Instagram’s AI alarm: “We have to evolve, and fast”

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are still hungover from CES:

↘️ META: $7.71  | ↘️ TIKTOK: $2.84 CPM | ↘️ SNAPCHAT: $4.22 CPM

In this week’s first edition of 2026: 

• 📸 Instagram’s AI alarm: “We have to evolve, and fast”

• The 4 things Amazon teased behind the scenes at CES 📦

• 🚗 Uber now lets you brand their ‘most prized’ asset

But first…

⏰ What if the TikTok deal isn’t done after all?

About half an hour after we clicked “send” on the final Thread newsletter of 2025, multiple major news outlets reported that our long national nightmare was over, and that Chinese officials had finally signed paperwork to sell majority ownership of TikTok to a consortium of American investors. Those stories even contained a date on which TikTok’s U.S. operations would change hands: January 22, 2026. 

But not so fast?

This week, TikTok watchers are closely parsing a statement issued Christmas Day by Chinese state officials, which seems to have been written in a timeline where the deal is not yet done: “The Chinese government hopes that relevant parties can reach a solution regarding TikTok that complies with Chinese laws,” the statement read, in part. The newspaper China Daily quoted a state official referring to a “basic framework” for a deal and “expressing hope” that U.S. officials will honor it. 

So: is Chinese media just politely slow-walking the announcement of a U.S. sale? Or is the deal not yet done?

We’ll find out in two weeks or less. Stay tuned!

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

🔎 Google lowered its minimum audience size requirement to just 100 active users—unlocking remarketing, customer lists, and audience segments across Search, Display, and YouTube for smaller advertisers who previously couldn’t meet higher thresholds. That same 100-user minimum now applies to Audience Insights as well, down from 1,000, making performance data and targeting tools accessible to far leaner campaigns.

🎯 Meanwhile, Google Ads is rolling out new location targeting options for Demand Gen campaigns, allowing you to choose whether you want to target people in or regularly in your selected location ("Presence") OR people in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your selected location (“Presence or Interest”):

📦 Amazon used this year’s CES to leak a host of new advertising priorities and tease its upfront reveals. According to AdWeek, Amazon Ads VP Alan Moss has been giving key clients an advance look at Amazon’s 2026 roadmap, which includes: 

• Debuting their Full Funnel Campaigns tool in Q1. The agentic product recommends campaign setups tailored to each brand across sponsored products, sponsored brands, sponsored display, and streaming TV placements. Once launched, campaigns automatically adjust budgets, audiences, and tactics using shared data signals.

• Expanding reach with Amazon’s Authenticated Graph, which lets advertisers reach verified audiences across the open internet and now covers up to 90% of U.S. households.

• Creating programmatic value for advertisers with their premium partnerships (think Netflix, Disney, etc.).

• Growing live sports opportunities, including NBA, NFL, and upcoming Olympics inventory, supported by AI tools like Live Event Optimizer to capture big moments in real time.

♾️ Instagram is already seeing a massive vibe shift due to AI, according to a long update from IG head Adam Mosseri. In a must-read letter titled “Authenticity after abundance,” Mosseri says an influx of AI content is already changing behavior on the platform. As AI content becomes indistinguishable from reality, “authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible,” he says. He predicts that creators will become more essential and trusted—but only if they are able to signal their authenticity, which he expects to manifest in what he calls a raw, “imperfect” aesthetic. 

If that sounds like a manifesto against the machine, guess again: Mosseri encourages a more open-minded approach to generative AI, noting that while “we like to talk about ‘AI slop,’ there is a lot of amazing AI content.” 

The question, given Meta’s massive investment in AI, is how Instagram will adapt to help its creator base make sense of a world where perfect is easy and filtering is hard. Mosseri admits IG isn’t there yet — that the platform will “have to evolve in a number of ways, and fast.” What’s coming next? Here’s his punch list: 

🚗 Uber revealed a new offering, Journey Takeovers, which gives advertisers the ability to create full brand experiences on the tablets in cars, in the app—and now even within the platform’s map, Uber’s “most prized brand asset”—all at the same time. 

According to Kristi Argyilan, global head of Uber Advertising, “We already have, on average, about 20 minutes of someone’s attention when they’re in an Uber…Now we’re actually connecting one of our most prized brand assets that we have, which is the map, which is where we all really stare when we’re in the car.” 

Minimum budget requirements and other pricing info is TBD. Uber says “advertisers can expect the cost to vary based on the idea, elements, and execution.”

In the meantime, stay up to date with the latest performance marketing intelligence by following us on Linkedin, Instagram, and X.

This week’s edition of the Thread was created by Jess Dashner, Anoushka Madan, Mariya Samardzhieva, and Carly Carioli.