Link Archive
January 15, 2026
How the Automation Spectrum Moves the Needle on Your Agentforce Marketing Use Cases
Highest rated content by Salesforce Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3910
ListEngage deployed 50+ Agentforce implementations using a 4-tier 'Automation Spectrum' ranging from deterministic rules to autonomous triggers. The 'sweet spot' for immediate ROI combines deterministic triggers (e.g., lead score) with agentic execution (e.g., drafting personalized outreach). Tactical implication: Audit current 'human-in-the-loop' workflows and move one 'research-heavy' task to Tier 2 (Deterministic Trigger → Agent Execution) this quarter.
New Forrester study: Fragmentation is killing AI ROI
by Miro Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3520
A 2025 Forrester study of 500+ leaders reveals 75% believe current AI tools focus too much on individual productivity rather than team outcomes. 69% report friction from tool switching, while 83% demand shared AI canvases for collaboration. Tactical implication: Consolidate AI adoption around shared workspaces (like Miro or Notion) rather than individual chat interfaces to reduce context-switching costs.
AI & SEO Crawlability Tester Tool Review
by Chris Long Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3030
Chris Long highlights the 'AI & SEO Crawlability Tester', a tool designed to simulate bot behavior and identify blocking issues for LLM scrapers. Ensuring crawlability is critical as AI search engines become primary traffic drivers. Tactical implication: Run a crawlability audit on your top 10 evergreen pages to ensure they are accessible to AI bots like GPTBot and ClaudeBot.
Which tool do I think is best? ChatGPT, Claude Code, Gemini?
by Rachel Woods Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +2570
Rachel Woods argues that chasing the 'best' model (ChatGPT vs. Claude vs. Gemini) is a distraction from building durable skills. Proficiency with a single tool yields higher ROI than constantly switching platforms based on benchmarks. Tactical implication: Standardize your team on one major LLM for 90 days to build deep prompt engineering libraries before evaluating competitors.
January 14, 2026
Evaluating AI Agents in Production
Highest rated content by TLDR AI Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +4170
Anthropic Engineering outlines that effective agent evals require separating 'pass@k' (likelihood of one success) from 'pass^k' (probability all trials succeed), noting pass^k drops to ~0% at k=10 for inconsistent agents. They use three grader types—code-based, model-based, and human—citing that 'SWE-bench Verified' scores rose from 40% to >80% in one year. Tactical implication: Switch from 'vibe checks' to automated regression suites; start with 20-50 simple tasks based on actual user failures.
Stop bots from abusing free trials (Sponsor)
by TLDR AI Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +2830
WorkOS Radar analyzes 20+ device signals (fingerprinting, headers) to block bot traffic and free-trial abuse in real-time with 99.99% uptime. The tool offers a free tier for the first 1,000 checks/month and integrates via a single API call to stop credential stuffing. Tactical implication: Implement Radar on signup flows to reduce CAC waste from fake accounts without adding friction for legitimate users.
Meta Unveils Sweeping Nuclear-Power Plan to Fuel Its AI Ambitions
by TLDR AI Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +2740
Meta signed deals for 2.6 GW of nuclear capacity, including backing 1.2 GW from Oklo (Pike County, Ohio) and 8 Natrium reactors from TerraPower. The partnership with Vistra will expand output at existing plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania to power AI data centers by the early 2030s. Tactical implication: Monitor 'compute-energy' availability in 2026 roadmaps; expect rising hosting costs or 'green premium' tiers for energy-intensive model training.
January 13, 2026
Google announces AI Mode Checkout Protocol, Business Agent
Highest rated content by Search Engine Journal Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +4000
Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and 'Business Agent' for Search, enabling checkout directly within AI Mode. Partners like Shopify and Walmart are already onboard, with new 'Direct Offers' ad units piloting for AI-driven discounts. Tactical implication: Retailers must map product catalog APIs to UCP standards immediately to capture high-intent traffic bypassing traditional site visits.
Getting Started with Cowork
by Claude Support Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3500
Anthropic launched 'Cowork' for Claude Desktop, bringing agentic capabilities (file access, sub-agent coordination) to general knowledge work. It runs locally in a VM to execute multi-step tasks like organizing downloads or synthesizing research files. Tactical implication: Upgrade to Max and offload monthly reporting—ask Claude to 'read these 5 CSVs and generate an Excel report with VLOOKUPs and charts.'
Fullpath Index: LLM-Driven Dealership Visits Spike 43%
by Auto Remarketing Staff Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3000
Fullpath's 2026 Auto Intelligence Index reveals a 43% surge in dealership website traffic driven by LLMs in late 2025. Dealerships optimizing for AI agents collected 24% more consumer data points YoY. Tactical implication: Reallocate 10-15% of local SEO budget to 'Entity Optimization'—structuring inventory feeds and GMB profiles specifically for retrieval by OpenAI and Perplexity bots.
Community Tactic: Vibe Scraping
by r/DigitalMarketing Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +2950
Growth hackers are using 'vibe scraping'—deploying LLM agents to extract qualitative data (e.g., 'find sites with a playful tone') from URL lists—replacing manual vetting. Early adopters report cutting lead qualification costs by 90% vs VA teams. Tactical implication: Build a simple Python script using Gemini 2.5 Flash to batch-process prospect URLs, filtering for 'vibe' signals that traditional scrapers miss.
5 ways to improve marketing measurement in 2026
by MarTech Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +2500
MarTech outlines 5 priorities for 2026 measurement, urging a shift from tactical reporting to connected systems. 2026 demands integrating attention metrics and privacy-safe AI to validate incrementality beyond last-click attribution. Tactical implication: Audit current attribution models against the IAB’s 'Open Measurement SDK' standards to ensure mobile and CTV engagement is correctly valued.
January 12, 2026
New tech and tools for retailers to succeed in an agentic shopping era
Highest rated content by Vidhya Srinivasan / Google Ads & Commerce Blog Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +4200
Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) as an open standard enabling 'agentic checkout' directly in Search and Gemini. A new 'Direct Offers' pilot allows brands to trigger exclusive discounts (e.g., 20% off) based on high-intent AI signals. Tactical implication: Audit Merchant Center attributes for UCP compatibility and prep a 'discount-first' offer feed to capture agent-led conversions.
Reddit Takes on Google and Meta with New AI Media Buying Tool
by Adweek Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3800
Reddit unveiled 'Max Campaign', an automated media buying tool leveraging Community Intelligence to optimize bidding and creative. Early tests with Brooks Running delivered 37% lower CPC and 27% more clicks compared to manual setups. Tactical implication: Allocate 10-15% of social budget to Reddit Max for a 4-week 'set-and-forget' test against Meta Advantage+.
The Home Depot and Google Cloud Launch Agentic AI Tools
by The Home Depot / Google Cloud Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3600
Home Depot scaled its 'Magic Apron' assistant with multimodal capabilities and launched 'AI Pro Materials Lists' that group items from simple voice/text prompts. New route intelligence now predicts delivery access blockers like narrow streets using Maps data. Tactical implication: Map complex purchase workflows (like project planning) and test an agentic 'list builder' wrapper around existing product APIs.
Community Consensus: Blocking AI Crawlers Kills High-Intent Traffic
by r/marketing Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3500
A r/marketing analysis highlights that blocking AI crawlers (robots.txt) severs a high-intent channel, with one case showing AI referrals converting at 4.4x the rate of organic search. Tactical implication: Audit robots.txt immediately to whitelist OAI-SearchBot, Google-Extended, and Applebot-Extended, treating them as 'high-value affiliates' rather than scrapers.
Authentic Brands Group Achieves 60% ROAS Uplift with Custom AI Agents
by Google Cloud Press Read time: 4 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3100
Authentic Brands Group (Reebok, Juicy Couture) reports 60% higher ROAS using 'Authentic Intelligence' agents on Vertex AI for creative generation. 80% of employees now use the platform weekly for tasks from licensing to legal. Tactical implication: Pilot a 'brand-specific' agent for ad creative generation (using LoRA/Gemini) and benchmark ROAS against manual creative for one quarter.
January 11, 2026
How AI agents will reshape every part of marketing in 2026
Highest rated content by MarTech Read time: 6 minutes · Marketing
Score: +3090
McKinsey reports 62% of organizations are experimenting with agentic AI, while 97% expect conversational agents to be mainstream within 3 years (Acxiom). MarTech argues brands must optimize for "Share of Model" by exposing catalog/loyalty data via APIs for autonomous buying agents. Tactical implication: Audit product data schema today to ensure it is machine-readable for agent crawlers.
Eight Software Markets AI That Will Transform Differently
by Dave Griffith Read time: 8 minutes · Strategy
Score: +2520
Dave Griffith argues AI coding tools trigger Jevons Paradox (efficiency increases consumption) strongly in internal tools and gaming, but weakly in Enterprise SaaS. While 25% of YCombinator startups now generate >95% of code with agents, regulated sectors face inelastic demand. Tactical implication: Shift engineering resources from maintenance of internal tools to rapid prototyping of disposable apps.
3 AI-Supported Ways to Turn Contact Center Supervisors Into Indispensable Leaders
by Salesforce Read time: 5 minutes · Marketing
Score: +1300
Salesforce identifies a shift from reactive monitoring to "Command Center" operations where supervisors manage hybrid human-AI workforces. Key features include unified dashboards for agent/bot metrics and "swarming" for rapid escalation in complex cases. Tactical implication: Integrate AI agent performance metrics (like resolution rate by topic) into daily supervisor reporting dashboards.