KIMP’s Picks 23rd May: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

It’s a constant race in the tech space with tech giants pushing boundaries, unveiling new features regularly, battling to stay ahead of the game. This week, for instance, there was a lot of buzz about the big tech events, Microsoft Build 2025 and Google I/O 2025. Undoubtedly, AI was the hero of some of the major announcements at these events. 

But let’s be real. Who has the time to keep up with every update in the fast-moving world of tech? That’s where KIMP’s Picks comes in.

We cut through the noise and handpick the most buzzworthy updates, inspiring designs, marketing insights, AI trends, and social media changes all in one place. Quick. Curated. Shareworthy.

Ready for the KIMP’s Picks May 23rd edition? Let’s dive in.

In the Marketing Realm 

Google unveils AI-powered advertising innovations at Marketing Live 

Google has announced a big round of AI-driven innovations aimed at transforming the advertising landscape across Search and YouTube. 

Key updates include expanding ads into AI Overviews on desktop and introducing them to AI Mode in Google Search. This creates new opportunities for advertisers within generative AI search experiences. 

Google is also integrating its advanced video and image generation models, Veo and Imagen, into Google Ads and Merchant Center. This will enable marketers to quickly create high-quality creative assets and bring their visions to life.

Marketing Live also brings updates to Google Analytics 

In addition to the advertising updates announced, Google is also bringing fresh upgrades to the tools available on Google Analytics to make it a more comprehensive platform for cross-channel measurement. 

Key improvements include enhanced cross-channel, multi-touch attribution and the introduction of “view-through conversions.” This new metric helps marketers understand the full impact of their campaigns by tracking conversions where customers saw an ad but did not click it before converting. This can be a big help in optimizing your ads to boost conversions. 

Additionally, Google is also introducing a new cross-channel budgeting tool. It features a “Projections Report” and a “Scenario Planner.” The Projections Report will predict channel performance to help meet goals, while the Scenario Planner will utilize data modeling to assist in planning media budgets across various platforms. 

WhatsApp’s recent campaign aims to build trust 

Campaigns with a single clear focus, a clear and relevant message have a better chance of conversion. WhatsApp’s recent campaign is a good example. 

The campaign highlights one key aspect – privacy. Titled “Not Even WhatsApp,” the campaign delivers a clear message: no one, not even the platform itself, can access users’ personal communications, thanks to end-to-end encryption. 

Running across television, online video, digital, out-of-home, and audio channels, the campaign adopts a warm, light-hearted tone.

Burger King taps into emotional marketing for its Mother’s Day campaign 

Burger King Ecuador recently launched a Mother’s Day campaign titled “Sorry, Mom. I Burnt It”. The campaign creatively engaged customers by transforming kitchen failures into a humorous gift opportunity. 

The campaign played on the relatable experience of cooking mishaps with the tagline “Being a good son doesn’t make you a good chef.” The brand encouraged people to share photos of their culinary disasters in exchange for a Whopper to gift their mothers.

Timely and engaging – this is the kind of campaign that cuts through the noise during popular holidays like Mother’s Day. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Chatbots vs search engines 

When it comes to content marketing, there is a lot of uncertainty that prevails because of the growing competition between chatbots like ChatGPT and search engines. This is because the way people search for answers is changing every day. Earlier, all searches happened on search engines. But today, people find AI chatbots to be more convenient options to find information, to gather ideas. 

Social Media Today recently shared an infographic that captures the changes happening in the Search landscape. The insights captured here are valuable for content marketers working on their SEO strategies. Evidently, while chatbots have a long way to go, the undeniable truth is that they are catching up quicker than anticipated. 

Google’s guidelines for AI-powered search ranking 

We discussed how the Search landscape is shifting due to the penetration of AI tools. Now for content marketers wondering what changes this brings, Search Engine Journal discussed some guidelines laid down by Google, with respect to AI-powered search ranking. 

Google has released new guidelines for website owners aiming to succeed in AI-powered search environments, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. 

While the search landscape is evolving beyond traditional “blue links,” core principles for ranking remain consistent. 

The guidelines highlight that content quality is paramount. So, it’s all about creating unique content that directly addresses user needs, especially as AI search users tend to ask more specific and follow-up questions. 

Technical accessibility is also crucial. Therefore, you need to ensure that Googlebot can access and index content on your website, and that pages offer a positive user experience with mobile-friendly design and fast loading speeds.

In the Design Realm 

How hypergrowth companies are rethinking their design workflows 

A new Adobe study surveying 1,000 U.S. marketers at hypergrowth companies highlights key trends in content creation and design. The report indicates that 45% of marketers see AI-driven content as a key strategy trend for 2025.

A striking four out of five hypergrowth companies attribute their rapid growth to creativity and design. To scale content production efficiently, 37% leverage AI tools, 33% use analytics platforms, and 31% employ social media scheduling tools. Additionally, 33% of their total content output comes from repurposing existing assets.

This means that now is a good time to think of a cost-effective and scalable design solution for your company. 

Brand identity design that raises the bar

It’s Nice That discussed an innovative design project, the brand identity for Sarah Eisman’s new jewelry brand. Eisman wanted a brand identity that reflected the technical precision and methodical craftsmanship behind her jewelry. Additionally, she wanted to blend this with emotional resonance to create something both timeless and modern.

Accordingly, Leslie David Studio, known for its work with high-end brands like Chanel and Gucci, embraced this unique challenge by focusing on a dual approach to the brand’s visuals. 

Additionally, the identity draws from the meticulous nature of the jewelry design process, incorporating 3D animations to highlight hidden details, such as stones visible only from certain angles. 

This design project highlights the power of details in branding. And how taking cues from what makes the brand unique makes the brand’s identity unique. 

In the AI Realm 

Google brings Gemini to Chrome 

As we discussed at the beginning of this blog, Google I/O has been one of the central themes of most social media discussions this week. 

One of the first updates from Google I/O is the fact that Google is bringing Gemini to the Chrome browser. 

Only last week, Google announced that Gemini access is expanding across more devices in the Android ecosystem, like cars and TVs. 

Now, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. can access Gemini within Chrome. Gemini can therefore act as your personal cooking assistant or shopping assistant,  making it easier for you to browse and interact with websites. Google also plans to allow Gemini to work across tabs in the future. 

Gemini Live is now free across Android & iOS devices 

The next updates from Google I/O are about the Gemini app on mobile devices. 

In April, Google expanded Gemini Live with screen-sharing features. This allows users to interact with Gemini and ask questions based on what’s on the screen or even use the camera to point at an object or scene to ask questions about it. 

Google has announced that these features on Gemini Live will no longer be restricted only to paid users. They are now free, not just on Android devices but also on iOS devices. 

In addition to the free access, Google is also upgrading app integrations. This means that Gemini will soon be able to interact with more apps, thus letting you create events on Google Calendar or extract details from Google Maps and more. 

Deep Think and more new updates coming to Gemini 2.5 models 

Google has announced some major updates to its Gemini 2.5 model series. Firstly, there is Deep Think coming to Google’s recently popular Gemini 2.5 Pro model. This brings more advanced reasoning to users. Deep Think is Google’s new experimental reasoning mode within 2.5 Pro.

Reportedly, it excels in advanced math and coding challenges such as the USAMO and LiveCodeBench. While this feature is still in testing, it reflects Google’s ambitions to push the boundaries of model reasoning. Additionally, Google also announced Gemini 2.5 Flash as a lightweight model. 

Google announces Veo 3 and updates to Veo 2

At Google I/O 2025, Google unveiled Veo 3, the latest evolution in its AI video generation line. One of the biggest updates is that this new Veo model can create videos with synchronized audio. This model is also said to be a major leap forward in realism and immersion. From ambient sounds to character dialogue, Veo 3 doesn’t just generate what you see, but what you hear too.

In addition to this new model, the existing Veo 2 model is also getting better controls like camera controls, outpainting feature, and more. 

Meet Imagen 4

Google’s I/O updates were not just about video models but also its image generation model, Imagen. Google has announced Imagen 4, its upgraded image generation model with better details, and most importantly, with improved typography rendering. 

Reportedly, Imagen 4 shows major improvements in spelling and typography, allowing users to easily create content like greeting cards, posters, and comics. Imagen 4 is now available in the Gemini app, Whisk, Vertex AI, and across Google Workspace tools like Slides, Vids, and Docs.

Google’s new AI solution to build UIs

At the event, Google also had a few surprise announcements, and Stitch is one of them. Stitch is a new experimental tool from Google Labs designed to simplify and speed up the process of going from UI concept to functional frontend code. 

Built on the multimodal capabilities of Gemini 2.5 Pro, Stitch enables users to create complex user interface designs using natural language prompts or image inputs like sketches, screenshots, or wireframes.

Additionally, users can also experiment with multiple layout and style variations. Once a design is ready, Stitch offers an option to paste directly into Figma for refinement or to export clean frontend code for development. 

Google transforms the filmmaking game with Flow

AI is becoming an integral part of filmmaking, and one of the announcements from Google at Google I/O 2025 embraces this trend. 

At the event, Google launched Flow, a new AI-powered filmmaking tool designed for creatives. What makes it special is that it integrates Google’s advanced models: Veo, Imagen, and Gemini. Flow aims to provide storytellers with an effortless and iterative platform to explore ideas and create cinematic video clips and scenes.

Key features of Flow include Camera Controls for precise motion and angles, Scenebuilder for seamless editing and extending shots with continuous motion, and Asset Management for organizing creative ingredients.

OpenAI announces Codex in ChatGPT 

Among the many tasks that AI chatbots simplify, coding is one of the most popular. OpenAI recently announced Codex, a new cloud-based software engineering agent designed to handle multiple coding tasks in parallel. 

Powered by “codex-1,” an OpenAI o3 variant optimized for software engineering, Codex can write features, answer codebase questions, fix bugs, and propose pull requests.

Codex is now available in the ChatGPT iOS app, simplifying coding on the go. 

Big updates announced at Microsoft Build 2025 

The big AI updates from this week are not just from Google. The other game-changing event that happened was Microsoft Build 2025. Take a look at this page to catch up on all the news from the event. 

Major updates like Copilot Tuning and other refinements to AI agents designed for work dominated the event. Additionally, the team also announced fresh and useful new features coming to Microsoft Copilot Studio. They also gave a sneak peek into what is coming with Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release. 

So yes, the AI landscape in Microsoft products is rapidly changing too! 

Amazon enhances shopping experience with AI-powered audio summaries 

Amazon has been setting new trends in the integration of AI into the ecommerce shopping experience. And now it is testing a new generative AI-powered audio feature that provides customers with synthesized product summaries and reviews. This innovation aims to save customers’ time by compiling research and highlighting key product features through short-form audio clips.

These AI shopping experts make the most of Amazon’s AI-powered tools like Rufus, Interests, and more. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes 

TikTok is prompting teens to meditate 

Renowned social media platforms have been introducing more features mindful of younger users. TikTok has also been rolling out better parental controls and teen-focused features. Next in line is its in-app meditation feature. 

This “Meditation in Sleep Hours” feature is designed to encourage healthier sleep habits among its younger users. The app will automatically interrupt the “For You” feed of users aged 13-17 who are scrolling after 10 p.m. with a guided meditation exercise.

What’s new on YouTube? 

YouTube is bringing Visual Guides to the Shorts Editor. This will let creators be sure that they position text and other elements of their video within the safe zones for a better experience. Secondly, YouTube is also bringing Quiz Stickers to Shorts to help creators better interact with their audience. Finally, there will also be a chart for weekly top podcasts to boost visibility and to help users find their favorite content more easily. 

Threads updates 

To help ease cross-platform traffic, Meta announced that users on Threads can now add multiple links to their profiles. So, if you want to add a link to a landing page during a sale or a link to your podcast, you can conveniently do it without using third-party linking tools. 

In the future, the platform also aims to add more options for users to understand which of their links are performing better. 

View on Threads

Wrapping Up…

With that whirlwind of updates, we are coming to the end of the KIMP’s Picks 23rd May Edition. A busy week indeed in the AI landscape, don’t you agree? As you can see, keeping up with all these key updates scattered on social media can be tedious. But fear not, for KIMP’s Picks is here. This is going to be your weekly recap, keeping you in the loop so that FOMO does not daunt you anymore. So, stay tuned and we’ll be back with a fresh set of updates next week.