• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, November 7, 2025

Brand suitability — the practice of placing ads next to content that aligns with a brand's specific values and marketing goals — as well as setting up safeguards against trademark infringement are still concerns across the ad industry.

Marketers have said they are experiencing problems today similar to what they faced years ago. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help to understand content, and often block ads so they do not appear nearby, but typically brands need something more.

On Friday, Google launched new brand-suitability controls across additional ad-placement platforms. Inventory types are now available on the YouTube Home Feed, YouTube Watch Next Feed, and Discover.

The idea is to create a consistent brand-suitability experience across YouTube, Discover, and Google Display Network.

Advertisers will have the ability to prevent ads from appearing alongside certain sensitive content themes in the upcoming YouTube Home Feed and Watch Next Feed Discover features. 

The use of AI continues to grow rapidly as technology firms partner with major tech companies to take a leadership role.

Google and Adthena, an AI search intelligence company, launched an exclusive partnership to create a new global benchmark based on accuracy, automation, and transparency. The idea is to safeguard brands from trademark infringement in Google Ads.

Manual monitoring of trademark infringements doesn't scale for enterprise brands, leading to inflated cost per clicks (CPCs), wasted budgets and damaged brand reputation.

Company executives think this partnership provides a trusted, automated solution that empowers marketers with innovative AI-driven solutions.” The idea — to protect brand marketing budgets, brand integrity, and customer trust. 

The U.K.-based company’s recent work with Princess Cruises resulted in a 33% drop in brand CPCs, £16,250 in savings, and a 95% reduction in infringing ads within three months.

Adthena also gained the distinction of becoming Google’s first Trusted Trademark Partner. It took a year.

Some rekindled friendships are not about brand suitability, but rather an extension of previous technology agreements.

A couple of days ago, Apple reportedly found more help from Google. It came long after the Alphabet company's monopoly lawsuit -- where a judge ruled Google illegally maintained a monopoly in the search business with practices like paying Apple to make its search engine the default option.

Bloomberg reported that Apple will pay about $1 billion annually for an ultra-powerful, 1.2 trillion-parameter AI model developed by Google> It will help Apple run the new version of Siri, Apple's voice assistant, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Following an evaluation period, the two companies have begun to finalize an agreement that would give Apple access to Google's technology, Bloomberg reported, citing people who asked not to be identified because the conversations are private.

Under the agreement, Google's Gemini model will handle Siri's summarizing and planning functions -- the features that help Apple's voice assistant synthesize information and decide how to execute complex tasks. '

Some Siri features will continue to use Apple's in-house models.