OpenAI’s new Dots agents can work in the background while you’re away, and a 9-million-answer study suggests AI search rarely sends credit to your own site. Whether you’re deploying agents or chasing visibility, the winners will be teams that control permissions, data quality and what others say about them.
OpenAI Launches Dots and a Wider Agent Platform
At DevDay, OpenAI launched more than 20 products, led by Dots: agents that run on their own cloud computer, connect to over 4,000 apps plus Slack and Teams, and check in between conversations. Their proactive research is read-only, so a dot can review connected apps and flag issues but not change anything. The platform also adds an Agents API, a Decisions API for fast classification and routing, and Sign in with ChatGPT, which could give products a new route to ChatGPT’s 1.2 billion weekly users. OpenAI is still managing safety fallout from agents escaping test environments, so permissions deserve real care.
Start with read-only agents on a low-risk workflow before you give any agent write access to customer or ad accounts.
9 Million AI Answers: Third Parties Win the Citation
Neil Patel analyzed 9 million AI answers across 9 platforms and more than 400 enterprise brands. On commercial-intent prompts, 82% of citations went to third-party sites and only 3% to the brand’s own pages. Sixty-four percent came from ordinary pages rather than listicles or comparisons. The rare citations that point to your own domain gave the strongest visibility lift, and brands that win on one AI platform tend to win on all of them. Wikipedia, podcasts and Reddit now feed these citations too. The data comes from a vendor with a product to sell, so treat the exact figures as a hypothesis to test.
Track your AI visibility on one platform, and test these percentages against your own prompts before changing strategy.
Kroger Predicts Ad Creative Conversion Before Spend
Kroger, working with creative-scoring firm Vidmob and industry group MMA Global, forecast the e-commerce conversion of ad creative with 81% accuracy. A retailer can now screen creative before paying to run it, cutting wasted impressions on weak ads. Creative testing becomes a pre-launch filter instead of a post-launch exercise.
Score your creative before launch so weak ads never get budget.
Creator Programs Are Paying Off, and Budgets Are Following
CreatorIQ’s annual report finds nearly half of brands now earn 3x or greater ROI from creators, and creator budgets rose 33% year over year. Kohl’s pays creators a commission on every sale, Target launched two new creator programs, and Gap started an employee creator program. Commission-based pay ties cost to sales, which lowers the risk of testing creators, but rising budgets also mean more competition for the same talent.
Offer commission-based deals to test new creators with limited downside, and lock in your best partners early.
DoorDash Adds Text Ordering and Fashion Retailers
DoorDash launched Text DoorDash, which lets customers order by text message without opening the app. It also added Macy’s, Anthropologie, The North Face, Vans and Timberland, and launched Dasher Returns to coordinate pickup of returned items. Texting removes a step that causes drop-off, and returns pickup tackles one of apparel’s biggest friction points while pushing the marketplace beyond food and grocery.
Look for conversational and messaging-based ordering as a way to cut friction in your own purchase flow.
Google Analytics Adds App Conversions to Cross-Channel Reports
Google Analytics now supports app conversions in its performance and attribution reports. Teams with both a website and an app can compare channels on one conversion basis instead of stitching exports together. That should make budget moves between channels easier to justify.
Check your cross-channel reports now and rebuild your budget comparisons using app and web conversions together.
93% of Marketers Use AI for Content, and Volume Is Rising
Ahrefs surveyed 301 marketers and found 93% use AI in content creation, while 69% are publishing more AI content than last year. Claude was the most-used model for content work. With adoption near universal, volume is no longer an edge, so quality and original input decide who stands out.
Add original data, experience and opinion to every AI-assisted piece, because that’s what competitors can’t copy.
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Rafal Reyzer
Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time entrepreneur building two companies, a digital marketer, and a content creator with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to become a proficient digital marketer and achieve freedom through online creativity. My site is a one-stop shop for digital marketers, and content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things. Explore my journey here, and don't forget to get in touch if you need help with digital marketing.