From AI advancements to regulatory crackdowns, the biggest changes in advertising often start with Big Tech.
While the industry remains as complex and fragmented as ever, the major players—Google, Meta, Amazon, and the like—have a significant influence on how advertisers work and influence the trajectory of the entire industry. For marketing leaders, keeping up with the latest Big Tech developments is essential to understanding where the industry is headed, crafting forward-looking strategies, and staying competitive.
To that end, we’ve compiled this running list of the most important Big Tech news that advertisers need to know, with key details and analysis to help marketers thrive in an ever-evolving environment. Bookmark this page and check back often for the latest.
In the latest chapter of AI’s transformation of search engine marketing, Google recently rolled out AI Mode to all US users. Like AI overviews (AIOs), AI Mode offers a more conversational search experience, delivering AI-generated responses that pull together information from multiple sources to provide greater breadth and depth. Unlike AIOs, however, users aren’t automatically opted in to AI Mode—rather, it’s presented as an option that searchers can choose to engage with.
Google’s immersive search experience is already raising concerns around visibility, while some publishers have gone so far as to characterize its impact as downright traffic theft. While the feature is still new and will doubtless evolve over the coming months, marketers would do well to track how it optimizes for citations and begin to adapt their content strategies accordingly. For example, SEO strategies should shift beyond traditional ranking goals to prioritize visibility within AI Mode’s responses.
On the paid side, AI Mode reflects a broader shift toward more automated, AI-driven ad platforms that require less manual setup from advertisers. “AI Mode represents a new era in advertising, where machine learning plays a central role in audience targeting, creative iteration, and performance optimization,” says Heather Crider, VP of Search Media Solutions at Basis. To succeed in this new era, Crider notes that advertisers should prioritize collecting clean first-party data to make sure Google’s AI tools have high-quality inputs to work with. This will help the systems drive more accurate targeting and improve overall campaign performance.
While Google works to transform search, Meta is embarking on an ambitious plan of its own: automating nearly the entire advertising workflow, from creative development to targeting and measurement.
In an interview with Stratechery, CEO Mark Zuckerberg described his vision for advertisers to simply state their advertising objective, connect their bank accounts, and let Meta automatically handle everything else. The tech giant says it aims to roll out the new AI-driven system on Facebook and Instagram as soon as next year.
Responses to the announcement have ranged from “Zuckerberg is declaring war on the entire advertising industry” to “AI has been headed in this direction for a while, and human oversight will remain critical to avoiding low-quality content and low-quality results.” Either way, it’s clear that advertisers must proactively prepare to position themselves competitively in a future where AI increasingly shapes nearly every aspect of advertising. To that end, leaders should prioritize ongoing AI education for their teams to ensure employees understand how to work effectively with these tools. Additionally, investing in data consolidation will be essential, as high-quality inputs directly impact the effectiveness of AI systems. At the same time, human creativity and strategic guidance will remain indispensable—ensuring campaigns not only leverage AI’s efficiencies but also connect meaningfully and authentically with their audiences.
As for engaging with these capabilities once they’re launched, it will be important to weigh both the advantages and challenges. “Meta’s vision presents opportunities to boost campaign efficiency and personalized ads in real time and at an impressive scale, especially as privacy restrictions reduce data signals,” says Lauren Kramer, Director of Social Media Solutions at Basis. However, Kramer cautions that overreliance on certain automated tools can limit insights and risk diluting a brand’s unique voice. For this reason, advertisers should exercise careful strategic control when leveraging new advertising functions from Meta to avoid potential pitfalls.
In other Meta news, the company recently announced the launch of an AI superintelligence lab, which will be personally overseen by Zuckerberg. The lab aims to build an AI system that surpasses human intelligence, reflecting the company’s commitment to overcoming Google, OpenAI, and others in the race to create increasingly-powerful AI tools. Meta is pursuing top AI talent from rivals with compensation packages reportedly reaching nine figures.
Whether AI can “surpass” human intelligence—and how such a thing would even be measured—remains unclear. However, Meta’s investment in the lab could result in exciting developments for advertisers. “The technologies that emerge from the lab could drive more efficient algorithmic performance and enable advanced features like predictive results to improve media planning accuracy and forecasting,” says Kramer.
For years, Amazon’s advertising strategy was focused on keeping brands within its own walled garden. However, like some others in the commerce media space, Amazon is now positioning itself as an entryway to the open web, encouraging advertisers to leverage its data beyond Amazon properties to reach audiences elsewhere online via its DSP. “With this move, Amazon is aiming to compete with other DSPs by offering customers expanded access to the open market,” says Soleil Schiller, Group VP of Media Investment at Basis.
The company’s latest pitch deck makes that ambition clear, claiming that its DSP can reach up to 90% of the US population and offering competitive pricing—for example, a 1% tech fee on programmatic guaranteed deals on premium open web inventory. While Amazon’s DSP already commands a strong presence in the market, this move signals an intent to compete more directly with enterprise DSPs, especially by leaning into its unique advantage: commerce data. This shift underscores a broader trend of advertisers evaluating DSPs not just by scale, but by differentiated value—whether that's retail inventory, transparency, integrated cross-channel capabilities, or advanced brand safety controls.
As advertisers adapt to rapid innovation from Big Tech, they must also stay alert to another force reshaping the industry: regulation. The following antitrust lawsuits are ones to keep an eye on, as they could spark significant structural shifts across the digital advertising ecosystem.
In April 2025, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled in favor of the DOJ, finding that Google engaged in a variety of anticompetitive practices to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for display advertising on the open web. However, she dismissed the DOJ’s claim that Google also holds a monopoly in ad networks. Google has said it plans to appeal Brinkema’s ruling.
One month later, the DOJ proposed a sweeping set of remedies—including a dramatic one: forcing Google to sell off AdX and DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP). Given that AdX and DFP are the dominant products in their respective markets, such a divestiture would cause major structural changes in the advertising industry, driving increased competition and fragmentation across the open web. The remedies trial will begin in September.
The adtech case isn’t Google’s only legal battle. In August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the company is a monopolist in the search advertising space, pointing to exclusive deals with companies like Apple and Samsung as evidence of anticompetitive behavior. Google has said it plans to appeal this decision.
In November 2024, the DOJ proposed a range of remedies for Google’s search monopoly, including one particularly industry-altering option: forcing the company to divest from Chrome. Like the proposal to force Google to sell off AdX and DFP, this would trigger major changes within the search advertising space. The remedies trial ended on May 30th, and Judge Mehta has said that he plans to rule by August of this year.
“The remedies in the Google antitrust cases could drive major shifts across the advertising industry, especially if they lead to divestitures of key Google products,” says Robert Kurtz, Business Outcomes Partner at Basis. “Advertisers should take this moment to diversify their media strategies, ensuring they’re prepared for potential fragmentation and a more competitive landscape.”
Meta is also facing regulatory scrutiny. In 2020, the FTC and a coalition of attorneys general filed two separate but collaborative antitrust lawsuits against Meta, both alleging that the company holds a monopoly in the US personal social networking market.
The trial between the FTC and Meta began in April and concluded in May. The FTC’s main argument was that Meta sought to monopolize the market through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. It’s unclear when Judge James Boasberg will rule on the case, but it could happen before the end of the year.
If the court sides with the FTC, Meta could be forced to divest from one or both platforms—a decision that would have far-reaching implications for advertisers. Fragmentation in the social media space would likely increase, potentially opening up new opportunities for both platforms and advertisers. As with Google’s antitrust cases, marketers should keep a close eye on the outcome and be ready to adapt their media strategies accordingly.
In 2024, Apple was hit with a lawsuit from the DOJ and 16 state and district attorneys general, alleging that the company acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in the smartphone market. In August 2024, Apple filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which Judge Julien X. Neals has yet to grant or deny. While this case doesn’t directly involve advertising, any forced changes to Apple’s ecosystem could impact data access, app behavior, and user tracking—all of which have major downstream effects for marketers.
Amazon, too, is under the microscope. In 2023, the FTC and 17 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the retail giant, accusing it of holding monopoly power in two key areas: the online retail market for consumers and the marketplace services market used by third-party sellers.
While the FTC asked for a delay in the trial in early 2025, citing “extremely severe resource shortfalls in terms of both money and personnel,” it has since withdrawn that request and the trial is set to begin in September.
The FTC has also filed a lawsuit against Amazon for using dark patterns to encourage users to enroll in auto-renewing Prime subscriptions and to discourage them from canceling those subscriptions.
Marketers should closely monitor these legal challenges, as outcomes could reshape e-commerce competition and consumer experiences—impacting how brands engage with shoppers both through Amazon and across the broader retail landscape.
It’s clear that regulators are pushing back on how much control Big Tech is allowed to have over the digital ecosystem—and while these cases will likely take a while to play out, it’s critical for advertisers to prepare for all possible outcomes. “If any of these platforms are forced to change how they operate, or even break up parts of their business, that could shake things up in a big way,” says Kurtz.
Kurtz recommends that advertisers stay nimble, diversify their media strategies, and scenario plan for how access to data, inventory, and targeting capabilities might evolve if these antitrust suits introduce more fragmentation and competition into the industry.
“More competition and transparency could ultimately benefit advertisers—unlocking new audiences, lowering CPMs, and offering clients a clearer view into what works best for their target audience,” says Kurtz. “But those benefits will only be realized if we’re prepared for them.”
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