Harris Poll surveyed 3,222 adults across the US, UK, Brazil, and India about AI shopping help for personal care, household items, and OTC health products. The results show a high acceptance of the technology.

AI-supported tasks that adults are comfortable with include:

The two starred items relate directly to health products, both OTC and Rx even though that wasn't the focus of the questions.

AI use for recommending products is lowest for OTC health but even then is over half (everywhere except for the UK).

This report is ecommerce-oriented but is at least "health tangential" for pharma marketers.

No original research was done for this report, but it combines 50+ stats from six sources and is a handy reference for healthcare provider activities.

When looking at the topics patients value on provider websites, it's mostly the same as for pharma (minus the doctor profiles). This is good news for pharma marketers who may feel there are other topics that patients feel like they are missing. 

The one finding here might be that brands without an FAQ on their site or in a chatbot may want to reconsider that exclusion.

Last week we saw reports of massive reductions in Reddit citations on ChatGPT. Good evidence for this seems to come from Promptwatch, an SEO data aggregator.

Their article had three separate charts for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode (the mode after you ask a question of the AI Overview). We combined them into this one chart. It is obvious that while ChatGPT has changed it's algorithm, Google AI search is still prioritizing the platform.

ChatGPT's lead is being eroded by the plethora of competitors eating market share. When asked what tools they prefer the most, it is number one for all generations but Gemini is only 2% behind for GenX.

Looking at the change in preference (not absolute growth) we see that Gemini is growing the most and ChatGPT is shrinking the most.

A new study released by Big Commerce and PayPal looks at how consumers in the US, UK, and Australia (1,000 respondents each) see agentic AI in ecommerce.

Of the 28% that use AI in their shopping activities, 50% said they look for health and wellness products. This is the second largest category.

There is some selection bias in this study as it is only online shoppers, however that is a large portion of the general population in 2026. Of this digitally-savvy group, 76% are enthusiastic about AI.

When asking the 72% of respondents who don't yet use AI for shopping how they feel about it, 61% said they would in the future. The time frames they said were:

There's a lot more data in this report but it's mainly relevant to OTC brands. For Rx, just the fact that consumers are moving toward AI assistants when shopping is an important finding. 

The connected TV is the dominant device for people viewing together in APAC. This is from a study of 3.500 respondents across seven APAC countries. 

Interestingly, anyone who uses a "home theater PC" or computer connected to their smart TV will be shown as desktop computer. Not sure how large that group is but my family does it this way (no personal stories, n=1 -Ed.).

YouTube even beats Netflix for co-viewing in APAC. This is a strong showing for the streaming / social hybrid platform.

Respondents say that viewing with others sparks more interest in ads. 42% say they pay more attention to them and 43% say they discuss and react to the ads.

Co-viewers don't just discuss ads, they take action. Websites and social media are the locations they will look to for more information.

Harris Poll released some data on Gen Alpha influences and as a tag-along their moms' as well. 

The channels in the red box are places where marketers can get to the parents of Gen Alpha teens. These parents are Millennials with some younger Gen Xers. Technically "in-store" is also a channel.

The write-up of the research also included the channels that influence the moms the most. Here, Facebook came out on top but with the caveat that it was tied with TikTok for Millennial Moms.

Most major economic upheavals have carried both positive and negative impacts. Old jobs become redundant and new ones are formed. AI is likely to take the same path but it has an image problem.

Charted over time the people who should embrace new tech the fastest are souring on it. Most other age groups have stabilized but the <30 group continues to get more pessimistic. 

All Americans are more worried about job impacts from AI.

As for a smoking gun, it's often held by OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. Quoted here from the David Senra podcast (a good listen, btw -Ed.):

This story leans in on the digital part of digital pharma marketer. Logitech surveyed 600 IT decision-makers across the US, UK, and Australia to find out their thoughts on gaming as a skill.

82% of respondents said they were more likely to hire a candidate if they had gaming on their resume.

The reasons they had for this position were many, but some of the top skills associated with gaming were:

Does this translate directly to pharma marketing? Well, not really. Is it super interesting? Yes! (Enthusiasm noted -Ed.)

The journal Science has an article reviewing studies that use AI to change peoples' opinions. In one study researchers looked to reinforce or debunk conspiracy theories. The AI was effective in both directions.

 Participants rated their belief from 0 (definitely false) to 100 (definitely true). AI advocacy raised belief by an average of 13.6 points, while AI debunking lowered it by 12.1 points. 

The extra leg on the conspiracy line is when the participant is informed of the untrue information. After participants were told the AI had misled them and its false claims were corrected belief dropped 19.2 points, 5.8 points below where it began. 

YouTube is projected to sneak past Amazon for CTV ad revenues in 2026.

With its reach and pharma-friendly options it is almost criminal how few pharma brands get YouTube right. If you want to talk about what makes a great YouTube campaign just reply to this email (be careful what you ask for... -Ed.).

The IAB has issued a document for advertisers on when to disclose AI use. Just because you use AI for research or editing you don't need to disclose.