Rufus

For companies like Shopify, Criteo and Instacart – and even for giants like Amazon and Walmart – figuring out if the agentic oasis is real or a mirage is their priority No. 1.

Dappier’s new ad format allows advertisers to insert a custom brand agent into AI chat sessions on publisher sites.

Agentic commerce can’t stop, won’t stop; Perplexity is officially done with its ads business; and AppLovin may launch its own social media platform.

Amazon locked in two more publishers for its AI shopping engine; AI companies are working on web browsers now; and platforms have a hard time telling AI from reality.

Amazon’s Rufus: yet another example of Big Tech pushing AI bots onto its platforms. Plus, pushback against Google search engine monetization.