This weekly update shows how AI agents are transforming marketing in major ways. Companies are no longer just experimenting with AI—they are building actual tools that customers use every day. The biggest news is that major tech companies launched new AI helpers that can do many tasks without human help at every step.

New Shopping and Financial AI Agents

OpenAI announced huge partnerships this week with Target and Intuit, two massive American companies. With Target, OpenAI created a way for people to shop right inside ChatGPT. Instead of going to Target's website, customers can chat with an AI, ask what they want, build a shopping list, and check out—all in one place. This is different because the AI handles the whole experience.

With Intuit, OpenAI built AI agents for money tasks. Intuit makes TurboTax (for taxes), Credit Karma (for credit scores), and QuickBooks (for small business money). Now these apps work inside ChatGPT. An AI agent can help you prepare taxes, forecast how much money your business will have, and manage payroll. The AI understands your situation and suggests solutions.

AI Agents That Think Through Problems

Google and Microsoft launched new AI agents with real thinking abilities. Microsoft announced that GPT-5 will be the main AI in their Copilot Chat tool. But here's what's important: the AI picks between two ways of thinking. For quick questions, it answers fast. For hard problems that need planning, it takes time to think deeply.

Google's new Gemini Agent is similar. It can connect to your calendar, email, and reminders. When you ask it to handle something complicated with multiple steps, it breaks the job into smaller pieces. It shows you what it is doing at each step and waits for you to approve before continuing. This means humans stay in control while AI does the thinking.

Google also released SIMA 2, an AI that learns in video games and virtual worlds. While this might sound like just games, it shows how AI can navigate complex environments, understand goals, and get better by trying different approaches. Companies could use this type of AI for many real tasks.

How Marketing Is Changing Right Now

Experts talked about how AI is already changing how companies sell products. The old way was simple: find a list of people, send them messages, and see who responds. The new way uses AI to be much smarter.

Now, companies use AI to find people who are exactly the right fit—not just anyone who might be interested. AI can ask complicated questions about databases and find specific types of customers. Then AI can automatically score which of those customers is most likely to buy. This is much more accurate than guessing.

Experts also say that inbound marketing—where customers come to you because they like your stuff—is changing too. Instead of just accepting everyone who shows interest, AI can now understand which visitors are serious and which are just browsing.

The Future: AI Building Relationships

Marketing experts made big predictions about what comes next. They say the old funnel model is dying. For years, companies thought of marketing like a funnel: lots of people at the top, fewer buying at the bottom. But people do not follow that path anymore. They jump around between different channels. They might see an ad on social media, then leave, then come back weeks later.

So companies need to think differently. Instead of funnels, they will build AI-powered fractal systems. A fractal is a pattern that repeats at different scales. These systems use AI to predict when a customer might come back. They spot the exact moment to reach out. They work everywhere the customer might be—social media, email, website, apps—all at once.

Experts also mentioned something called quantum computing and agentic AI. In simple terms: agentic AI systems will soon need so much computing power that regular computers will not be enough. Quantum computers—super-powerful new machines—might help. Companies that start using these ideas early will have huge advantages.

Why This Matters

The biggest change is that AI is moving from answering questions to making decisions and taking action. For years, AI just answered when you asked it something. Now AI actually does things—it approves requests, it reaches out to people, it manages complicated workflows. Humans stay involved at important moments, but AI does most of the work.

This means marketing teams do not just need new tools. They need to completely rethink how they work. Instead of creating campaigns, they build ongoing relationships where AI helps every step. The companies that make this change first will win. The ones that stick with old methods will lose ground.