Here's what's coming up:
Is AI strangling SaaS?
Google’s new shopping mall
AI in the military
Before we get into it you should know that we have four free AI marketing trainings available here:
Each training is one hour and contains actual AI marketing exercises that you’ll complete.
Alright! Let’s do this…
AI EVOLUTION
The Bullets:
Anthropic (makers of Claude) dropped 11 open-source AI plugins for sales, finance, marketing, legal, and data. Free. Just... free.
Wall Street did what Wall Street does: full panic. Software stocks lost billions in days. It even has a name… The SaaS-pocalypse.
Why the sell off? Because investor bros are thinking business people like you and I are going to DIY our tech stack and cancel subscriptions.
SaaS companies like Salesforce, LegalZoom, and Thomson Reuters were amongst the hardest hit.
Why it matters:
Deep breath. Nobody's replacing their entire tech stack with homemade AI tools tomorrow. You still need security, maintenance, and software that doesn't break at 2 a.m.
SaaS isn't going anywhere in the near term.
But the nibbling has started.
AI is chewing away at features you used to need a separate subscription for. No panic necessary, but if your tech stack is bloated or aging, now's the time to audit which tools you actually need and ensure that the ones you keep are AI-forward.
Bet on the tools that are keeping up.
AI SHOPPING
The Bullets:
Google's annual ads strategy letter just dropped. The gist: 2026 is the year of "agentic commerce" powered by Gemini 3. (That's a very corporate way of saying "AI that buys stuff for you.")
New "Direct Offers" let brands serve discounts to shoppers mid-AI-search. Coupons, but smarter (and creepier?).
Universal Commerce Protocol enables checkout without ever leaving Google's AI. Currently being tested by big boys like Target and WalMart.
Why it matters:
Google is rebuilding shopping around AI agents that don't just recommend products.
They buy them.
If you sell on Shopify, pay attention: the Universal Commerce Protocol means your customers could check out inside a Gemini conversation without ever seeing your site.
They'd never touch your beautiful landing page. Never scroll past your testimonials. Never see that hero image you spent two weeks picking out.
And "Direct Offers" gives you a new way to reach people who are already mid-purchase decision. The early movers on this will eat everyone else's lunch.
🌐 I’ll take ‘AI in the Military’ for $600, Alex.
Answer: This AI data analytics company, valued at over $320 billion, is used by the CIA, FBI, and U.S. military.
Answer... ermm... question at the bottom of this email. 👇
AI HOMEWORK
Ground Your AI in a Live Webpage
You've already spent real time and energy dialing in your landing page.
But every time you ask AI to write an email or ad about that offer, it starts from scratch and gives you something generic.
You can fix that by grounding your AI.
Grounding the AI is when you anchor the AI’s response in a trusted source.
For example, when you point ChatGPT at a live URL (like a landing page), it can read the page and anchor its output in your actual messaging.
Try this:
Copy the URL of a good landing page or sales page. It could be yours or someone else’s. (If you don’t have one, use my page for theCLICK Pro: https://theclick.ai/pro.
In ChatGPT, paste this prompt and swap in your URL:
Go read this page and summarize the key messaging, hooks, and offer: [PASTE YOUR URL]
Then, create a 3-day email campaign plan that will promote the offer on this page. Build the plan in a table.Review, edit, and improve the plan.
Send the emails and make some sales.
You're done when…
ChatGPT returns an email promo plan that accurately reflects your page's messaging rather than some generic, boiled-chicken plan. 🍗
Well, that’s it for today’s email … except for the Jeopardy answer down there. 👇
Hit the REPLY button and say hello. I would love to hear from you!
Let’s build something together!
Russ
Jeopardy Answer: What is Palantir?
Palantir provides AI systems to (among others) the US Military including the $178 million TITAN system that collects data from space and feeds it to soldiers in real time, compressing what they call the "sensor-to-shooter" timeline from drones, satellites, and ground sensors simultaneously.
Yep, it’s gettin’ weird out here folks. 😲
