkout is a strategic pause or the end of agentic commerce. They dissect Amazon’s real moat beyond software and compare AI commerce to the iOS app store. They unpack sponsored prompts, a wave of oddly named AI products, and whether walled gardens will swallow AI like they did the web. A lively mailbag tackles who could set standards for agentic buying.

Meta wants to turn its AI chatbot into a shopping engine — but what happens when a chunk of the catalog is fake? OpenAI just partnered with Criteo to inject ads into ChatGPT, and agencies are vibe-coding their own GEO platforms while unicorns raise $100 million to do the same thing. The commerce media land grab is on, and nobody's quite sure who wins. This week, hosts Shiv Gupta and Myles Younger bring the conversation inside the house. Their guest is Tameka Kee, U of Digital's new Head of AI Enablement and Strategy — a 20-year ad tech veteran with stints at Rubicon Project, Magnite, and CIMM, who spent her first two weeks on the job going through the AI Accelerator herself. Tameka breaks down why Meta's AI shopping tool could supercharge the drop-shipper problem and usher in a new era of AI product slop, why OpenAI partnering with Criteo is smarter than it looks (hint: it's as much a data play as a monetization play), and why Google's ecosystem — Maps, Wallet, Chrome, Translate, YouTube, Gmail — is still the greatest monetization machine ever built and ChatGPT has a long way to go. They also get into whether agency AI platforms will survive to 2029, what Stagwell's GEO build is really signaling, and why throwing money at AI adoption without understanding your team almost never works. Ready to level up your AI skills? Join the U of Digital AI Accelerator. Starts March 9, 2026 | Use code PROCRASTINATOR for 25% off https://uof.digital/ai/accelerator/ Sponsored by Yahoo DSP New episodes every Monday. Get your AI Edge here.

Linda Bethea, CMO at Danone North America and seasoned leader in food & beverage, e-commerce, and AI-driven marketing. She discusses how consultancies remain vital during AI’s awkward phase. Linda explains the shift from a digital shelf to an AI shelf and outlines the first three priorities CMOs should tackle when adopting AI — starting with people.

Ken Rona, Chief AI Officer at JWX, brings video-tech and AI product experience. He warns that ad-driven chat could prioritize engagement over truth. They debate whether AI wearables will help or just monetize attention. Ken also recounts rapid agent builds, programmatic bidding in hours, and how AI traffic is reshaping conversions for publishers and marketers.

Sam Khoury, Chief Strategy Officer at Markitecture Media focused on CTV and influencer strategy, and Jeremy Bloom, CEO and ad-tech veteran since 2002, unpack Super Bowl ad backlash and AI fatigue. They debate why AI hype can backfire, how creativity and authenticity faltered, and why putting consumers in control matters more than spectacle.

Babs Rangaiah, CEO of cc:babs and former marketing exec at Unilever, IBM and Paramount+, joins to unpack the Super Bowl turning into an AI battleground. Babs dissects Anthropic's bold positioning, the rise of AI-generated ads, and whether brands should test costly ChatGPT placements. Short takes on agent networks, brand readiness for AI, and when personalized AI-driven campaigns will break through.

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.