Need to Know News - December 27th, 2025
In this week's Need to Know News edition:
🤖 Meta's secret "Mango" and "Avocado" AI models could bake content creation directly into Instagram and Facebook...
🤖 U.S. holiday retail sales climbed 3.9% as e-commerce surged 7.4%... Mastercard reveals how AI-powered shopping experiences drove the omnichannel boom.
🤖 Only 6% of companies have AI-ready data infrastructure... New study reveals the one critical metric that's the strongest predictor of Al success in 2026.
And a whole lot more!
Meta's 'Mango' and 'Avocado' AI Models Target 2026 Launch
Meta is building two major AI models with fruity code names. Mango focuses on high-quality image and video generation while Avocado handles text and code. Both should arrive in the first half of 2026 under Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang, who now leads Meta's new superintelligence division.
The company has struggled to keep pace with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. These foundation models could eventually power native creative tools inside Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
U.S. Holiday Retail Sales Climb 3.9% as Shoppers Blend Online and In-Store
Shoppers got strategic this holiday season. Mastercard SpendingPulse reports U.S. retail sales rose 3.9% year over year from November 1 through December 21.
E-commerce jumped 7.4% while in-store grew 2.9%. Apparel stood out at 7.8%, with consumers browsing online then heading to stores to try things on. Restaurant spending climbed 5.2% too, signaling dining out has become part of holiday tradition.
Behind the scenes, AI played a growing role. Personalized recommendations and smarter inventory management helped retailers deliver what customers actually wanted this year.
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Google Expands AI Overview Ads to 12 Countries, Blocks Sensitive Topics
Ads inside Google's AI Overviews are spreading internationally. Google quietly updated its documentation to confirm ads now appear in 12 countries including Australia, Canada, India, and the U.S. Previously it was just the U.S. with vague promises about expansion.
There are limits though. Google won't show these ads for sensitive topics like healthcare, finance, alcohol, gambling, or politics. This signals Google is getting more aggressive about monetizing its AI search features while trying to sidestep the messiest controversies.
Consumer Trust in AI-Generated Creator Content Drops Sharply
People are growing more suspicious of AI in the creator economy. The share of consumers viewing generative AI as a negative disruptor nearly doubled, jumping from 18% to 32% since November 2023, according to Billion Dollar Boy and Censuswide.
Enthusiasm for AI-generated creator work collapsed from 60% to just 26% over the same period. Transparency is a big part of the problem. More than half of consumers worry about brands posting AI content without disclosure. That gap between what brands do and what audiences expect keeps getting wider.
Microsoft Confirms Exact Match Keywords Beat Performance Max Every Time
Advertisers wondering which campaign wins when Search and Performance Max compete now have a clear answer. Microsoft confirmed on December 18 that exact match keywords always get priority, regardless of Ad Rank. Navah Hopkins, Microsoft Ads Liaison, explained on LinkedIn that an exact match in a Search campaign will beat Performance Max for the same query.
Everything else goes to Ad Rank. This lets advertisers protect high-intent queries while Performance Max handles broader audiences. One wrinkle though: exact match rarely triggers on Copilot since conversational queries almost never match keywords precisely.
AI Pioneer Says the Technology is 'Limited' and Won't Replace Humans Anytime Soon
Andrew Ng co-founded Google Brain and taught some of today's top AI leaders. So when he says AGI is nowhere close, it carries weight. "The tricky thing about AI is that it is amazing and it is also highly limited," Ng told NBC News.
He sees today's training methods as too manual and complex to reach human-level intelligence on their own. Ng also pushed back hard on advice telling people not to learn coding, calling it "some of the worst career advice ever given."
Full Story
Alexa+ Adds Expedia, Yelp, Angi, and Square for 2026
Amazon wants you booking hotels and scheduling appointments through Alexa. The company announced four new integrations coming to Alexa+ in 2026: Expedia, Yelp, Angi, and Square. You can ask for pet-friendly hotels in Chicago or get quotes for home repairs without opening an app.
These join existing partners like Uber, OpenTable, and Ticketmaster. Amazon noted that services like Thumbtack have seen strong early engagement. The bet is that AI assistants can become app platforms. Whether users actually change their habits remains an open question.
Data Maturity Is the Strongest Predictor of Al Success in 2026, Says New CData
Most companies chasing AI ROI are tripping over their own data. A new CData study found just 6% of enterprises consider their infrastructure genuinely ready for AI. Nearly 71% of teams spend more than a quarter of every AI project just wiring data sources together, leaving little time for actual innovation.
Organizations with mature AI capabilities share one thing in common: they already built centralized, governed data access layers. Without that foundation, even the best models stumble. Data connectivity has quietly become a board-level concern.
DoorDash Launches Zesty, an AI-Powered Social App for Restaurant Discovery
DoorDash is moving beyond delivery with Zesty, a new AI app for finding local restaurants. Now in beta testing across San Francisco and New York, the app lets users ask for recommendations in plain language instead of scrolling through reviews. Want a low-key dinner spot good for introverts? Just type it in.
Zesty pulls data from DoorDash, Google Maps, TikTok, and Reddit to generate suggestions. It also adds social features like photo sharing and following other diners. The goal is owning more of the local commerce experience, from discovery all the way through delivery.
Full Story
Thanks for reading.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
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