This week’s headlines paint a clear picture: AI is becoming the backbone of business strategy. In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss global ad spend set to top USD$1tn in 2026, WPP being demoted from the FTSE 100, and the EU probing Meta’s AI use in WhatsApp.

Eventbrite is changing hands in a deal worth USD $500m (£378.8m). The acquisition by Bending Spoons underscores the challenges facing the ticketing platform, whose growth has slowed despite strong brand recognition.

While Eventbrite faces a reset, other players are doubling down on data and AI. Havas is expanding its global AI and analytics capabilities with the acquisition of Unnest, a French data consulting firm. Anthropic has also tapped Wilson Sonsini for legal advice, signaling its ambition to scale amid fierce AI competition.

Meanwhile, Europe is making its own play for AI leadership. Mistral has unveiled a new suite of open-weight models, including Mistral Large 3, touted as one of the most advanced multimodal and multilingual systems available. 

But while AI drives convenience, the digital ad ecosystem faces new challenges. Utgivarna, a Swedish publisher group, has filed a police complaint against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing Facebook of enabling fraudulent ads impersonating journalists. 

While AI and digital innovation dominate headlines, traditional formats aren’t fading, with out-of-home ad spend on the rise. Outsmart reported UK out-of-home (OOH) advertising revenue rose 4.4% in Q3 2025, hitting £376.6m. Classic OOH formats surged 6.5%, outpacing digital’s 3.3% growth.