Platform pulse: July 2025

Welcome to July's edition of Platform Pulse. From ChatGPT's staggering daily usage to YouTube's new AI tools for creators, the digital landscape continues to transform at breakneck speed. There's innovative tools for audience engagement, updates in Google Analytics, and Meta's new value rules for advertisers. Plus, we'll uncover a surprising story about an AI-generated band making waves on Spotify. Scroll on to read more.

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OpenAI / ChatGPT

ChatGPT now processes over 2.5 billion daily prompts globally, with 330 million from US users, as people increasingly turn to AI instead of traditional search engines for information. This number is only going to increase once OpenAI launch a native browser, expected to launch with agentic capabilities. Read more

YouTube

YouTube introduces AI-powered tools for Shorts, including an image-to-video converter and new effects, allowing creators to animate static images into short videos. Read more

X / Grok

Elon Musk's xAI launches Grok 4 AI model and a $300 monthly SuperGrok Heavy subscription, further integrating AI capabilities into his social network X. Read more

Rally

Virtual persona and focus group tool Rally lets you extract 100 Youtube comments from a target video and enrich your desired audience of AI personas with memories of these comments. Learn more

Spotify

Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band. A supposed band called The Velvet Sundown has released two albums of AI slop this month. Read more

Google Analytics

You can now identify & fix consent settings issues right in Google Analytics with Google Tag Diagnostics. This means it's now easier to check for and address any Consent Mode and data collection implementation issues when you’re working in Google Analytics. Learn more

Google Tag Manager

As of 21 July 2025, Google is now enforcing new regulations that dramatically alter how we collect and utilise data from website users. This is a significant shift that will redefine our collective approach to user consent and privacy. Read more

Meta

Meta begins to roll out value rules, allowing advertisers to express value across audiences and consolidate campaigns to drive performance in campaigns using the sales and app promotion objectives. When using value rules, your campaigns can adjust delivery towards audiences and outcomes you value more. Learn more