This week, trust takes centre stage in business strategy, while marketers, tech giants, and newsrooms navigate growing pressures around regulation and AI. In today’s Madtech Daily, we discuss WPP appointing Cindy Rose as CEO, OpenAI entering browser market to challenge Chrome, and Linda Yaccarino stepping down as X CEO

Trust is rising fast on the list of business priorities. A new study from the IPA and the Financial Times, Bridging the Trust Gap, now ranks trust as the second most influential factor driving business outcomes such as profit, market share, and customer acquisition, up from sixth place two decades ago. Drawing on insights from over 750 senior global B2B decision-makers within the FT’s reader panel, the report reveals that trust now ranks as the second most powerful driver of business outcomes behind only product or service quality.

While trust fuels the boardroom, marketers are facing a trust-related challenge of their own, this time with creators. UK marketers are significantly ramping up investment in creator marketing, while one in three cite relationship management at scale as the top barrier to growth, according to new research by creator marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy.

Meanwhile, Apple is pushing back hard. Apple has filed an appeal against the European Commission’s €500m (£430m) fine for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA), accusing the EU’s executive body of going “far beyond what the law requires”. The fine relates to Apple’s restrictions on app developers steering users to alternative payment options outside its App Store. 

YouTube is also facing tough questions over where ads are really showing up. YouTube is under fire as research from Adalytics suggests advertisers are being billed, and not refunded, for impressions against channels which violate platform standards including copyright infringement and promotion of hate speech.

And as platforms rely more on AI tools, one newsroom is pushing back. Law360, the legal news outlet, has mandated the use of an in-house AI “bias” detection tool for all editorial content, sparking backlash from its unionised newsroom. The tool analyses drafts for perceived bias and flags lines for revision to ensure a more “neutral voice.” 

Speaking of AI, WPP has hired Microsoft executive Cindy Rose as CEO, following a cut to its full-year outlook as it seemingly loses pace in the AI race.