😔 I Lost Something Special…

What you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:

• 😔 I Lost Something Special… [True Story]

• 🦾 Amazon’s Betting Big on Agentic AI

• 🪦 Did Canva Just Kill Adobe?!

• ⚒️ Generate High Quality Images in Minutes

• 🔥 Only 1% of Brands Are Ready for AI Search...

🚨 Reply to this email with by writing #wheelofkelsey for a chance to win a Quit Stalling and Build Your Brand courtesy of Ben Leonard. Find out the results on Wednesday on the podcast!

🔥 P.S. Want to rank on Google and LLMs? Hop on a call with me and we can take a look at how press releases can help with that.

😔 I Lost Something Special…  [TRUE STORY] 

I remember back in the '60s, family gatherings meant dad would line us up for a black-and-white photo with this old flashbulb camera.

It took forever to get the prints back, and the photos were let’s just say capturing memories more than they captured quality.

Then came the Kodak Instamatic era in the '70s.

You traded a bit of that waiting time for the convenience of a built-in flash and easy-to-load cartridges.

The downside?

Those concert or party shots came back looking like a fuzzy memory.

You could sort of see the musician on stage, but could never make out who it was.

Then we graduated to the good old 35mm Pentax camera.

Suddenly, you had manual settings and real control over your shots.

It took more time and you had to wait for developing unless you had money for those genius one-hour photo kiosks at the mall.

Twice the price for an hour’s wait and zero privacy and everyone got a peek at your prints.

But that was the magic of the time.

Fast forward again, and digital cameras changed the game.

I bought a Nikon and it was love at first site.

I could store hundreds of photos, edit them easily, and really get into the art if you wanted to.

And then, of course, the iPhone came along.

Suddenly, everyone had a camera in their pocket, and convenience often overshadowed craft.

People now have thousands of photos in their camera roll that they never look at (me included).

Sure, you can take a scroll through the camera roll but it will never compare to taking out that dusty photo album with family and friends, reminiscing about the good ole times.

I feel we lost something special.

A picture today feels worthless.

And that’s even with incredible AI technology that can fully remove objects, change peoples expressions, or alter entire locations in a blink of an eye.

That black and white photo from the 60’s will always hold more weight to me than any AI-edited picture, no matter how perfect it is.

The lesson?

Change happens fast.

Take some time today, look through your camera roll, and print your favorite pictures.

Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

🦾 Amazon’s Betting Big on Agentic AI

Amazon’s diving headfirst into agentic commerce, AI-powered shopping assistants that browse and buy on your behalf. Think of it like a super shopper that knows what you like and does the clicking for you.

But according to Andy Jassy, these third-party agents still kinda suck.

“Right now… there’s no personalization, no shopping history, delivery estimates are wrong, prices are off.”

Yeah, not exactly the customer experience Amazon’s known for.

That’s why they’re investing in tools like Rufus (their own AI shopping assistant) and Buy for Me, which can even purchase from other websites.

Rufus alone has 250 million users this year and is expected to drive $10 billion+ in extra sales.

That’s wild.

Here’s what else Jassy shared:

• Rufus users are 60% more likely to buy

• Monthly users up 140%

• Interactions up 210%

• They’re using AI for visual search (Amazon Lens) and review summaries

• Amazon Connect (customer service AI) just hit $1B revenue run rate

And while agentic AI only drives a tiny sliver of traffic today, Jassy thinks it’s gonna flip the whole retail game especially since 80-85% of retail still happens in physical stores.

Amazon’s not the only one in the AI arms race but if they can crack agentic commerce before the others, it’s gonna change how we shop, advertise, and compete online.

🌎 Where in the World is The Beard Guy?

🪦 Did Canva just kill Adobe…

Canva’s not playing around anymore.

They just launched Affinity, a full suite of creative tools built to replace Adobe’s holy trinity:

• Affinity Photo takes on Photoshop

• Affinity Designer replaces Illustrator

• Affinity Publisher goes after InDesign

And here's the kicker...

It's 100% free. Forever.

This is while Adobe’s still charging $60+ a month, Canva’s giving creators and businesses the full stack no strings attached.

So if you think people aren’t gonna jump ship?

Think again.

Canva is putting Adobe on notice and it’s a move that could shake up the entire creative software industry.

But will they ever create a video editor?

We will see.

✅ OpenAI turns to Amazon in $38 billion cloud services deal after restructuring

OpenAI just inked a massive 7-year, $38 billion deal with Amazon to power their next phase of AI development and that’s not a typo.

$38 billion.

This gives OpenAI access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips through AWS, helping them train and run the next generation of AI models like ChatGPT.

Why should you care?

Because it shows just how critical computing power is in this AI arms race. Whoever owns the infrastructure… Wins.

And AWS just got a huge vote of confidence even after the giant outage.

Amazon shares hit an all-time high after the announcement.

OpenAI also reportedly struck deals with Oracle and Google, and is buying another $250 billion worth of cloud services from Microsoft.

So yeah... trillion-dollar spend levels.

And now whispers of a $1 trillion IPO for OpenAI.

The question everyone’s asking: how’s a loss-making company going to afford all this?

They’re projecting $20B in revenue by year’s end, but the spending is way ahead of that curve.

Bubble? Maybe.

But Amazon just re-entered the ring swinging.

🔥 Only 1% of Brands Are Ready for AI Search...

Here are my favorite tips from this episode!

1. 50% of Website Traffic Will Soon Be AI Bots

Peter predicts that within a few years, half of all website visits will come from AI agents.

These LLM bots are already scanning, summarizing, and ranking websites to answer user queries directly.

That means:

• Your site isn’t just for customers anymore. You must tailor towards these bots because they are the ones deciding which brands to recommend.

• Every piece of text, image, and schema markup is training data for the next-gen AI recommendation layer.

• Traditional SEO is evolving into GEO “Generative Engine Optimization”.

2. Reviews Are Still King and Now an AI Ranking Signal

Why reviews are important:

• A core trust signal for both human buyers and AI agents.

• A determining factor in local visibility and LLM rankings.

• A silent brands look “dead.”

He also stressed that most businesses handle reviews wrong:

• They only reply to negatives.

• They don’t make it easy to leave reviews

Automate this by sending text requests right after service completion and even integrates with CRMs or invoicing systems.

3. Your Website NEEDS Consistent Updating

Websites aren’t going away but their role is shifting.

They’ll serve as data anchors for AI systems, not just digital storefronts.

The new hierarchy:

• Google My Business (GMB): entry point for discovery.

• Social channels: real-time activity check.

• Website: authoritative data repository (services, testimonials, structured content).

Build out social posts, reviews, and citations so that content is always fresh.

Static, outdated websites will lose ranking and relevance.

If your site hasn’t been updated in 12+ months, you’re invisible to AI and search engines. Modernize it as a living data hub.

4. Automation ≠ AI and Most Businesses Confuse the Two

Peter drew a key distinction:

• Automation = rule-based workflows (e.g., send a review request after invoice).

• AI = adaptive systems that learn and personalize over time.

Most “AI tools” small businesses buy are just glorified automation.
Real AI should analyze data and make decisions (like adjusting messaging or detecting sentiment trends).

Use automation for consistency and AI for interpretation.

5. Remember These 5 Things to Stay Ahead

1. Optimize for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

2. Automate and monitor reviews relentlessly.

3. Keep socials alive and credible.

4. Make your website a dynamic signal hub, not a static brochure.

5. Respond publicly and authentically.

🔥 Watch the full episode here

Find this episode of Marketing Misfits on YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts

And that’s it, Beardos.

See you next Monday!

- Norm

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