Kenya's Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising industry is embracing technology and data-driven strategies for future growth, as discussed at the recent Power Breakfast OOH Conference in Nairobi. The industry aims to transition from intuitive decision-making to intelligence-backed planning, enhancing transparency and campaign measurement.

• The Power Breakfast OOH Conference was hosted by Gigastream Media Tech in partnership with Moving Walls.
• Miriam Waititu, Marketing and Communications Lead at Gigastream Media Tech, emphasized moving "from intuition to intelligence" in OOH advertising.
• Gigastream announced a partnership with the International School of Advertising (ISA) to train students in OOH and digital advertising technologies.

Meta, through its subsidiary Edge Network Services Limited, has partnered with Safaricom to deploy a high-capacity submarine cable linking Oman and Kenya, aiming to boost digital connectivity and internet speeds across East Africa.

• This marks the second Meta-backed undersea cable to land in Kenya.
• Safaricom is designated as the landing partner for the project.
• The undersea system's funding will be entirely provided by Edge.
• The investment is expected to enhance network resilience and lower latency.

OpenAI has officially transitioned into a for-profit entity, a strategic move that could facilitate significant investment and a potential stock market listing. This shift includes revised terms in its partnership with Microsoft, which now holds a 27% stake in the company.

• Microsoft can now independently pursue artificial general intelligence, and their rights to OpenAI’s AI models extend to 2032.
• The company, now valued at $500 billion, has reached 800 million weekly active users, as stated by boss Sam Altman.
• OpenAI has introduced new products like ChatGPT Atlas and the video generation tool Sora, but has also faced controversy, including blocking deepfakes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Recent job cuts at major companies like Amazon have sparked debate over whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the primary cause, or if broader economic factors and typical hiring cycles are more influential. While some executives cite AI as a reason for layoffs, experts caution against overreacting to individual company announcements.

• Amazon announced plans to cut roughly 14,000 corporate roles, stating a need to be “organised more leanly” to seize AI opportunities.
• Chegg, an online education firm, cited “new realities” of AI for a 45% workforce reduction, while Salesforce cut 4,000 customer service roles, with its CEO attributing it to AI agents.
• UPS has cut 48,000 jobs since last year, with its chief executive previously linking some redundancies to machine learning.
• A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis found a correlation between occupations with higher AI prevalence and increased unemployment since 2022.
• Morgan Frank, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, noted that only workers in the office and administrative support sector saw a jump in unemployment claims following ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022.