Two shifts are happening at the same time.

One is external.
One is internal. 

Externally, platforms are abstracting distribution away from you. Shopify just plugged its merchants into ChatGPT ads.

Internally, teams are racing to automate everything they can. Agents. Workflows. AI audits. Faster outputs.

But here’s the real question:

Are you automating to replace work…
or automating to stack value?

This week, I’m breaking down both shifts.

Let's go!

Topics we'll cover today:

💠 Automation Won’t Save You (This Will)
💠 The First Real Way to Advertise in ChatGPT
💠 The 2026 Meta Reality Check with Jon Loomer
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

I have a saying:

For years, people have been waiting for technology.
Now, technology is waiting for people.

Think about it: for years, we wanted to build things, but there was no internet. Then there were read-only websites…no YouTube, no social media, no cloud.

Access was the bottleneck.

Today?

Execution is.

These days, the goal seems to be automating things…

Get an agent for this, get an agent for that.

I mean, who isn't trying to leverage AI as much as they can?

In the end, we need to be more efficient.

However, there are 2 ways of approaching it:

Both have the first part in common: to automate something.

The difference lies in the second part: what do we do it for?

If we automate something with the only goal of replacing the way it was previously done, the only value we added is that we no longer have to do a certain set of tasks. Quick win, of course… less or no time spent on the task, but after a short period of time, we're really not adding value.

We just compressed time.

On the flip side, if we automate to stack value, we benefit from the automation because we no longer have to manually do that set of tasks, and now we can focus on adding more value on top of it.

That’s where the leverage is.

Here's a real-life example:

A brand asks their team/agency to do an in-depth audit of their customer acquisition strategy.

Not automated: The value in doing it manually is the audit itself. It could take days or even weeks, and eventually we'll get the desired output: the audit.

Automated: the AI workflow/agent will take care of automatically performing the audit in minutes. That way, the team will be able to deliver the audit way faster.

Automated + stacking value:

Once the audit is done, the team can go ahead and:

Now the audit isn’t the final product…it’s the starting point.

The automation handled the diagnostic layer.
Humans handle the judgment layer.

Here’s the thing:

If you automate to replace, you become cheaper and faster.
If you automate to stack value, you become sharper and more strategic. 

Because AI can run reports, summarize data, and even generate recommendations.

But deciding:

Where to push.
What to ignore.
What tradeoff to make.
What not to do. 

That’s still on you.

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.

In 2025, we audited over 90 brands, and we found that many of them have been stuck in a revenue plateau for 2, and even 3 years.

So, the question is: will you stay in the same place for yet another year, or will you draw a line in the sand and start a new chapter for your brand?

At BSR, my agency, we’re offering just 1 spot for brands that want to unlock the next level of growth.

Will you be one of them?

Shopify is now running ads inside ChatGPT…on behalf of its merchants, by plugging ChatGPT into Shop Campaigns.

If you’re not familiar:

Shop Campaigns is Shopify’s pay-per-sale ad channel.

You set:

And Shopify distributes your products across its network (Meta, Google, and more).

Now?

ChatGPT.

Here’s how it works:

Shopify buys the ad inventory inside ChatGPT. Your products surface inside answers. And you only pay when a sale happens: capped at your preset CAC.

No clicks.
No CPMs.
No manual media buying.

A few important nuances:

And right now, this is the only direct path I’m aware of for a small brand to advertise inside ChatGPT, since it's still in beta and there's no self-serve interface.

Thoughts?

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.

"Everyone is blaming Andromeda.” 

That’s how this part of my conversation with Jon Loomer started.

But here’s the reality:

Andromeda isn’t “the algorithm.”
It’s not the reason your performance changed.
And it’s definitely not some hidden Meta conspiracy. 

In this episode of The DTC Insider, Jon explains what Andromeda actually is, and why the real shift happening inside Meta Ads is about creative diversification, not targeting control.

If you’re still optimizing like it’s 2019, this episode will challenge your assumptions.

🎧 Tune in

If you found this interesting, please leave us a review. It’d mean the world to me.

📰 Almost half of the U.S. consumers use TikTok as a search engine [read more]
📰 Where Are Brands Seeing the Biggest Growth: TikTok or Meta? [read more]
📰 Instagram opens up content scheduling to all users [read more]

Brian Roisentul is the founder & CEO of BSR, a growth marketing agency he started in 2013 to help e-commerce brands unlock hidden revenue by identifying misalignments between their marketing and customer behavior. He is also the host of The DTC Insider podcast, where he interviews thought leaders, founders, and directors in the e-commerce space.

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