The L@B Report: Ad Automation, Streaming Takeover & AI News

June 25, 2025

Welcome to The L@B Report

Welcome to this month’s issue of The L@B Report from GSG, bringing you news and insights from the intersection of digital media and public affairs. In this issue, we discuss Meta’s plans to automate ad creation using AI, how streaming has overtaken traditional television, and an uptick in people using AI Chatbots to get news updates.

This issue of The L@B Report was put together by Ryan Alexander.

In the News

Meta Announces Plans to Automate Ad Creation Using AI

But full automation of political and public affairs campaigns isn’t likely

As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Meta announced that it hopes to be able to enable brands to “fully create and target ads using artificial intelligence by the end of next year.”

During the company’s annual shareholder meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also chimed in, saying:

“In the not-too-distant future, we want to get to a world where any business will be able to just tell us what objective they’re trying to achieve, like selling something or getting a new customer, how much they’re willing to pay for each result, and connect their bank account and then we just do the rest for them.”

Takeaway

Meta already offers some AI tools in its platform that can generate variations of existing ads before targeting the ads to users on Facebook and Instagram. The new announcement builds on Meta’s increased emphasis on advertisers testing as many ad permutations as possible. “We’re gonna be able to come up with, like, 4,000 different versions of your creative and just test them and figure out which one works best,” said Zuckerberg.

For example, according to The Wall Street Journal, Meta’s tool could take a photo of a car and use AI to place it in different geographic settings. One user might see an SUV in a snowy landscape driving up a mountain, while another will see the same car in a cityscape. The advertiser gets the benefit of being able to personalize their product based on user location without having to photograph the car in these different settings.

However, Meta likely will have a tougher time automating ad creation for political and public affairs campaigns where there is a stronger emphasis on real people telling authentic, real stories and there is more potential blowback for manipulating stories with AI.

Streaming Content Is Now Officially the King of Television

More Americans than ever are watching television on streaming platforms

According to new Nielsen data, as reported by The New York Times, Americans watched more television in May via streaming services than they did through cable and broadcast combined.

The rise of streaming – and YouTube in particular – is most acute among viewers over the age of 65. The fastest-growing age group for watching YouTube on a television screen, their YouTube watch time has grown 106 percent in just the past two years.

Takeaway

As we note in our blog post on this topic, the era where cable and broadcast ruled is over.

We now live in a media ecosystem defined by fragmentation, personalization, and social momentum. Savvy communicators are responding by making investments in owned media, deepening community engagement, engaging trusted influencers, diversifying how they think about news, and developing media plans that meet people where they are.

New Study Shows People are Using AI Chatbots for News Updates

Most use AI to summarize or translate the news

According to a report by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), an annual survey from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that significant numbers of people are now using AI chatbots to get news and updates. The survey shows that 7 percent of people report using AI to find news. For people under the age of 25, that proportion doubles to 15 percent.

The most widely cited reasons for using a chatbot to get the news were to summarize (27 percent), translate (24 percent), or to recommend (21 percent) articles.

Takeaway

In addition to AI chatbots, GSG’s 2025 Media Consumption Insights report shows that large numbers of Americans – especially younger ones – are getting their news from TikTok and Instagram.

The rise of AI chatbots for news, along with people getting their news from social media, present new challenges for marketers, communicators, and public affairs professionals as both are driven by opaque algorithms. With that in mind, and with an already fragmented news environment, it’s never mattered more to pursue holistic, multi-channel communications to reach audiences regardless of where or how they consume the news.

More from GSG

Media habits are shifting fast, reshaping how stories are seen, shared, and trusted – our team is always tracking what it all means for you as communicators.

For even more insights beyond The L@B Report, check out our Digital Insights blog, where we are reporting on everything from the latest in podcast trends to last month’s viral moment spawned by legacy media.