WLAIM

We welcomed 14 new awesome new women members Marie, Elodie, Julie, Samantha, Laetitia, Elise, Sandrine, Alexandra, Ludivine, Solenne, Caroline, Laetitia, Marie, and Constance. AI Marketing Rock Stars from 🇫🇷 and 🇺🇲. We had a blast with Robert Rose chating about Content Strategy & AI Check the full wrap-up (Here). We had a terrific workshop led by Diane's mastery on how to use AI for our branding Check the full wrap-up (Here) We have a new website!!! During our AI Monthly Chat we announced a big news... We are working on our community AI Agent ;). Coming soon... From Paris to Miami, some of us got to meet in person. Elodie & Samantha met IRL in Paris 🥖 Peggy, Ludivine and Karine met IRL in Miami Beach 🌴 Elodie, our AI Agent super star was on French National TV - just that!! In 90 Minutes Business on BFM TV: Will AI kill my job. Top french AI experts are answering your questions.

What? • A transcript of Alphabet's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings conference call, where Alphabet's leadership team (Sundar Pichai, Philipp Schindler, and Anat Ashkenazi) discusses the company's financial performance and strategic initiatives, with a particular focus on AI's impact on Google Search. • An analysis of the transformation of Google Search through AI integration, particularly through AI Overviews, Circle to Search, and Gemini models, and how these innovations are driving user engagement, satisfaction, and business growth. Excerpt 'As AI continues to expand the universe of queries that people can ask, 2025 is going to be one of the biggest years for Search innovation yet' - (Sundar Pichaï). In A Nutshell The most significant insight is that Google's AI integration into Search is not cannibalizing its business model but enhancing it. As stated by Philipp Schindler: "for the AI Overviews overall, we actually see monetization at approximately the same rate, which I think really gives us a strong base on which we can innovate even more." This addresses the key concern many had about whether AI would disrupt Google's search advertising business. Golden Nuggets • AI Overviews has expanded to over 100 countries and is driving higher satisfaction and search usage • Circle to Search is now available on over 200 million Android devices and generating incremental search queries • Users are asking entirely new types of questions using voice, camera, and other AI-enabled interfaces • Younger users are showing particularly strong engagement with AI-powered search features • The monetization rate of AI Overviews is approximately equal to traditional search • Gemini 2.0 is being tested in AI Overviews with broader rollout planned later in 2025 • Google continues to see year-over-year growth in overall Search usage • Search remains the largest contributor to Alphabet's revenue growth • Google is expanding the universe of possible queries through AI, making 2025 potentially "one of the biggest years for Search innovation yet" Main Data • AI Overviews available in more than 100 countries • Circle to Search available on over 200 million Android devices • Users who have tried Circle to Search now use it to start more than 10% of their searches • Lens is used for over 20 billion visual search queries every month • The majority of Lens searches are incremental (new searches that wouldn't have happened otherwise) • Google Shopping saw approximately 13% more daily active users in December 2024 compared to 2023 • Google is present in over half of journeys where a new brand, product, or retailer is discovered • Search & Other Advertising Revenues increased by 13% to $54 billion in Q4 2024 • Financial Services vertical led Search growth, followed by Retail • Black Friday and Cyber Monday each generated over $1 billion in ad revenue • Search remained the largest contributor to Alphabet's revenue growth in Q4 2024 • Google's data centers deliver nearly four times more computing power per unit of electricity compared to five years ago • In 2024, the monetization rate of Shorts relative to instream viewing increased by more than 30 percentage points in the U.S. • Alphabet revenue for 2024 reached $350 billion, up 14% on a reported basis • Free Cash Flow was $24.8 billion in Q4 and $72.8 billion for the full year 2024 What's In It For Marketers? • Optimize for multimodal search: With 20 billion monthly visual search queries through Lens and the growth of Circle to Search, marketers should optimize their content for visual and voice search, not just text. • Focus on younger demographics: AI-powered search features like AI Overviews and Circle to Search are particularly popular with younger users. Marketers should adapt their strategies to reach this demographic through these new interfaces. • Leverage AI-powered shopping experiences: Google's reinvented Shopping experience uses AI to show relevant products and generate briefs with key considerations. Marketers should ensure their product information is comprehensive to be properly featured in these AI-generated summaries. • Prepare for expanded query types: As users learn they can ask new types of questions, marketers should expand their keyword strategies to include more conversational, complex queries that AI can now address. • Maintain advertising investment in Search: With monetization rates for AI Overviews comparable to traditional search, advertisers should continue investing in search advertising while adapting to new formats and placements. Who? Presentations and responses from Alphabet's leadership team: • Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google • Philipp Schindler, SVP and Chief Business Officer, Google • Anat Ashkenazi, SVP and CFO, Alphabet and Google • Jim Friedland, Senior Director of Investor Relations (moderator) Source Full recording is available at Q4 2024 Earnings Call webcast, accessible through Alphabet's Investor Relations website at abc.xyz/investor.

The 2025 Paris AI Action Summit will clearly be remembered as a pivotal moment in global artificial intelligence governance and innovation. Here were the main topics we talked about... ... And our related mood about each news. • 😎 Europe promised to spend €150 billion on AI technology. • 😬 Countries formed partnerships to protect themselves. • 🤔 People argued about removing rules for AI companies. • 😓 The summit showed that the U.S., China, and Europe are racing to lead in AI technology. • 🤔 President Macron wants France to balance the power of big American and Chinese tech companies. • 🤑 France secured €109 billion from private companies. • 😩 The U.S. and U.K. did not sign the summit's agreement about making AI available to everyone - apparently not everyone agree about how to handle AI. • 🤗 Mistral platform is getting in the big game (finally?). • 😳 Vice President JD Vance warned (lectured?) Europe about "too much regulation will kill innovation". • 😏 President Macron triggered active debate with his AI-Generated video of himself discussing summit topics on Instagram. To wrap up the excerpts that made us talk A LOT... 'I'm not here today to talk about AI Safety (...) I'm here to talk about AI Opportunity' 'This administration will ensure that American AI Technology will continue to be the gold standard worldwide'. 'We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off.' 'We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship'. 'AI will facilitate and make people more productive. It is not going to replace human being. It will NEVER replace human being'. Vice-President JD Vance talking about AI as an opportunity. What were your biggest take from this Paris AI Summit ?

Gemini 2.0 est now available to everyone. Each time we share an AI News like that on the group, the first question we ask right away is... So what?? In that case, THIS news is a BIG Deal … It means 3 things: 1. The lineup includes three new Gemini models - with the idea to get better performance at lower costs. •⁠  ⁠Gemini 2.0 Flash: The “workhorse model”, now generally available. •⁠  ⁠Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: A new budget-friendly option that makes AI more accessible. •⁠  ⁠Gemini 2.0 Pro: Google’s “most powerful model yet”, perfect for coding and complex tasks. 1. You have 2 ways to use these models - and you should!! Use the Gemini app. And/or use Google AI studio. 1. Bigger pictures vision of all those announcements. They’re obviously google’s response to DeepSeek, to Open AI Search Engine opening to everyone. And it basically means that Google is slowly but surely killing its main product Search to transform it as a Big AI Agent (we all agreed on that in our chats). Instead of a platform, Google Search becomes an Agent. On this month's earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai laid out Google’s vision for 2025 as: “one of the biggest years for search innovation yet.” Think less “ten blue links” and more “AI assistant that browses the web for you.” Here we are. The plan includes three massive moves for Google:  • Deep Research: An AI agent that creates detailed research reports, automating what people typically do manually with Search (here now). • Project Mariner: A system that can navigate websites for users, potentially changing how we interact with the web entirely (like OpenAI’s Operator). • Project Astra: Google’s multimodal AI that can process live video and answer questions in real-time (potentially powering AR glasses someday). Source: • Geminin 2.0 is now available to everyone • To read with this one: Now you can use Deep Research in Gemini on the go.

What: • An article summarizing Airbnb's earnings call but mostly focusing on their AI strategy for the upcoming months. • Airbnb's strategy for AI integration, with an initial focus on customer support rather than consumer-facing trip planning tools. Excerpt: 'While companies like OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity are working on AI agents — or AI software that can perform a series of tasks on your behalf — Chesky believes the technology is still too early to be of use to Airbnb just yet. However, he believes that eventually, AI will have a “profound impact on travel,” even if nothing has changed for the major travel platforms as of now. (...) As AI technology continues to develop, Airbnb will expand the AI-powered customer service agent to be a part of Airbnb’s search and, at some point much further down the road, it will also become a “travel and living concierge,” Chesky said. In a Nutshell: • Airbnb plans to roll out AI for customer support in summer 2025. • CEO Brian Chesky believes AI trip planning technology is still too early for widespread implementation. • The company sees AI as being in its early stages, comparable to the internet in the mid-to-late 1990s. • Long-term plans include expanding AI into search functionality and eventually creating a "travel and living concierge". • The company has experienced small productivity gains from internal AI use in engineering. • Airbnb reported Q4 revenue of $2.48 billion (above estimates of $2.42 billion) Golden Nuggest: Airbnb's strategic decision (definitely unusual these days) to first implement AI in customer support rather than consumer-facing trip planning reflects a more cautious and practical approach to AI adoption compared to what consumers might have expected. It also shows a bold resistance to the major hype around AI agents... Laser-focused on his company's growth, rather than on major trends. Brave. Brilliant. What's In It For Marketers? • Pause, breathe & relax on your AI's anxiety and feeling of always being behind. You're not. And if you're reading this, you definitely should be proud of you :). • Prioritize practical AI implementations that deliver immediate business value before more experimental consumer-facing applications. Don't follow trends like a sheep. Lead them like a lion. • Assess AI technologies for actual readiness rather than hype when planning integration strategies. • Consider customer service as a high-impact, lower-risk entry point for AI implementation. Test & learn with minimal damages. • Look for operational efficiency improvements through AI before focusing on transformative user experiences. • Monitor how competitors in your industry are balancing AI innovation against practical implementation concerns. Taking the opposite approach is often a good business AND marketing decision. Source: Techcrunch - Airbnb CEO says it’s still too early for AI trip planning

This past month, for some reason, we tested a bunch of Text-To-Speech tools. At least we shared our favorite ones and as a consequence, were very much on top of the new ones. Here are the new ones we're currently testing: • ElevenLabs just launched Scribe, 'the world's most accurate ASR model' (Here). • Hume AI just launched Octave, presented as the first text-to-speech model that understands what it's saying (Here). • Among our top lists here you go: On the other side, from Speech to Written note, we tried two different ones: • Speech-to-note (Here). Can't say I was so impressed but ok. • Rev-ai (Here). Definitely my go-to-tools when I'm a at conferences. Which other AI Tools focused on Text-To-Speech would you recommend us?

What? A comprehensive guide about audience research for marketers in 2025. The guide explains what audience research is, why it's essential, how it differs from market research, common myths, various methodologies, and how to future-proof audience research strategies. Who? From Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro. Main Topic: Audience research - the process of gathering and analyzing information about the people marketers want to reach. The guide positions audience research as critical for modern marketing success, especially as consumer discovery and engagement behaviors have fundamentally changed in recent years. Main Insights: • Audience research is different from market research - the former is people-centric (micro) while the latter is landscape-centric (macro) • Current audience research practices are insufficient, with 41% of marketers admitting they don't do enough • Five major myths in audience research frequently lead marketers astray • Twelve different methodologies for effective audience research are outlined, each with pros and cons • SparkToro's tool has evolved to use search and clickstream data in addition to social data • There is a correlation between conducting audience research and career satisfaction among marketers • Future-proofing audience research requires staying agile, diversifying data sources, and focusing on first principles rather than trendy tactics THE Excerpt: Audience research is the process of gathering and analyzing information about the people you want to reach with your marketing. It’s understanding your target audience’s motivations, pain points, and behaviors. Everything you learn will inform your marketing strategies, messaging, and campaigns. Done well, your efforts will resonate with your audience. I've listened to tens of Rand Fishkin's interviews, including some from when he was just getting started with Sparktoro. And THE sentence that resonated the most, which wraps up what he's aiming to achieve with Sparktoro, was this one: Ask yourself: Who Can (and will) Amplify This? Golden Nuggets: The most crucial insight is that traditional audience research methods often fail because they rely on what people say they do rather than what they actually do. The marketing landscape has fundamentally changed: • Google answers two-thirds of searches without a click, • social platforms prioritize native content over links, • and audiences make decisions about brands long before reaching their websites. This new reality requires more sophisticated audience research that captures actual behaviors rather than self-reported ones. Top Stats & Data: • 41% of marketers admit to not doing audience research "nearly enough" • 19% of marketers conduct audience research monthly • There's a positive correlation between career satisfaction and frequency of audience research • Two-thirds of Google searches end without a click • Of searches that do end with a click, almost half are branded or navigational searches • 100% of all visits from TikTok, Slack, Discord, Mastodon, and WhatsApp are marked as "direct" with no referral information • 75% of visits from Facebook Messenger contain no referral information • Instagram DMs, public LinkedIn, and Pinterest posts miss 30%, 14%, and 12% of referral data respectively What's in it for Marketers? • Combine multiple research methods: The most successful marketers use a combination of research methods to build a true understanding of audience behavior. Start with one or two methods that make sense for your situation and expand from there. • Focus on actual behavior, not self-reported behavior: People are terrible at accurately reporting their own behavior. Track what they actually do rather than what they say they do through tools like social listening, website analytics, and third-party research. • Look beyond your current customers: Your current customers represent only a fraction of your potential audience. Research should include those who haven't found you yet and people who influence your customers (creators, journalists, analysts, etc.). • Don't treat audience research as a one-time activity: Audience behaviors and preferences change regularly. Conduct audience research at least once a year (ideally multiple times) to stay current with shifting demographics, behaviors, and sources of influence. • Understand the difference between traffic sources and decision-making sources: Where people find you isn't necessarily where they make decisions. Focus on understanding the full customer journey, not just the final touchpoint that led to your website. Source: • SparkToro Blog, February 3, 2025

What: A research paper published at CHI '25 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) that investigates how generative AI affects critical thinking among knowledge workers. The authors surveyed 319 knowledge workers who regularly use GenAI tools to understand when and how they enact critical thinking when using these tools, and when they perceive increased or decreased effort for critical thinking due to GenAI. Who: The research was conducted by Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee from Carnegie Mellon University and a team from Microsoft Research Cambridge including Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, Ian Drosos, Sean Rintel, Richard Banks, and Nicholas Wilson. In a Nutshell: • Knowledge workers perceive GenAI as reducing the effort required for critical thinking tasks, especially when they have higher confidence in AI capabilities. • Higher confidence in GenAI is associated with less critical thinking, while higher self-confidence in one's own abilities is associated with more critical thinking. • GenAI shifts the nature of critical thinking toward: • Information verification (rather than information gathering) • Response integration (rather than problem-solving) • Task stewardship (rather than task execution) • Three key motivators for critical thinking with GenAI: • Desire to improve work quality • Avoid potential negative outcomes • Develop professional skills • Three main inhibitors of critical thinking with GenAI: • Awareness barriers (e.g., overreliance on AI) • Motivation barriers (e.g., time pressure) • Ability barriers (e.g., difficulty improving AI responses) Key Stats & Facts: • 79% perceived less effort for comprehension tasks with GenAI. • 72% perceived less effort for analysis with GenAI. • 76% perceived less effort for synthesis with GenAI. Top 3...: • Top 3 GenAI tools used by participants: ChatGPT (96.87%), Microsoft Copilot website (23.20%), and Gemini website (21.63%). • Top 3 occupations represented: Computer and Mathematical (18.50%), Arts/Design/Entertainment/Sports/Media (13.79%), and Office/Administrative Support (11.91%). Golden nuggets: The most crucial finding is the inverse relationship between confidence in AI and critical thinking effort: as users trust GenAI more, they engage in less critical evaluation of its outputs. This creates a potential "irony of automation" where the tool that is meant to enhance productivity may ultimately diminish users' critical thinking capabilities through reduced practice, especially for routine tasks. What's In It For Marketers? What Marketers Can Do to Maintain Critical Thinking While Using GenAI? 1. Implement a "verify-first" habit: Before accepting any GenAI output for marketing content, establish a routine of verifying key claims, statistics, and brand messaging. Create a checklist of verification sources (industry reports, brand guidelines, legal requirements) that you review for each AI-generated piece. 1. Practice regular AI-free ideation sessions: Set aside dedicated time (perhaps weekly) where you generate marketing concepts completely without AI assistance first, then compare with AI-assisted approaches afterward. This maintains your creative muscles while helping you recognize when AI is truly adding value. 1. Adopt the "three alternatives" approach: When using GenAI for marketing strategy or content creation, always request multiple versions, then critically evaluate each against your objectives. The act of comparison forces critical assessment rather than passive acceptance. 1. Document your reasoning: When making marketing decisions based on GenAI suggestions, write down your specific reasoning for accepting or rejecting each recommendation. This metacognitive practice strengthens analytical thinking and prevents over-reliance. If possible, do it the 'old school' way: with a pencil and a white sheet of paper ;). 1. Use AI as a sounding board, not a decision-maker: Approach GenAI as a collaborative thought partner by presenting your initial marketing ideas first, then asking for feedback or enhancements, rather than starting with an empty prompt expecting the AI to do all the thinking. 1. Schedule regular skill maintenance: Identify core marketing skills (copywriting, data analysis, audience research) that GenAI might automate, and deliberately practice these manually at regular intervals to maintain proficiency, even as you leverage AI for efficiency. Don't fully delegate to Gen AI. You are and remain in charge! Always. 1. Create feedback loops: After implementing AI-assisted marketing campaigns, systematically analyze performance against your own predictions. This critical evaluation of outcomes strengthens your judgment and helps identify AI's strengths and weaknesses in your specific marketing context. Sources: The impact of generative AI on critical thinking: self reported reductions in cognitive effort and confidence effects from a survey of knowledge workers. Do you feel that GenAI helps you be smarter or not really?

What: A great article about the evolution of marketing technology (martech) stack architecture, specifically discussing a shift from the traditional "systems of record and engagement" model to a new paradigm of "systems of context and truth." Who: The one & only brilliant martech guru, Scott Brinker. Excerpt: 'With the rise of AI agents, both employee-facing and customer-facing, context is being created more dynamically. Many AI agents can be spun up, each tailored to a specific task or workflow for an employee or hyper-personalized for a specific customer’s experience. Systems of context differ from systems of engagement quantitatively — increasingly, there are more AI agents are proliferating across the stack than traditional SaaS platforms — and qualitatively because they’re purpose-fit for much more specialized contexts'. In a Nutshell: • Traditional martech was divided into systems of record (data storage) and systems of engagement (customer interaction) • Cloud data warehouses/lakehouses have separated data storage from data arbitration • AI is enabling more dynamic, context-aware systems • The new model consists of: • Systems of Truth: Handle data governance and arbitration • Systems of Context: Provide dynamic, AI-driven experiences • The future will include buyer-side AI agents that interact with seller's systems • The reality is more of a graph structure than a traditional stack Golden Nuggets: The key insight is that AI is fundamentally changing how martech systems operate, moving from fixed, predefined experiences to dynamic, context-aware interactions that can adapt to specific situations and user needs. What's In It For Marketers? As this is discussing trends and predictions for 2025, some of the concepts are forward-looking and speculative in nature. You should consider these as strategic planning insights rather than immediate implementation requirements. • Prepare for the shift to AI-driven dynamic experiences by evaluating current martech stack architecture • Consider how your current systems of record can evolve into systems of truth that work with cloud data warehouses • Start planning for the integration of AI agents into customer interactions • Evaluate how your current data governance strategies align with the new model • Consider how your organization will handle buyer-side AI agents in future interactions Sources: Meet the new martech stack: systems of context and systems of truth

What: An AMAZING report from Hubspot highlighting the extraordinary revival of newsletters. Newsletters are one of the most effective, low-cost, and high-ROI content marketing channels available today. Whether you're building a personal brand or growing a business, newsletters offer direct access to engaged audiences, monetization potential, and long-term brand-building opportunities. 🚀 Who: HubSpot Media, featuring contributions from newsletter experts at The Hustle and various industry thought leaders. What's in it: The report explores the current state and future of newsletters as a powerful tool for content marketing and audience engagement. It provides insights into how marketers and businesses can leverage newsletters to drive revenue, build communities, and create long-term brand engagement. In a nutshell: The report discusses the renaissance of newsletters, highlighting their effectiveness in reaching audiences directly without the interference of social media algorithms. It covers trends, revenue models, audience preferences (especially among millennials), content strategies, and technological tools to optimize newsletters. Top Insights: • Newsletters are experiencing a revival as a reliable channel for marketers to connect with audiences. • Millennials (ages 28-43) are the core demographic, preferring niche, high-value content in mobile-friendly formats. • Revenue potential is significant, with many newsletter owners generating $1,500+ per month. • Content strategies that work best blend data and opinion, leveraging unique insights to drive engagement. • AI and automation tools are helping streamline newsletter creation, saving marketers 3+ hours weekly. • Personalization and segmentation are key to higher open and engagement rates. • Video promotions and social media ads are the best ways to attract subscribers. • Compliance with privacy regulations (like GDPR) is crucial to long-term success. Golden Nugget: The most critical takeaway is that newsletters are one of the most profitable and sustainable content formats for marketers today. Unlike social media, where algorithms dictate reach, newsletters provide a direct line to audiences, allowing for deeper engagement, monetization, and brand loyalty. Plus, you own your data! Top Stats & Data to keep in mind: 1. 64% of newsletter subscribers are millennials. 2. 52% of marketers use LinkedIn Newsletters as their primary platform. 3. 73% of respondents believe a profitable newsletter can replace a full-time job. 4. 33% of newsletters with 200+ subscribers make $1,500+ per month. 5. 22% of smaller newsletters (less than 200 subscribers) still generate $100-$500 per month. 6. 44% of respondents say newsletters generate revenue faster than podcasts or videos. 7. 72% of marketers spend less than $300 per month to maintain their newsletter. 8. 57% of smaller newsletter owners (less than 200 subs) spend $100 or less per month. 9. 37% of marketers say data-driven content boosts open rates. 10. 38% say opinion-based content drives the most traffic. 11. 31% of marketers use AI to edit content, and 34% say AI saves them 3+ hours per week. 12. Video promotion is the top subscriber growth tactic (12%), followed by paid social ads (10%). 13. 30% of large newsletters (200+ subscribers) schedule their content based on audience behavior. 14. Only 8% of marketers rely on user-generated content (UGC) for their newsletters. 15. 34% of marketers say AI content generation is the biggest trend impacting newsletters. 16. 25% of newsletters have open rates of 20% or higher. 17. 20% report click rates of 20% or higher. 18. Three in four newsletters report unsubscribe rates of 5% or lower. 19. 10% of marketers say paid social ads are their best subscriber growth tactic. 20. Top revenue strategies: paid subscribers (26%), freemium models (20%), and sponsorships (13%). What Marketers can do about this? 1. Leverage AI to streamline newsletter production. • AI saves 3+ hours per week in content creation, formatting, and editing. • Use AI to enhance personalization, optimize subject lines, and improve engagement. 2. Target millennials with mobile-optimized, niche content. • Millennials (ages 28-43) make up 64% of newsletter audiences. • Focus on short, digestible content with strong visuals and interactive elements. 3. Use video promotions and paid social ads to grow subscribers. • 12% of marketers say video promotions drive the most newsletter sign-ups. • 10% find success with paid social ads, particularly on YouTube and Facebook. 4. Adopt a multi-revenue strategy. • Combine paid subscriptions (26%), freemium models (20%), and sponsorships (13%). • If you have 200+ subscribers, you can earn $1,500+ per month. 5. Optimize newsletters with data-driven and opinion-based content. • 37% of marketers say data-based content boosts open rates. • 38% say opinion-based content drives higher traffic. • The best-performing newsletters blend both formats for maximum engagement. Source: HubSpot – The Future of Newsletters 2024 Report

What: A research report by the BBC examining how accurately AI assistants (ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini, and Perplexity) represent BBC News content when answering questions. Who: Research conducted by: - Oli Elliott, Principal Data Scientist, BBC Responsible AI Team - Report signed by Pete Archer, Programme Director Generative AI - Published in February 2025 Main Excerpt: To better understand the news related output from AI assistants we undertook research into four prominent, publicly available AI assistants – OpenAI’s ChatGPT; Microsoft’s Copilot; Google’s Gemini; and Perplexity. We wanted to know whether they provided accurate responses to questions about the news; and if their answers faithfully represented BBC news stories used as sources. We gave the AI assistants access to our website for the duration of the research and asked them questions about the news, prompting them to use BBC News articles as sources where possible. AI answers were reviewed by BBC journalists, all experts in the question topics, on criteria including accuracy, impartiality and how they represented BBC content. Main Insights: The report investigates the accuracy, reliability, and potential risks of AI assistants in delivering news content, specifically focusing on how they handle and represent BBC News content. • AI assistants frequently produce inaccurate or distorted information • They often fail to properly distinguish between facts and opinions • They struggle with proper source attribution • They frequently lack important context in their responses • They can amplify misinformation when shared on social networks • There is no mechanism for AI assistants to correct errors Golden nugget: 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form, with 19% of AI answers citing BBC content introducing factual errors and 13% of quotes being either altered or not present in the cited articles. Top important stats & data: • 51% of AI responses had significant issues • 91% of responses contained at least some issues • 19% of AI answers using BBC content had factual errors • 13% of quotes were altered or fabricated • Gemini had the highest rate of sourcing errors (45%) • Perplexity cited BBC sources in 100% of responses • ChatGPT and Copilot cited BBC in 70% of responses • Gemini cited BBC in 53% of responses • 34% of Gemini responses had significant issues with BBC content representation • 27% of Copilot responses had significant issues • 17% of Perplexity responses had significant issues • 15% of ChatGPT responses had significant issues • 23 instances of commentators' opinions presented as facts • 10% of responses citing BBC had opinion/fact distinction issues • 45 instances of incorrect dates, numbers, and factual statements identified Source: • BBC Article: Groundbreaking BBC research shows issues with over half the answers from Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants • Full Report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/bbc-research-into-ai-assistants.pdf

We had a masterclass workshop delivered by Marie-Laure about how to build you AI-Assistant with zero coding skills (and a lot of patience...). In short: First we explored the distinctions between AI assistants and agents, emphasizing their roles in digital marketing and automation. Then Marie-Laure delved into practical applications, branding strategies, content creation, and the technical aspects of building AI solutions. She shared insights on leveraging AI tools for SEO and the importance of tone of voice in branding. We also covered intricacies of prompt engineering, the importance of tone of voice in communication, and the role of personal branding in enhancing visibility. They explore how to effectively structure communication for AI tools, emphasizing the need for clarity and specificity. The discussion also went on the use of AI for content transformation, creating structured dialogues, and the accessibility of AI tools for beginners. We all concluded with highlighting the potential of AI in building use cases and generating website content. Botton line, our chat around Marie-Laure's workshop was all about: • the integration of AI tools into various workflows,  • the importance of understanding LLMs (Large Language Models) and their customization for specific use cases.  • the evolving role of consultants in the age of AI, the challenges of implementing these technologies, and the necessity of strategic thinking to leverage AI effectively.  • the need to demystify AI for everyday users and the potential for individuals to become experts in fields through the use of AI tools.

We had an incredible workshop led by one of our member, Marie-Laure. It was litterly a masterclass on how to build, on your own and with zero coding skills, your AI assistant to help you create content at scale for a website rebranding and rewriting of a tone of voice. Main Take Aways from this workshop: • Assistants and agents serve different purposes in AI applications. • Automation in digital marketing is evolving with AI technologies. • Real-time user behavior analysis is crucial for effective marketing. • Chatbots function differently from advanced AI agents. • Personalization is key in AI-driven content creation. • Branding strategies must adapt to new digital landscapes. • Content creation requires a clear tone of voice. • AI tools can significantly enhance SEO efforts. • Technical knowledge is beneficial but not mandatory for using AI. • Continuous learning is essential in the rapidly changing AI field. Prompt engineering is crucial for effective communication. • Tone of voice should be professional yet accessible. • Personal branding enhances visibility and credibility. • AI can transform content while maintaining brand voice. • Clear structure is essential for effective dialogues. • Anyone can start using AI tools with minimal investment. • Understanding your needs is key to using AI effectively. • AI can help create structured use cases for businesses. • Focus on concrete results rather than theoretical concepts. • AI tools can simplify the process of content creation. You have to know your job by heart. • It's only the beginning of the work with LLMs. • Customization is key for effective AI integration. • The future of consulting will be hybrid with AI tools. • Strategic thinking is essential in AI implementation. • Demystifying AI is crucial for everyday users. • AI can help create experts in various fields. • Understanding the constraints of LLMs is important. • You can start using AI tools immediately. • The landscape of consulting is changing rapidly due to AI. Our next community workshop is in 3 weeks and it's about AI Imagery: We will learn how to create branded images with Midjourney (workshop in 🇺🇸). ------ ♻️ If you're a women marketers willing to learn how to apply AI to your job, you can join us ▶️ here.

This past Monday we welcomed new members in our European Group. It was awesome to both get to meet new brillants minds AND to debrief on specific AI News impacting Marketing. Monday being the day following Tik-Tok's big "drama ban", we obviously talked a lot about it - and the way social media platform are shifting. In Short: We're witnessing an unprecedented shift in social media dynamics, driven by two major forces: AI innovation and evolving political stances from tech leaders. As Sundar Pichaï said, AI is a massive platform shift. While this is significant for Google, it's even more transformative for social networks. The recent landscape changes are fascinating: • Perplexity AI's bold moves: first acquiring Read. cv then making a surprising bid for TikTok US - showing how AI companies are ready to reshape social networking • Bluesky's explosive growth (17x increase in engagement) shows appetite for decentralized alternatives. • Eric Schmidt's reported Hooglee: An AI-powered video generation and social networking platform. Launched this January, Hooglee aims to revolutionize video creation. Schmidt's goal is clear: challenging platforms like TikTok. • The TikTok situation ( this article is a great summary) creating space for newcomers like Red Note. • New platforms like Republike, launched in November 2022 and aiming to revolutionize content creation and monetization are challenging traditional content ownership models. This is it: AI isn't just a feature anymore - it's becoming the foundation for entirely new social platforms. Combined with unprecedented political involvement from tech leaders, we're living LIVE the first major restructuring of social media since the early 2010s. The Perplexity-TikTok bid especially highlights (one more time) how AI companies are no longer content being tools for existing platforms - they're aiming to become the platforms themselves. Zero-click search is here. Zero-click content too. Questions for you: 1. With AI companies now making plays for social platforms, how do you think this will change content creation and user experience? 1. Which of those new social media platform to you consider switching to/ try? #FutureOfSocialMedia #AI #DigitalTransformation #TechTrends #Innovation #PerplexityAI #TikTok The big AI Platform Shift brings new social media platform

One great read from this past week to share with you: This (massive) post from Huggingface 'AI Agents are here. What now?'. It's worth reading, but since it's a very long article, I've summarized it from a marketing standpoint. Main Topics: • AI Agents • Artificial Intelligence Ethics • Autonomous Systems In Short: This post provides you with a comprehensive overview of AI agents, their capabilities, risks, and benefits, while emphasizing the need for careful development and implementation of these systems as they become more autonomous and integrated into our daily lives. To Break It Down: The article provides an excellent framework for understanding AI agents through several key aspects: Definition: AI agents are systems that can act with autonomy, breaking down high-level goals into subtasks and executing them without direct human intervention. They exist on a spectrum of autonomy, from simple processors to fully autonomous systems. • Characteristics: AI agents vary across multiple dimensions including: • Autonomy levels (from basic to fully autonomous) • Proactivity (ability to take initiative) • Personification and personalization • Versatility (domain, task, and modality coverage) • Action surfaces (where they can operate) • Reactivity (response time) • Values Framework: The article analyzes AI agents through various ethical values such as accuracy, assistiveness, efficiency, equity, privacy, safety, and truthfulness, presenting both potential benefits and risks for each. • Recommendations: The article concludes with key recommendations including developing rigorous evaluation protocols, better understanding effects and ripple effects, improving transparency, and leveraging open source development. Here is the framework - A table detailing the varying levels of AI agent is provided below. One of the clearest frameworks for understanding AI agents through their "agentic" nature - their ability to operate with varying degrees of autonomy. The five-level classification system (from ☆☆☆☆ to ★★★★) offers a practical way to evaluate and categorize different AI agent implementations, making it easier for organizations to assess their needs and risks. How can we, as marketers, use this? • Use this framework to evaluate AI agent solutions for your marketing stack • Better understand the capabilities and limitations of AI agents for marketing automation • Plan for the integration of AI agents in your marketing processes while being mindful of the risks • Make informed decisions about which level of AI agent autonomy is appropriate for which specific use cases

Problem: AI hallucination is one of the 'big deals' in AI. January 16th, Apple stopped using its AI tool that made short versions of news stories because it kept making mistakes. The tool was showing phone alerts that looked like real news but had wrong information in them. At first, Apple waited a while and said they would just add a note saying AI made these summaries. When people kept complaining, Apple turned off the tool completely for news apps. Solution: It is now possible to evaluate LLM hallucination rates in specific contexts, particularly when summarizing documents or working with verifiable source material. What: A public leaderboard that ranks Large Language Models (LLMs) based on their tendency to hallucinate (generate false or unsupported information) when summarizing documents. Key points: 1. The leaderboard is maintained by Vectara using their Hughes Hallucination Evaluation Model (HHEM) 2. It's currently using version 2.1 of HHEM (previous rankings used version 1.0) 3. The leaderboard is regularly updated to reflect both improvements in their evaluation model and updates to the LLMs being tested 4. It's available both on their platform and on Hugging Face Their goal is to provide a standardized way to compare different LLMs' reliability in terms of generating factually consistent summaries without introducing information that wasn't present in the source material. Who: Vectara is a company that provides AI search and retrieval technology services. They are known for developing search and retrieval solutions, particularly in the field of RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) and AI. They've gained attention in the AI community for creating tools to evaluate LLM performance, most notably their Hughes Hallucination Evaluation Model (HHEM) which is used to assess how often AI models generate false or unsupported information. However, I should note that since my knowledge cutoff was in April 2024, I may not be aware of their most recent developments or changes to their company structure. For the most up-to-date information about Vectara, I'd recommend checking their official website or recent tech news sources. If you're interested in learning more about Vectara's work in hallucination detection specifically, I could share more details about their evaluation methodology and approach to measuring LLM accuracy. Methodology: The researchers developed a model to detect hallucinations in LLM outputs, using datasets from factual consistency research. They tested various LLMs by having them summarize 1,000 short documents (primarily from CNN/Daily Mail Corpus) at temperature 0. Of these, 831 documents were successfully summarized by all models, while others were rejected due to content filters. They measured two key metrics: 1. Factual consistency rate (accuracy in summarizing only facts present in the source document) 2. Answer rate (percentage of documents the model was willing to summarize) They chose to evaluate summarization consistency rather than general factual accuracy because: • It allows direct comparison between the model's output and source material • Detecting hallucinations in ad-hoc questions is impossible without knowing each LLM's training data • This approach serves as a good proxy for model truthfulness • It's particularly relevant for RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) systems, where LLMs primarily function as summarizers of search results Sources: • Github Leaderboard • This ranking was also featured in The Visual Capitalist Question to you: Aren't you surprise to NOT see Claude neither Perplexity at the top of the ranking??

😇 Hey everyone!!! Great news for our members!! We created this Notion document to gather all our conversations and shared moments from the past year. It's a fantastic tool that will serve as the "memory" of our community, capturing every detail, shared experience, comment, and joke (and there are many! ;). Here you'll find the history for both groups, French and English. The conversations are organized around the following categories: • AI News • AI resources & research • Must-watch videos • AI & Influencer Marketing • AI Tools • LinkedIn posts • Twitter Threads • AI Trends • Must-listen podcast • Prompting Resources • Personal vibes & mood We hope you’ll enjoy. Here is a short video to show you how it works ;). If you'd like to join us, you can apply here.

In 2024 (like in 2023 actually), I curated daily AI news to select the ones that I thought would impacted Marketing the most. It led me to publish this list of 284 AI News stories that has impacted Marketing in 2024. From this list, I was able to extract the AI Tools that stood out. It is not an official list. It is not THE "most amazing bla-bla-bla list of AI Tools whatever", it has been manually curated (coz I wanted to check and test each one). It's just another view of the AI tools that made the news in 2024. A special view on some AI Tools that you might want to try an follow closely in 2025. Hope you'll enjoy! Happy New Year!! Google’s Veo2 (and Imagen 3): Veo 2 creates super high-quality videos in a wide range of subjects and styles. Veo 2 achieved state-of-the-art results against leading models. Open AI Sora: The new sensational AI tool to create awesome video in 1 click. Sample ➡️ Here. On LinkedIn, Ruben Hassid compared both. Which one do you think is the best quality ➡️ Here? Are we seriously gonna become so picky in terms of video quality for our marketing content? KlingAI: Chinese AI model that creates videos with more accuracy. Has been talked about a lot as OpenAI Sora’s biggest rival... from China. HammingAI: Self-proclaimed "All-in-one experimentation platform for AI voice agents". AI voice agents are hard to get right. A small change in prompts, function call definitions or model providers can cause large changes in voice agent call quality. Hamming ai positioned themselves as the only end-to-end platform that supports you from development to production. PlayAI: clone voice on command. Or "the voice interface of AI". Among cool features you'll find: • Feature to build powerful AI voice agents in minutes. They offer AI voice assistants built with just a few clicks. You choose your voice, you add your knowledge, and watch it transform customer experience forever. • A feature called PlayNote: which enables you to turn your fils and data into audio creations with AI voice synthesis. • A text to speech feature. FugattoAI: Using text and audio as inputs, a new generative AI model from NVIDIA can create any combination of music, voices and sounds. Eleven Lab: Convert long-form content to audio. In their latest set of updates to their main product "Projects", they’ve redesigned the interface and added new functionalities to help make long-form narration faster and more personalized. New functionalities Projects now features: • A refined UI/UX, with a new navbar that functions similarly to ‘Google Docs’, allowing quick, intuitive formatting adjustments. • A Generation History button where you can restore and download previous generations ensuring flexibility with every take. • A new lock button which enables you to secure any sentence or paragraph once satisfied, preventing accidental changes and helping you track completed sections. CaptionAI: Video editing app that plays like an ai powered social media manager for websites. Some really cool features: • AI Avatar Generator: Generate videos with an Avatar • Online Video Editor: Create high quality videos in a few clicks • AI Clips Generator (from your long video) • AI Video Editor • Add Subtitles: Automatically add captions to your video • Video Translator: Dub your video into a different language in seconds. Suno: Make a sound about anything. This one is THE AI Audio sensation of 2024. Really cool tool that can enhanced your marketing in so many creative way (create your own song for your brand, for some of your new and main "big" sales moments, super personalized intro for your podcast, etc.). In the same range of tool you also now have Udio to generate longer songs than with Suno. Wyze AI: to search your camera footage so you don’t have to (also called "AI Video Search"). Notebook LLM google: One of Google super star AI product this past year (among soooo many others - I made a short list of the most useful ones for content marketing ➡️ Here). NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and writing assistant that works with the sources you upload. • Upload your documents and NotebookLM will answer detailed questions or surface key insights. • Convert complex material into easy-to-understand formats like FAQs or Briefing Docs. • Add key resources to a notebook and share with your org to create a group knowledge base. But one of the coolest feature with Notebook LLM is its audio feature that allows you to turn your written content and sources into an actual conversation. This is a KILLER tool to launch a podcast. You can learn more about this feature ➡️ Here. MultiOn: a new AI agent called Agent Q. Self-proclaimed "a technology and design group creating AI Agents that perform tasks online from task to finish, especially AI Agent systems that can reliably perform tasks from start to completion. RendoraAI: Text-to-3D video platform. You can turn any text into a 3-D video with lifelike 3D AI avatars. Leonardo AI: AI Art Generator, AI Video Generator and Transparent PNG Generator. In 2024 they launched a new model that could "dethrone Ideogram and midjourneyvas best image generator". VloggerAI: an AI from Google that can bring still photos to life. Especially it can generate animated avatars from images. These videos give a photorealistic look, say of the person in the photo, in every frame of the generated video. One can also input an image of a person, and Vlogger can create temporary coherent videos of the person talking or facial expressions, hand gestures, or head motions to make it look natural. Vlogger can also generate head motions, blinking or lip movement from synthesized images from just audio inputs. This model can be used as a stand-alone solution for presentations, education, or narrations. OpusClip: One of our favorite in the community. AI-Powered video repurposing. Your go-to-tool for all your shorts videos either for YouTube, Instagram and of course Tik-Tok. Arc Search: an iPhone app combining browser, search and all. It's supposedly will replace Search, from your Iphone. The truth is... that it could. In 2024, there are had been a lot of talking about AI replacing Search, or instead, replacing Browser. The truth probably lies halfway. We'll talk more about in 2025 for sure. What say you? Which AI Tools you used the most in 2024? What's on your list of Top AI Marketing Tools in 2024?