Need to Know News - July 24th, 2025
In this week's Need to Know News edition:
🤖 Casper's founder just raised a staggering $93 million for an AI chatbot therapist… a radical new tool designed to guide self-reflection and help solve the 10,000-to-1 patient-to-therapist crisis.
🤖 Your next job interview might be with an AI video bot… and how it gives recruiters a secret “candidate score” to decide if you get a fair shot.
🤖 Why one new startup says SEO is officially DEAD… and how their $3.5M AI platform turns your experts into trusted industry influencers in just 10 minutes a day.
And a whole lot more!
Google Shopping Let's You Try On Clothes With AI
Google shopping is launching powerful AI tools designed to help you sell more. The new virtual try-on feature lets customers see your apparel on their own bodies, a tool that can significantly boost conversion rates and reduce costly returns. Enhanced price alerts send targeted notifications to shoppers when the specific size and color they want from your inventory hits their target price.
And starting this fall, AI-generated style and room designs will feature your products in shoppable inspiration, putting your items in front of motivated buyers at the exact moment they're looking to purchase.
Can a Chatbot Be Your Therapist? Casper's Founder Raised $93M to Find Out
What if getting therapy was as easy as buying a mattress online? Neil Parikh, the man behind the Casper mattress-in-a-box, is tackling mental health with his new startup, Slingshot AI.
He just raised $93 million for an AI chatbot therapist named Ash. Parikh says for every one therapist, 10,000 people need care. Ash aims to fill that gap. It's different than .ChatGPT. It's trained by clinicians to guide self-reflection, not give advice. Early research on similar bots is promising, and Parikh plans to offer Ash for free initially.
🚀 Missing One of These 5 Essential 'Copy Blocks' Could Cost You A Fortune!
Two $100+ million copywriters discovered what REALLY drives conversions—5 simple building blocks arranged in a specific order. This framework is so powerful that beginners are generating 5-figure profits with it. And you can learn the full system in just 33 minutes.
Discover All 5 'Copy Blocks' Now
Meet Your AI Interviewer
A Seattle startup called Humanly just launched an AI video bot that interviews job applicants. The goal is to help overwhelmed hiring teams who can only interview about 5% of candidates. The AI, which can look and sound like a real person from your company, asks structured questions and then gives recruiters a candidate score and a recommendation.
The company says they're not trying to replace human touch. Instead, the mission is bigger: making sure no candidate gets ghosted and every applicant gets a fair shot.
Walmart is Betting Its Future on AI Agents
The retail giant revealed its plan to use autonomous AI to overhaul everything. A customer agent called Sparky will soon be able to plan your parties and automatically order your weekly groceries.
Internally, agents are being built to handle tasks for store employees, corporate teams, and even vendors. Walmart believes its advantage is its massive data from shoppers and its status as the world's largest private employer. While execs say jobs will "evolve," big questions about headcount and costs remain.
New AI Startup Raises $3.5M to Turn Execs into Influencers
A new startup called Rocksalt says SEO and content marketing are dead. They just raised $3.5 million from top investors like Lightspeed to prove it. Their AI platform helps your company's experts build real influence online.
It finds the most valuable conversations happening on LinkedIn and Slack so your leaders can jump in and build trust. The founders, a brother-sister team from HubSpot and Yahoo, say it only takes 10 minutes a day to become a credible voice in your industry.
AI Is Now Your Small Business's Secret Weapon for Accounting
The accounting industry is overworked and understaffed, but AI is here to help. It's giving small businesses powerful tools that were once only for large corporations. AI can automate tedious manual tasks, turning your accountant from a number-cruncher into a strategic guide.
For example, it can spot out-of-pattern spending in real-time. While only 21% of small businesses use these tools today, experts say this shift makes accounting more proactive. It gives small firms a fighting chance to compete with bigger players, all with fewer resources.
Proton Launches Lumo, a Privacy-First AI Chatbot
Proton, the privacy company trusted by 100 million people, just launched Lumo. This AI chatbot was built to work for you, not advertisers. Lumo keeps no logs of your chats, never shares your data, and doesn't use your conversations for AI training.
Everything is protected with zero-access encryption, meaning only you can see your chats. You can ask it anything or upload sensitive files with total peace of mind. Based in Europe for stronger privacy laws, Lumo lets you ask private questions or upload sensitive documents without worry. You can even start using it for free without an account.
AI is Taking Over Main Street, and Small Businesses Are Here for It
AI is rapidly moving onto Main Street, and it's changing how small businesses operate. According to a new survey, 4 in 10 small business owners now use AI. But here’s the real story: 54% of them say they have already reduced staff or may do so in the future because of it.
Younger owners are embracing AI the most, and 71% of all adopters plan to increase their investment. For many, AI isn't just a tool for efficiency; it's starting to reshape the workforce itself.
Your Brain on AI Music: A New Study's Surprising Results
In a surprising new study, AI-composed music was found to stir up more intense emotions than music made by humans. Researchers tracked the physiological responses of 88 participants and discovered that AI music caused greater pupil dilation—a key sign of emotional arousal.
While people found the human-composed songs more "familiar," they rated the AI tracks as more "exciting." Interestingly, the findings also suggest that our brains work harder to understand the emotional information in AI music, opening up new possibilities for creating powerful audiovisual experiences.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
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