Liz Miller

While analysts called for his resignation, Pichai remained calm; he had been lying in wait for this moment for a decade.

I'm not sure what is more chilling about this line from a new Time Magazine story on Google: analysts calling for a CEO's resignation or the fact that the CEO had been lying in wait. Either way, this is an interesting read on Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Worth taking a look at what a magazine owned by a notably influential tech CEO has to say about the Time 100 list of most influential companies for 2026. Granted, I did NOT have Pichai and Hailey Bieber appearing on the same list for business influence on my 2026 bingo card, yet here we are. Recently, the AI race has been dominated by big loud voices saying big bombastic loud things to gain the attention of Wall Street. And for the most part, it has been a winning strategy. When looking at leaders like Pichai, it's easy for some to mistake kindness for weakness, when in truth, he was a strategic shark pretending to be asleep.

• How Sundar Pichai Pushed Google To the Front of the AI Race (Time Magazine)
• The Time100 Most Influential Companies for 2026 (Time Magazine)

Adobe has closed on its acquisition of Semrush. We initially got the nod in meetings during Adobe Summit 2026 that the approvals had come through but that it may take a couple weeks to formalize and finalize. That week was actually 5 business days. So nice to see tides roll faster than expected. While new conversations are booming around what AEO, GEO and SEO now mean, Semush and Adobe are smack in the center. If last week at Adobe Summit was any early indicator, this topic is a burning reason to shift from status quo strategies. Now the burden will be on marketing and communications teams to take a breath and really rethink their strategies by actually going back to marketing 101 basics: where do your paid, earned and owned efforts really make an impact. Time to say goodbye to the days of set-it-and-forget-it search. And time to stop putting PR, comms and perception management on the back burner.

• The News: https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/04/adobe-completes-semrush-acquisition
• HOT TAKE: Adobe Scoops Up Semrush to Expand Brand Visibility Play
• AEO, GEO, and What Happens as AEM Enters the Chat

AWS has unveiled a growing portfolio of AI-forward solutions under the product family umbrella of Amazon Connect. The name should sound familiar to CX watchers. Connect had been tied to the Contact Center solution that unified engagement and communications with a healthy dose of AI powered skills and insights that focused on how to better connect the needs and intentions of the customer with the demands and expectations on the people in the contact center from agent to supervisor. That focus...bridging processes between people...still sits at the heart of the Connect porfolio. The "OG Connect (OGC)" as I've come to call it, is now Amazon Connect Customer. Joining it is Amazon Connect Talent (a really slick high volume recruitment tool better connecting the needs of the candidate with the needs of the recruiter), Amazon Connect Health (breaking down the conversational gaps in the patient and provider experience) and Amazon Connect Decisions (a supply chain focused solution focused on decision velocity across the strategic optimization of supply chain operations.)

• https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/amazon-connect-ai-business-set