All the latest tech updates and product releases that affiliate marketers should know about.
In the latest tech briefing, Affiliate Leaders rounds up the top product releases from the past few weeks, and why this matters to marketers.
This week we analyse Appsflyer’s new AEO offering; YouTube’s new AI creator tools; and Amazon’s new agentic AI, alongside the latest from McDonald’s new media offering, Netflix’s data collaboration tools, and Magnite’s third-party integrations.
Appsflyer expands its search attribution
Appsflyer is building its search attribution capabilities to include answer engine optimisation (AEO). This will give marketers the ability to measure their discovery through AI engines like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and CoPilot.
This will appear alongside traditional search discovery routes like Google, Bing, and Baidu. A clear distinction between the two discovery methods will enable marketers and publishers to gain a deeper understanding of their ad campaign metrics.
By isolating the incremental lift an ad campaign earns, marketers will get a full picture of AI-driven discovery, organic, and paid in one platform.
Alexia Nakad, general manager, western Europe and the Middle East at AppsFlyer, said: “AI answer engines are becoming a primary discovery surface, and marketers have had no independent way to measure traffic coming from AEO, let alone which AI engine sent it.
“This gives them one neutral read on organic AI traffic. Whether it happens on mobile or desktop, in an app or a browser, the same rigor we’ve applied to search for years, now extended to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and the rest of the answer-engine field. Marketers can finally see what they earned versus what they paid for, in one place, measured the same way every time.”
Leaders take
Discovery is increasingly happening outside of traditional search methods, with platforms like ChatGPT significantly changing the audience journey. Appsflyer announced a ChatGPT integration earlier in 2026, which introduced mobile app measurement to paid campaigns in the platform.
This is a clear strategic shift, and one which prioritises AI engines as a discovery method – a sign of confidence that AI will continue to shape discovery. The new attributions will empower marketers to make campaign decisions based on this information.
YouTube has revealed new AI creator tools
YouTube Studio has unveiled new creator tools. These include a Gemini-powered assistant within shorts and YouTube create, which aim to help edit clips, sync music, and trim pauses.
The YouTube shopping affiliate programme will be expanded to 35 countries by the end of 2026. The programme already has over 1.3 million creators enrolled. Indian and Brazilian creators will also be given access to product tags for Amazon products.
A new ‘Ask YouTube’ feature will introduce shopping queries and follow-up questions for TV users, including voice commands and comparison tables.
US users will soon get custom feeds, which will let them save homepage tabs which are specific to their interests, like sport or home improvement videos.
YouTube is also testing opt-in AI content moderation, as well as facial and voice detection for likeness-protection features.
Leaders take
The new features introduced by YouTube represent a significant shift to empower affiliates and creators to make money from the platform and contribute to the affiliate ecosystem the Google-owned platform is developing.
The ecosystem is expanding, with better tools for a more seamless experience, lowering the barriers for content creation, which suggests affiliate and influencer marketing are going to be key channels for brands.
Amazon introduces agentic AI for third-party sellers
Amazon has introduced agentic AI for third-party sellers on its e-commerce platform.
The new workflows will run seller prompts, including alerting third-parties on pricing changes or rating declines.
Sellers profile recommendations will be stored by the seller assistant platform, including promotions, item pricing, and inventor management.
The AI tools will allow sellers to utilise the plug-ins they already have to get the new features. The seller agent will use Amazon’s Quick and Anthropic’s Claude services.
Leaders take
The new tools and the AI agent will be free and optional for any seller to use, and could help them streamline their process. A particularly significant feature is that sellers can choose how much personal data they share with the agentic service, so the AI does not have access to anything you don’t want it to.
This has a significant knock-on effect on marketplace marketing strategies, by allowing sellers to manage ad campaigns through autonomous, natural-language workflows. This shift automates routine tasks, forcing marketers to pivot from manual execution to high-level brand strategy.
Other notable tech updates
At it’s first UK upfronts event, Netflix announced its ads suite (launch in May 2025) has new data collaboration tools, targeting and measurement solutions and ad formats. Among the new formats is pause ads, which will be available programmatically across its partner DSPs from next month, The streaming giant is expanding its demographic targeting capabilities to include income and household composition.
Amy Reinhard, president of advertising, also told attendees Netflix will be expanding its ad-supported plan to nine new marketers in Europe including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland.
Magnite has expanded its omnichannel capabilities and third-party integrations for Magnite Orchestration. This is a co-ordination layer to connect agents within a shared environment, and will help users discover, evaluate, activate, and optimise omnichannel inventory.
Herdify has launched Audience Discovery, a feature which shows marketers where their audience is most valuable for word-of-mouth growth. This will include comparison between post codes in their word-of-mouth performance.
McDonalds is creating a new media network, starting with digital ads on its drive-through boards as part of a new pilot scheme. The media network, McDonalds predicts, could eventually grow to be a $1bn business.
Citi had launched a media platform, which will use its transaction data to help brands reach customers at key moments in the purchase journey. The Citi Commerce Media will offer first-party data to target high-intent audiences.
