This week's podcast episode is a long-form companion piece to an article I published last week: The privileged position of chatbot advertising. In this episode, I make the case for why the chatbot advertising model is differentiated from those of both search and social media, feed-based display, and why it benefits from greater targeting scope through the optionality and flexibility it can utilize in determining which signals should inform that targeting, based on the context of a conversation.

Articles cited in this piece:

• OpenAI’s advertising opportunity
• Google's Gambit and Google’s Gambit, Part 4: The end of Static Search
• Obviously, OpenAI will monetize with ads
• Digital Advertising, Demand Routing, and the Millionaires’ Mall
• Search is the wrong mental model for chatbot advertising
• The prosperous society

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

For the eighth installment of the MDM Mailbag series, I am joined by independent app growth consultant and advisor Thomas Petit. As a reminder: guests for MDM Mailbag episodes of the podcast are practitioners, and questions are sourced directly from the MDM community.

Thomas and I discuss the current state of measurement, the necessity of incrementality testing, and the challenges of scaling creative production in an automated environment. We also dive into the technical and ethical considerations of web-to-app funnels, as well as the ongoing legal battles surrounding app store commissions.

Among other topics, the questions Thomas fields pertain to:

• Whether incrementality testing will ever completely replace deterministic last-click attribution models for large-scale mobile advertisers and networks
• How the proliferation of media mix modeling vendors affects the quality of measurement insights available to smaller app developers
• Why the mobile industry continues to struggle with ad fraud detection despite the availability of sophisticated third-party verification services
• If the current trend toward massive creative volume is actually delivering diminishing returns for performance marketing campaigns on Meta
• What the long-term impact of AI-generated video creative will be on the traditional role of performance marketing creative agencies
• When the friction of web-to-app onboarding funnels becomes a secondary concern compared to the benefits of merchant flexibility
• Whether Apple's proposed fifteen percent commission on external links will effectively stifle the growth of independent web-to-app payment ecosystems

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Brian Albrecht, the Chief Economist at the International Center for Law and Economics. We explore the complex intersection of generative AI and labor economics, alongside a deep dive into the regulatory and economic implications of personalized pricing models. The podcast is tethered to two articles that Brian recently published: You are not a horse, from his Substack, Economic Forces; and Eliminate ‘personal pricing’ and you risk harming consumers, which he published as an op-ed in the Financial Times.

Among other things, we discuss:

• Whether humans will face the same economic obsolescence as horses after the introduction of the internal combustion engine
• How the redistribution of consumer savings from automated services creates new employment opportunities in diverse service sectors
• If the historical stability of labor's share of income can survive the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence
• What long-term productivity gains from previous technological revolutions reveal about the potential economic trajectory of modern AI
• Why government policy responses to automation might inadvertently hinder productivity by imposing restrictive taxes on data and computation
• How personalized pricing models actually improve market efficiency by reducing the deadweight loss associated with traditional discounting methods
• When the public's perception of fairness in pricing conflicts with the economic reality of supply and demand for scarce resources

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Maor Sadra, the co-founder and CEO of INCRMNTAL, to discuss the current cycle of M&A in digital advertising and the industry-wide shift toward intelligence-based measurement. Maor is well-positioned to discuss this topic, as INCRMNTAL was recently acquired by Smartly.

Maor and I analyze how acquisitions are moving away from simple inventory reach toward deeper integration of data, identity, and causal signal. Among other things, we discuss:

• Why causal measurement is becoming a strategic necessity for large-scale creative and media optimization platforms
• How the transition from legacy to AI-first companies creates opportunities for consolidation across the advertising stack
• Whether enterprise clients will prioritize deep domain expertise over general machine learning capabilities when selecting partners
• If the recent investment in AppsFlyer signals a permanent shift toward a collaborative industry-wide attribution infrastructure
• What the rise of zero-click platforms like ChatGPT means for traditional performance marketing metrics and models
• How e-commerce and retail media giants are leveraging CTV acquisitions to challenge established advertising platforms
• When the current wave of AI-labeled startups will face the reality of high-volume performance requirements

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Offer Yehudai, the co-founder of Arya, to discuss the intersection of artificial intelligence and human intimacy. We explore the development of AI-driven companions designed to improve relationship health and the delicate balance between automation and human expertise. Among other things, we discuss:

• Whether the lack of human judgment in AI interactions encourages users to share more intimate personal details
• Why a hybrid model combining automated intelligence with human oversight remains necessary for maintaining consumer trust in sensitive topics like intimacy
• What role long-term contextual memory plays in developing sophisticated AI tools that truly understand complex human dynamics
• If the current explosion of low-quality AI applications will lead to a permanent erosion of consumer confidence
• How utility app developers can leverage community roll-ups to achieve sustainable growth in a competitive advertising market
• When the integration of commerce and physical products will become a standard component of digital wellness subscriptions

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Michael Kaminsky, co-founder and co-CEO of Recast. We explore the rise of open-source Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) tools and the challenges of measuring modern ad spend. Among other things, we discuss:

• Whether open-source MMM libraries like Robyn and Meridian are truly unbiased tools or subtle instruments for big tech self-grading
• How marketers can effectively evaluate the accuracy of MMM outputs through techniques like parameter recovery and predictive forecasting
• Why smaller, performance-driven brands might actually find more value in last-touch attribution than in complex econometric modeling
• If the inherent uncertainty in MMM estimates makes them fundamentally incompatible with the fast-paced feedback loops of digital advertising
• What role generative AI and large language models play in democratizing access to sophisticated marketing data science analysis
• When a brand should transition from simple attribution methods to a multi-layered approach involving incrementality and econometric modeling
• How the shift toward CTV and non-trackable channels is forcing a resurgence in probabilistic measurement frameworks like MMM

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Ananya Sen and Saharsh Agarwal to discuss their research on the impact of Google's AI Overviews on web publisher traffic. We explore the results of their field experiment, currently in pre-print, which utilized a custom browser extension to measure how generative search results influence outbound clicks and user satisfaction.

The results of the field experiment suggest a significant reduction in traffic for certain queries, challenging the narrative that these interfaces only filter out low-quality interactions. We dive into the implications for the broader web ecosystem, including the risks posed to smaller publishers and the role of data licensing deals. Among other things, we discuss:

• How generative search interfaces might fundamentally alter the symbiotic relationship between search engines and the publishers who provide their data
• Whether the removal of low-quality clicks truly compensates publishers for the overall decline in traffic driven by AI-generated summaries
• What happens to smaller publishers when major outlets secure exclusive data licensing deals that prioritize their content in search results
• Why AI Mode represents a potential endpoint for search that could essentially eliminate outbound traffic for a majority of queries
• Whether the long-tail of the internet can survive a transition where search engines become information destinations rather than mere conduits

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Tricia Han, CEO of Mistplay, and Sampsa Jaatinen, Chief Data and AI Officer at Mistplay, to explore the rapidly evolving world of rewarded user acquisition. We dive into how the rewarded model has matured from a niche Android-focused strategy into a primary growth engine for mobile gaming across both major platforms. Among other things, we discuss:

• Why rewarded user acquisition has moved from a niche tactic to a cornerstone of modern mobile gaming growth strategies
• How the shift in Apple's App Store policies regarding incentivized installs has created a new frontier for iOS developers
• Whether the rich behavioral data sets generated by rewarded platforms provide a significant competitive advantage over traditional ad networks
• What role machine learning and reinforcement learning play in optimizing the timing and nature of user rewards and recommendations
• If the play-and-earn philosophy can be successfully exported to non-gaming industries like retail, finance, and quick-service restaurants
• How the blurring lines between mobile and console gaming will influence the way platforms compete for limited user attention
• When the industry will fully realize the potential of direct-to-consumer web shops coupled with highly personalized reward mechanisms

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

We discuss the transition of AI-native applications toward ad-supported monetization models. Among other things, we cover:

• Whether AI-native apps will follow the mobile gaming trajectory by adopting hybrid monetization models to reach massive global audiences
• How the high operational costs of AI inference necessitate a move toward ad-supported tiers to maintain sustainable profit margins
• Why the granular intent signals captured in LLM conversations offer a superior alternative to traditional search-based advertising targeting mechanisms
• What new native ad formats will emerge to integrate seamlessly into AI workflows without disrupting the core user experience
• When the venture capital funding environment will demand more disciplined monetization strategies from AI startups over pure user growth
• How established ad-tech infrastructure from the mobile gaming era can be adapted to serve the unique needs of AI developers

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

The Prosperous Society is a three-hour, four-part series by Eric Seufert of Mobile Dev Memo that explores the political economy of artificial intelligence, grounded in the liberal tradition of the Western canon.

Framed as an extended response to John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society, which serves as the intellectual foil for the series, The Prosperous Society makes the case that AI is not principally a story about intelligence, but about economics: it represents a progressive technological revolution that shifts the binding constraint on economic growth from production to distribution. In doing so, it redefines the role of digital advertising as the coordination infrastructure of an increasingly personalized economy.

Last summer, when I began outlining The Prosperous Society, I set out to write an economic defense of artificial intelligence to serve as ballast for more pessimistic narratives. It was originally intended to be a short book.

I pivoted to the podcast format when those narratives reached fever pitch earlier this year because I wanted to respond quickly and release new episodes on a regular cadence. But The Prosperous Society evolved into something broader: a defense of liberal political economy in the age of artificial intelligence.

Over the course of three hours, I develop that thesis through four linked but distinct arguments:

• Part 1: Why AI makes distribution more important than production.

• Part 2: Why autonomous commerce is a false ideal.

• Part 3: Why personalization changes the economics of the long tail—and of identity itself.

• Part 4: Where the moral boundary lies between AI that expands freedom and AI that robs us of it.

If the series succeeds, I hope it provides a rigorous intellectual case for why AI, if properly constrained and thoughtfully applied, can reaffirm the liberal tradition of Western political economy while helping to usher in one of the great periods of economic expansion in human history.