This week, AI continued to redefine how consumers discover content and products, while regulators across Europe and the UK stepped up efforts to reshape the digital marketplace. In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover Sony’s plan to end PlayStation disc production in 2028, and Google being ordered to pay Klarna USD$1.5bn (£1.19bn).

Apple had fresh discussions this week with the EU over the rollout of its next-generation Siri AI assistant. CEO Tim Cook and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen held what both sides described as a constructive meeting, signalling ongoing efforts to resolve regulatory concerns as Apple prepares to expand its AI capabilities in Europe.

Regulatory scrutiny also intensified in the UK, where the Competition and Markets Authority launched a consultation that could require Apple and Google to relax restrictions around alternative app payment methods. 

Meanwhile, AI’s growing role in digital commerce became increasingly clear. New data showed that AI-referred purchases on Amazon have doubled year on year, as more shoppers rely on assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Amazon’s Rufus to discover products before making purchases. Reinforcing this trend, Shopee and Meta expanded social commerce by launching Instagram affiliate partnerships across several Asian markets and Brazil, allowing creators to earn commissions by promoting Shopee products through Instagram content.

AI is also reshaping how information is discovered online. Research from Jellyfish found that YouTube creator content now appears in more than a quarter of AI-generated responses, with visibility climbing to nearly half of prompts in sectors such as consumer electronics and financial services. 

For publishers, however, the AI transition presents both opportunities and challenges. Beehiiv partnered with Cloudflare to give independent publishers greater visibility and control over AI crawlers, enabling them to decide which AI services can access their newsletters while tracking referral traffic from AI platforms.

 At the same time, Google has begun testing AI-generated summaries in its Discover feed, a move that has sparked concern among publishers who fear reduced traffic as multiple news stories are condensed into a single AI summary with fewer direct links to original reporting.