Need to Know News - November 8th, 2025
In this week's Need to Know News edition:
🤖 Shopify's AI-driven purchases exploded 11x since January... and why their President says it's "laying the rails for agentic commerce."
🤖 Half of all HR executives now use AI to screen job applicants... but theres a critical catch.
🤖 ChatGPT's new "Update" button lets you interrupt the AI mid-response to fix mistakes.
And a whole lot more!
Google Launches AI Tools to Automate Publisher Workflows
Google introduced three AI features for Ad Manager, AdSense, and AdMob that learn brand standards, create custom reports through natural language queries, and provide instant chat support. The brand safety tool will automatically block unwanted ads after learning from publisher decisions in Ads Review Center.
Publishers can now ask "Which ad units had the highest CPM last week?" to generate reports without technical expertise. Meanwhile, Google's CTV Live-biddable solution helps monetize high-viewership events as 82% of buyers plan to increase programmatic live CTV investment
Half of HR Executives Deploy AI for Hiring Decisions
Google and Ipsos research shows 50% of HR execs now use AI to match, screen, and rank job applicants, with 47% leveraging it to identify skills gaps. And nearly 70% of job seekers employ AI for their searches while simultaneously building their own AI proficiency.
The hiring crisis drives this adoption. 60% of HR leaders report a mismatch between applicant skills and employer needs. Almost half believe most candidates are underqualified, especially in specialized fields like technology and healthcare.
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Shopify Reports 11x Surge in AI-Driven Purchases
Traffic from AI tools to Shopify stores jumped 7x since January. But AI-powered search attributed purchases increased even more dramatically—11x over the same period.
President Harley Finkelstein credits access to data from millions of merchants and billions of transactions, plus partnerships with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot for in-chat shopping experiences. Shopify's internal Scout tool uses AI to search hundreds of millions of merchant feedback pieces for better product decisions, and a company survey found 64% of shoppers likely to use AI when purchasing.
ChatGPT Adds Mid-Response Interruption Feature
OpenAI enabled users to interrupt ChatGPT while it's generating responses, particularly valuable for GPT-5 Pro and Deep Research users facing longer processing times and limited prompts. An "Update" button lets you add context or corrections during the AI's reasoning process without restarting from scratch.
Users can redirect the conversation in real-time by clicking Update in the sidebar and adding new information. The AI immediately adjusts its answer. The feature solves the common problem of submitting incomplete prompts or copying wrong details, especially painful when using advanced models that take minutes to respond.
Writer's AI Forum Exposes the C-Suite Chaos Problem
Here's a stat that should terrify every executive: 42% of Fortune 500 leaders say AI is literally tearing their companies apart. But only 15% of AI initiatives operate cross-functionally at scale, per Boston Consulting Group research. Writer CEO May Habib blames a "category error" where businesses treat AI like previous IT rollouts instead of business redesign.
The winners? They push AI control to frontline workers and design governance for velocity rather than risk mitigation. Qualcomm saves 2,400 hours monthly with 100 custom AI agents, while e.l.f. Beauty runs 85 pilots with power users testing before production rollout.
Snap Partners with Perplexity for $400M Integration
Perplexity's AI answer engine will integrate directly into Snapchat's Chat interface starting early 2026, reaching 943 million monthly active users. The deal pays Snap $400 million over one year through cash and equity as they achieve global rollout, with Snapchatters able to ask questions and get conversational answers with verifiable sources without leaving the app. Over 75% of 13-34-year-olds in 25+ countries use Snapchat, making it a strategic distribution channel for AI partners.
Google's Turkey Ad Dodges AI Uncanny Valley
Google released its first completely AI-generated commercial using Veo 3, featuring a toylike plush turkey escaping Thanksgiving through AI Mode in Google Search. Creative Lab VP Robert Wong deliberately avoided prominently labeling it as AI-made because consumers don't care about production methods.
The company chose a non-human character to sidestep uncanny valley criticisms plaguing Toys "R" Us and Coca-Cola's AI ads. While Google has shown convincing AI-generated people in demos, it hasn't used them in advertising yet. Wong predicts AI will become a common production tool like Photoshop, though he acknowledges concerns about "AI slop" and race-to-the-bottom quality.
TS Imagine's AI ROI Proves the Investment Pays Off
Fintech firm TS Imagine eliminated work equivalent to 8.5 full-time employees through three AI deployments handling customer service tickets, vendor emails, and corporate action processing. COO Thomas Bodenski says manual errors disappeared while processing times dropped from 10 minutes to one minute per task.
Instead of cutting staff, the company reassigned displaced workers to higher-value roles in data quality and client relationships. A Wharton study backs this up, finding 74% of enterprises already see positive ROI from AI projects. And after thousands of implementation hours, Bodenski's verdict is clear: "100% worth it. I would not go back. Not possible."
Mailchimp Report Finds Mid-Market AI Skills Gap
Despite 98% of mid-market marketers believing AI will improve effectiveness, only one-third use it widely across their organizations. What's blocking them?
Lack of in-house expertise (39%), integration challenges (35%), and data privacy concerns (33%) for companies with 10-499 employees.More than half operate with 10 or fewer marketing staff, concentrating media investments in fewer than five channels, primarily paid search and social.
Nano Banana 2 Image Model Launch Imminent
Google's Gemini interface now displays pre-release announcement cards for "GEMPIX2," the second version of its Nano Banana creative AI model. These cards typically appear about a week before public availability, following the pattern from Nano Banana's first release. That suggests a mid-November launch.
Google positions these models for high-performance image generation with unique styles and faster rendering, though official documentation hasn't dropped yet. The discovery comes from examining Gemini UI changes and feature flags.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
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