The news: The release of OpenAI’s long-awaited GPT-5—a frontier model the company originally expected to launch in summer 2024—hit turbulence almost immediately. Despite high expectations, early users reported the model felt sluggish and less capable than GPT-4o, labeling it “kinda mid.” It’s a surprising letdown for what was billed as a major leap forward. Our take: Marketing and communications remain stubbornly human domains for now. If AI could fully replace them, OpenAI’s own product announcements would run like clockwork. Instead, the debut of one of the world’s most advanced AI models was labeled an avoidable public relations headache, showing that even cutting-edge technology may be remembered less for what it can do and more for how it was introduced.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss if Google is actually fending off the AI search competition, what its AI Overviews are doing to search behavior, and why growing AI search usage might not necessarily translate into a booming ad business. Join our conversation with Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Senior Director of Briefings, Jeremy Goldman, and Principal Analyst, Yory Wurmser. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

The news: We recently covered Wells Fargo’s early entrance into the agentic AI realm. And we recommended that other financial institutions (FIs) explore how they could implement it, too—regardless of size. Now a smaller FI, Michigan-based Family Financial Credit Union, has announced its partnership with fintech start-up Algebrik AI to implement a new digital lending suite, per a press release. Why this matters: Family Financial Credit Union will be one of the first smaller FIs to go public with its agentic AI offering. If it proves successful and customers like the experience—which could in turn draw more business to its loan products—it could inspire other institutions to pursue similar partnerships and offerings. We expect many more FIs of all sizes to announce agentic AI pilots in the near future.

The news: Apple Intelligence could integrate OpenAI’s GPT-5, its latest model that combines traditional ChatGPT capabilities with deepo3-series reasoning, as early as next month, per 9to5Mac. Updates for a more personalized and intelligent Siri, originally expected in the iOS 18.4 update, were delayed in March until sometime “in the coming year.” GPT-5 could accelerate that timeline and give Apple a more robust foundation for a truly conversational, autonomous assistant Our take: Marketers and publishers should prepare for reduced visibility through traditional search if assistants like Siri can effectively answer user queries directly. Focus on generative engine optimization (GEO) for conversational AI discovery—think FAQs on websites and succinct answers that large language models (LLM) can easily surface.

53% of marketers in North America cite data analysis and insights as the top bottleneck slowing down marketing cycles, according to an April GrowthLoop and Ascend2 survey.

The news: Wells Fargo is partnering with Google Cloud to equip the bank’s 215,000 employees with advanced generative and agentic AI tools, per American Banker. The phased implementation will span the next few months. Why this matters: If Wells Fargo sees greater efficiency, a better customer experience, and savings from the wide AI rollout, it could set an industry trend. Competitors should at least begin exploring how they can implement agentic AI in their own operations. And Google Cloud’s involvement serves as a reminder that these solutions don’t need to be developed internally. Third-party partnerships may be especially valuable for smaller financial institutions that want to catch up on AI innovation.