Winding Down

We did it, Reader!

Ninety days of writing to you. Ok, I know I did it but YOU opened and clicked and read. Team effort, for sure.

It was a cool experiment with many unexpected outcomes, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's ever wanted to see if they can do it, too.

Here are some of the benefits I experienced from writing regularly for a dedicated period:

• knowing there's an end - I wanted to quit so many times, but knowing there was an end made it easier to hang in there
• (re)connecting with people 1:1 - people respond to your emails when you ask them to, what a delight!
• building a habit of looking and observing - needing something to write about made me pay even closer attention to relevant trends and topics, which was maybe great for you but also made me even better at my day job
• new opportunities - this surprised me the most - just by sharing my interests and observations, I had opportunities popping up that helped me get out of my hermit WFH life and meet new people

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And just for good measure, let's close this out with some predictions for the next 90 days:

GenAI

Emerging developments in AI will continue its rollercoaster approach to development, with more setbacks and disappointments alongside breakthroughs and fierce competition to be (and be perceived to be) at the head of the pack.

• GenAI in advertising is already an unmanaged problem, which will amplify dramatically next year with the US political cycle revving up. (I think this will be more Q2 next year)
• GenAI tools will continue to improve, though less exponentially than we've seen in the past 18 months. Competition will develop, as well as better tools built to identify GenAI content.

Entertainment

Hollywood will be an early adopter of GenAI tools, and viewers will be none the wiser. The industry will get back to producing more content than anyone can consume now that strikes are calming down and will position itself to compete with politics for our attention in the summer and fall. I've said it before - 2024 will be the year of entertainment meaning more people glued to screens, which leads me to...

Tech+Ads

Regulatory and antitrust actions will continue to chase the major tech players - from seeking to divide their monopolies, tearing down their walled gardens, forcing them to roll back their predatory strategies, and to privacy and algorithmic containment. And don't get me started on the final (final?) departure of chrome's third-party cookie policy and growing industry distrust in programmatic advertising. While those sound like significant potential changes, most consumers aren't paying attention and will continue to log on, per usual, to get access to the thing they've come to depend on for entertainment/connection/play/work.

Want to read previous morning notes? They're all available here.