Super Bowl AI Ads, Tools & Agent Platforms

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OpenAI and Anthropic dominated headlines, but they weren't the only AI players vying for attention. Google, Meta, Amazon, a wave of startups, and even an vodka spot flooded Super Bowl ad breaks. AI's mainstream presence is expanding as fast as the models behind it.

In today's AI rundown

• AI ads steal the show at Super Bowl LX
• The Rundown Roundtable: our AI use cases
• Build lead widgets for your site without coding
• Crypto.com founder buys AI.com for $70M
• Four new AI tools, community workflows, and more

AI & The Super Bowl

AI ads steal the show at Super Bowl LX

AI companies turned the Big Game into a battleground for consumer attention.

AI firms and startups ran dozens of high-profile commercials at Super Bowl LX. Anthropic and OpenAI led a viral feud after Anthropic's ad launch. SVEDKA ran what it called the first primarily Super Bowl spot, using AI-trained choreography for its mascot.

Other notable ads highlighted product launches and new devices: Meta promoted AI-powered glasses and "athletic intelligence," Amazon pushed Alexa+, and Google showcased Gemini and playful Nano Banana spots. Additional advertisers included Base44, Genspark, Ramp, Rippling, and Wix. Reports estimate AI-related ads accounted for around 10% of the game's ad share.

Why this matters: major AI brands are competing to become the default assistant, agent, or device consumers trust. The SVEDKA spot also shows AI's influence on creative production — it's shaping both what's being sold and how ads are made.

Together with You.com

You implemented RAG. Your LLM is still flying blind.

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a strong first step, but retrieval alone won't ensure accuracy. You.com breaks down AI grounding: what it is, why it matters, and how to implement it to improve factual consistency.

Key takeaways:

• A three-part grounding approach outperforms RAG alone.
• Grounding requires ongoing audits and traceability, not just one-time setup.
• Consider open vs. closed platforms when planning future model switches.

The Rundown Roundtable

Our AI use cases

The Rundown team shares practical ways they use AI for research, creativity, and productivity.

• Jennifer, Tech & Robotics Writer: Uses Gemini Deep Research and Perplexity Pro as research assistants. She restricts sources to top-tier journals, demands citations and dates, then asks for ranked summaries to guide deeper reading.
• Billy, University Educator: Has an Openclaw routine that creates weekly photo collages and a stylized magazine cover from his recaps. Over a year, it builds a personal archive.
• Jason, Developer: Uses NotebookLM to convert technical docs into custom audio podcasts for running. It fills a gap when traditional podcasts don't cover his niche topics.

AI Training

Build lead widgets for your site without coding

This guide shows how to build a custom calculator lead form using Replit. If you can copy and paste, you can create software for your team and reduce per-seat costs.

1. Open Replit and toggle on "Plan mode."
2. Prompt: "Build a custom lead gen widget app using Python (Flask) and Replit SQL. Users will create embeddable cost-savings calculators that capture email leads and track analytics. Allow custom colors, form fields and formulas."
3. Answer agent follow-ups and click "Build."
4. Test the tool in the preview tab and create a new lead widget.
5. Copy the widget's embed (iframe) code and add it to your website. Check captured leads at Replit → Database → Development Database.
6. If working, click "Publish" to deploy a public URL. Log in to that deployment to recreate your forms.

Pro tip: Use this process to embed slideshows, countdown timers, or blogs.

Presented by GitLab

Agentic AI, real results

GitLab Transcend is a virtual event exploring how agentic AI transforms software delivery. Expect product demos, case studies, and a roadmap preview.

At Transcend, attendees will learn:

• How teams use agentic AI to automate DevOps workflows.
• Live Q&As with GitLab project leaders.
• Early looks at GitLab's upcoming innovations.

AI Dot Com

Crypto.com founder pays $70M for AI.com

Kris Marszalek, Crypto.com co-founder and CEO, bought the AI.com domain for $70 million — the largest domain sale on record. He launched the site as an autonomous AI agent platform and promoted it with a Super Bowl ad.

The platform promises consumer-facing AI agents that can trade, manage calendars, send messages, and automate workflows without technical setup. Marszalek envisions agents that autonomously build capabilities and share upgrades, accelerating large-scale AI development.

Why it matters: The purchase is a major marketing move and shows the stakes of branding in AI. But converting attention into a product that truly competes with established lab-grade agent systems will be the greater challenge.

Trending AI tools

• GPT-5.3-Codex — OpenAI's new agentic coding model
• Claude Opus 4.6 — Anthropic's latest upgrade
• Krea Realtime — Realtime, long-form AI video generation
• Kling 3.0 — Improved video AI with more consistent short outputs

Other highlights: Adapt announced a always-available co-worker for business tools. Anthropic released a fast mode for Claude Opus 4.6, trading cost for speed. Goldman Sachs worked with Anthropic to build agents for accounting and compliance. Axiom claims its AI solved an unsolved math problem with a verified proof.

Community AI workflows

Each newsletter we highlight a reader workflow. Today's submission comes from Howard C. in Hawkins, TX.

Howard sells diecast models on eBay and automated his packing-list workflow. With ChatGPT's help, he built a Mac Automator app that converts dropped eBay packing lists into 4"x6" thermal-print labels. He also created an app that auto-generates buyer emails when orders are ready to ship.

Want to share your workflow? Tell us how you use AI.

See you soon

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Related reading

• AI advertising trends and mainstream adoption
• Best practices for grounding LLMs and maintaining audit trails
• How to embed interactive widgets on your website using Replit
• Gaming news: AI's influence on game development, NPCs, and procedural content