Need to Know News - August 28th, 2025
In this week's Need to Know News edition:
🤖 AI image editing makes a giant leap with Google's 'Nano Banana'.
🤖 Why companies are paying Gen-Z AI talent $260K a year...even with little experience.
🤖 Are AR + AI ads underrated? A new Snapchat study makes a finding too big to ignore.
And a whole lot more!
Gemini's New AI Editor Finally Makes You Look Like... You.
Tired of AI edits that make you look "close but not quite right"? Google's Gemini might have finally solved that. Its new DeepMind image editor - codenamed "Nano Banana" - is already the world's top-rated model for maintaining a person's likeness.
You can change your outfit, hairstyle, or even put your pet in a new scene, and they will still look like themselves. And you can keep editing in multiple steps, like painting a room then adding furniture. You can even blend photos or apply the pattern from a butterfly's wings to a dress.
Why Companies Are Paying Gen-Z AI Talent $260K Even With Little Experience
There’s a lucrative new path for Gen-Z job seekers. While entry-level jobs disappear, companies are paying huge salaries for young AI experts. Pay for these roles is up 12% from last year. And promotions happen at twice the normal rate. Databricks pays AI scientists with only two years of experience $190,000 to $260,000.
The reason? CEO Ali Ghodsi says senior employees won’t adopt AI, so they need "AI-native" talent to drive change. As Mark Cuban says, this is "where kids get hired."
🚀 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
2.5 Years of AI Data: A16z's 5th AI Apps Report Reveals Who's Really Winning
Andreessen Horowitz's fifth "Top 100" report draws on 2.5 years of data to reveal a stabilizing market. While ChatGPT remains #1, the power map is shifting. Google's Gemini is hot on its heels, grabbing nearly half its mobile users. X's Grok also made a massive leap to 20 million mobile users.
But the biggest story might be China's quiet dominance. Its developers are behind an estimated 22 of the top 50 mobile apps.
Is AI Talking About Your Brand? Bluefish Just Raised $20M to Find Out
Your customers are using AI more and more to discover products. And Bluefish just raised $20 million to make sure they find you. The platform helps huge brands like Adidas control what AIs like ChatGPT say about them. Its revenue has grown ten times in only six months.
Bluefish studies millions of AI prompts to help marketers track and improve their brand's story. Its new "Custom AI Audiences" feature even lets companies target specific customer groups.
AI Gardeners Are Here, and They're a Huge Help
What if you could get expert plant advice at any hour? Now you can. Garden centers are using AI chatbots to help you succeed. And customers are loving the instant support. At Costa Farms, their bot handles an incredible 25% of all customer questions, leaving shoppers happy.
Meanwhile, Bloomin' Easy's AI assistant, "Daisy Digs," is so helpful that other retailers use her to support their own customers. These bots are more than just a help desk. They boost confidence, drive sales, and help stores know exactly what you want to buy next.
AI Just Beat Humans at Job Interviews.
A landmark study just proved AI is better than humans at job interviews. The experiment involved 70,000 applicants, and the results are stunning. Candidates interviewed by an AI were more likely to get hired and stay in the job.
The AI interviews were more structured and consistent, which led to applicants giving clearer answers. It was also much fairer, with reports of bias cut nearly in half. But the real shocker? When given a choice, 78% of people chose the AI over a human recruiter.
The New Rules of AI Ads: A New Study from Snap Reveals What Works
A huge new study from Snap proves AI-powered ads are crushing old-school methods. The research found that ads using GenAI video and AR Lenses are seen as more unique and entertaining. They grab far more attention and make people see brands as more innovative.
But here’s the secret: you have to tell people it’s AI. Most consumers want disclosure, and it builds trust. And marketers agree. They see AI not as a replacement, but as a powerful tool to help humans create better, more engaging work.
Your AI Pilot Will Probably Fail. Salesforce Built a Simulator to Save It.
MIT recently found a staggering 95% of enterprise AI pilots are failing to reach production. To solve this, Salesforce has created CRMArena-Pro, a "flight simulator" for AI agents. This digital twin of a business allows companies to stress-test AI in realistic corporate scenarios before deployment.
Salesforce also introduced a new benchmark to evaluate agents on five key metrics including accuracy, cost, and safety. The goal is to close the gap between impressive AI demos and the messy reality of business operations, ensuring new AI tools are truly enterprise-ready.
Short Videos Are Key to Winning Festive Shoppers
How do you capture shoppers' attention this festive season? A new report from VDO.AI has the answer: short videos. An incredible 81% of consumers say these ads grab their attention most. And they are ready to open their wallets, with 41% planning to spend more than last year.
But there's a catch. Big city shoppers want premium items, while smaller towns are focused on value. The key is using short videos and TV ads to deliver the perfect message to the right person.
Microsoft's New AI "Punches Way Above Its Weight"
After years of backing OpenAI, Microsoft just unveiled its own powerful AI models. And they're designed to be lean. The new text model, MAI-1-preview, was trained on just 15,000 Nvidia chips, a fraction of the 100,000 used for competitors like Grok.
I chief Mustafa Suleyman says the model is "punching way above its weight." This move officially pits Microsoft against its partner OpenAI. It's a crucial step for the tech giant to control its own destiny in the high-stakes AI race, from the chips to the software itself.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
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