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

For marketers and entrepreneurs, staying informed means knowing which industry changes could influence the way you reach audiences, create content, and build a brand. This week’s updates cover evolving AI search behavior, new voice AI models, and more.

Let’s get started with KIMP’s Picks’ October 23rd edition. 

In the Marketing Realm 

AI search is pushing brands to think beyond keywords 

A recent MarTech article discusses how AI search allows people to describe their needs, preferences, and circumstances in greater detail. This gives brands deeper insight into customer intent. Unlike traditional keyword searches, AI conversations can reveal the motivations and concerns behind a purchase decision.

Personalization and memory features can also influence AI recommendations by using context from previous conversations, depending on the platform and user settings. This means identical prompts can produce different recommendations for different people.

For marketers, tracking AI prompts, brand mentions, and competitor visibility remains useful, but these metrics offer only a partial view. Website traffic from AI platforms and engagement with specific content can provide additional clues about customer needs and the situations in which brands appear relevant. The article also highlights the importance of creating content for specific audiences and use cases.

Apple Music refreshes its brand identity with sound-driven visuals 

Apple Music has developed a new brand identity featuring an updated wordmark, a custom sonic logo, and ripple-inspired visuals. 

The identity was created using practical effects to connect sound with visuals. The team developed a custom system that converted audio frequencies into vibrations in liquid, creating rippling patterns. Mineral oil helped produce the glass-like effect, while submerged acrylic versions of the Apple Music logo captured the movement and light on film.

The new wordmark uses a customized, heavier version of Apple’s SF Pro typeface. The visual style also incorporates bursts of saturated color and draws subtle inspiration from Apple’s wider branding, including its Liquid Glass design language.

This rebranding highlights how distinctive visual and sonic assets can build recognition across multiple customer touchpoints. 

As AI search is growing, the role of brand visibility is evolving 

Digiday shared a post highlighting the rise of AI chatbots and conversational search is changing how consumers discover brands. Traditional metrics such as keyword rankings, clicks, and website traffic no longer provide a complete picture of brand visibility. Credible media coverage, consistent brand messaging, and trusted third-party mentions are becoming increasingly important in AI-driven discovery.

Zero-click search is also putting pressure on publisher traffic and complicating the relationship between paid and earned media. Also, brands cannot simply rely on paid placements to secure AI visibility. They need credible coverage, useful content, and a strong reputation across their own channels and external sources.

Meanwhile, marketers are shifting from AI experimentation toward practical implementation and measurable business value. Putting all this together, for modern brands, the priority is to combine AI-driven visibility with trusted communications, a consistent identity, and human-led decision-making. 

CNN redesigns homepage 

CNN has refreshed its digital homepage with a new layout that gives greater prominence to live coverage, in-depth reporting, and video content. The redesign includes a video carousel featuring live channels and on-demand programming available through its All Access subscription service.

The update also adds a “Developing” section for major ongoing stories, alongside refreshed live story formats and vertical video. New navigation paths help audiences find reporting, analysis, and context beyond breaking headlines.

The goal is to make CNN’s wider range of journalism and subscription offerings easier to discover while adapting the homepage to audience behavior and editorial priorities.

The redesign depicts the value of using audience data to improve content discovery, strengthen subscription journeys, and increase engagement across digital platforms.

Walmart opens its doors to AI shopping agents 

Walmart is moving ahead with agentic commerce, taking a different approach from rival Amazon, which recently began blocking AI agents from making purchases on behalf of shoppers. Walmart’s new Agent Gateway allows approved AI agents to search its online inventory and complete purchases using the MCP.

The retailer is also introducing Agent Profiles next month, allowing customers to track AI-driven purchases separately from their own transactions. Shoppers can require approval for every purchase or set spending limits for their agents. The feature will be available to all Walmart account holders, without requiring a Walmart+ membership.

For retailers, the contrasting approaches highlight a growing divide over whether to restrict AI shopping agents or build systems that let customers use them with greater control. 

In the AI Realm 

OpenAI rolls out locked chats 

OpenAI is rolling out Locked Chats in ChatGPT, allowing users to hide selected conversations from their regular chat history and search results. The feature adds a four-digit account PIN, with Face ID, Touch ID, or device authentication available on supported mobile devices.

Locked chats can store conversations and protect files uploaded or created within them. Users can access these chats through Projects, rename or delete them, and permanently unlock them to return conversations to regular history. The feature is available across Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans, with access rolling out gradually.

However, locking a chat does not enable end-to-end encryption, change data retention policies, or remove information already stored in ChatGPT Memory. Existing model-improvement settings also remain unchanged. Users should take particular care when resetting a forgotten PIN, as this permanently deletes all locked chats and information stored only within them, including protected files. This deletion cannot be reversed.

ElevenLabs launches real-time voice AI models 

ElevenLabs has launched Eleven Realtime v1 Mini and v1 Max, targeting developers building AI voice agents. The speech-to-speech models combine speech recognition, turn-taking, language processing and voice generation in one system.

According to ElevenLabs, v1 Max delivers first audio in 570 milliseconds, while v1 Mini takes 620 milliseconds. Max is designed for complex tasks such as customer support, scheduling and tool use, while Mini targets cost-conscious applications such as AI assistants and educational tutors. Both support more than 90 languages.

The models are available through ElevenAgents and a Realtime API designed to work with OpenAI’s Realtime API event format. Developers can reportedly switch endpoints and model names while keeping much of their existing code, making it easier to test the models without rebuilding their systems. 

Google brings Personal Intelligence to Gemini Auto 

Google is rolling out Gemini Personal Intelligence globally on Android Auto, with support for cars with Google built-in coming in the coming months. The update allows drivers to get tailored answers using information from connected Google apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Photos, Google Maps, YouTube and Search.

With user permission, Gemini can retrieve travel details, recommend restaurants based on personal preferences, navigate to appointments and find places mentioned in previous conversations or photos. Drivers can ask questions naturally without manually searching through emails, photos or saved locations.

Personal Intelligence is optional and can be enabled or disabled in Gemini settings. Drivers who choose not to connect their apps can still use core in-car features, including navigation, music, calls and general questions, without personalized responses.

Anthropic Claude unveiled in research preview 

Anthropic has opened a waitlist for Claude Duet, a new AI agent designed to help professionals and small business owners manage work proactively. Available as a research preview for US Pro and Max subscribers, the app runs on iOS, Android and claude.ai.

Built around Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Duet can monitor connected apps, deliver daily briefings, flag issues that need attention and complete tasks in the background, even when users step away. It can support workflows such as financial forecasting, scheduling, customer support, sales reporting and web app development.

The agent connects with more than 6,000 integrations and plugins, including Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, HubSpot, Canva and Shopify. It carries over existing Claude memory, skills and connected apps.

Google tightens scam protection on Chrome with Gemini 

Google is expanding Chrome’s Enhanced Protection with new defenses against phishing, fake antivirus alerts, browser update scams and social engineering. According to Google, users with Enhanced Protection are ten times safer from scams and related threats than those using Standard Protection.

The update introduces two levels of site warnings. “Suspicious” warnings flag pages showing deceptive patterns, while “dangerous” warnings remain full-page alerts for sites identified as highly risky. The distinction allows Chrome to warn users about more potential threats while tailoring alerts to the level of risk.

Google is also expanding scam detection with a server-side Gemini model that analyzes page text, brand signals and signs of deceptive intent. Chrome shares page content only when strong scam indicators are detected, and any content sent for analysis is processed temporarily, not retained or used to train its models.

Perplexity brings fully local AI workflows to Mac computers 

Perplexity has launched a fully local version of Computer for Mac, allowing its AI agent to plan tasks, process files and work across supported native apps without sending personal data to the cloud during local execution.

Available to Pro, Max and Enterprise subscribers, the feature runs local models Qwen 3.6 and PPLX Pro on supported Apple Silicon Macs. With relevant permissions enabled, Computer can work across files and apps including Notes, Messages, Mail and Numbers to handle multi-step tasks such as preparing client proposals, reviewing portfolios and organizing daily priorities.

The launch builds on Perplexity’s earlier Personal Computer and Hybrid Compute offerings. Users can choose fully local processing for sensitive work or Hybrid Compute to combine local file handling with cloud-based research, browser access and advanced reasoning models.

OpenAI partners with Google Cloud to bring frontier models to enterprises 

OpenAI and Google Cloud are partnering to make OpenAI’s frontier models and Codex agentic workflows available through Google Cloud’s Model Garden. The integration will let enterprise customers build AI agents and software development workflows within their existing cloud environment.

Customers will be able to purchase OpenAI models through Google Cloud Marketplace, with organizations that have existing Google Cloud spending commitments able to apply those commitments to purchases. The partnership combines OpenAI’s models with Google Cloud’s infrastructure, access controls and centralized data governance to support enterprise workloads, including those in regulated industries.

OpenAI models are also expected to become available in Google Antigravity and Gemini Agent, giving enterprise users more flexibility to select models for different tasks. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Instagram brings back Rings awards for creators 

Instagram is bringing back its Rings awards for 2026, recognizing creators who take creative risks, experiment with new ideas and influence culture both on and off the platform. The initiative focuses on creative vision and the process behind the work, rather than a specific content format.

This year’s winners will be selected by a panel of global creatives and industry figures, including Donatella Versace, A$AP Rocky, filmmaker Chloé Zhao, musician FINNEAS and Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Fashion designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla also collaborated with Instagram to design the physical award, featuring a four-leaf clover carved from Connemara marble.

Instagram introduced Rings last year to celebrate creators whose work pushes creative boundaries. The platform plans to reveal the full list of 2026 recipients later this month.

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Robert Downey Jr. joins Snap SPECS to help shape its AR glasses experience 

Robert Downey Jr. has joined SPECS, Snap’s augmented reality glasses initiative, as honorary Chief Customer Experience Officer. He will work with the team to explore new features, develop original content and shape hardware and in-person experiences designed to make AR more useful and accessible.

SPECS glasses combine digital experiences with the real world, using hand gestures and voice commands. Downey Jr.’s role will span potential applications in entertainment, education, medicine, engineering and manufacturing.

The partnership combines celebrity storytelling with practical demonstrations to build awareness of AR glasses and show how the technology could fit into everyday life.

LinkedIn adds new networking features and monetization tools for creators 

LinkedIn is introducing new features to help professionals strengthen connections, grow audiences and earn money from their expertise. The updates include a dedicated Network feed, customizable digital business cards, private profile notes for Premium subscribers and the ability to pin useful comments.

The Network feed is being tested in select markets, including the U.S., U.K., India and Australia, bringing posts from connections and followed accounts into one place. Digital business cards are rolling out globally, while profile notes are available worldwide to Premium subscribers.

For creators and independent professionals, LinkedIn is launching an all-in-one dashboard to manage content, track performance and explore earning opportunities. Eligible U.S. creators can access a test of In-Stream Ads, which generates revenue from pre-roll ads alongside eligible videos. Business Premium subscribers in the U.S. can also offer paid one-to-one Advice Sessions, with bookings, payments and video consultations managed through LinkedIn.

That’s a Wrap…

That’s all for this week’s KIMP’s Picks! We hope this roundup helped you catch up on the stories and features worth knowing about across marketing, AI, and social media. There’s always more happening, so let us help you stay in the loop. Subscribe to The KIMP Scoop newsletter for more updates delivered directly to your inbox. Until next time!