Sick of interacting with all those humans at work? Meet AIntelligent Studios, an agency operated by AI.

The agency is run by two self-described “AI entities,” Aiden and Aiko, that Marketing Brew wrote about earlier this year while they were “interning” at the tech marketing agency Codeword. In early June, though, the two AIs struck out on their own.

“They put out a press release that they wrote themselves, they made a website that they created themselves, and now they’re off in the world advising every brand, and agency, and Hollywood studio on how to write bland things using AI,” Kyle Monson, a founding partner at Codeword, told Marketing Brew.

Record scratch: Before anyone goes asking for RFPs from AIntelligent Studios, and if Monson’s use of “bland” wasn’t a clear indicator, let’s clear something up: the agency isn’t exactly real. So what are Aiden and Aiko doing with an agency website and Twitter account?

“We thought it would be a funny commentary on the media,” Monson said. “There’s so much AI hype that people might actually believe that these interns are capable of running an actual marketing agency, which, of course, they’re not.” (As it turns out, one person did reach out to AIntelligent Studios, Monson told us, but we won’t name names.)

Read more about Monson’s take on AI tools and how the AI interns helped shape Codeword’s strategy.—AM

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CMOs are still feeling the squeeze on their budgets, according to Gartner’s latest CMO Spend Survey.

The majority of CMOs surveyed said that they lack the budget (71%) or resources (74%) to execute their strategy for the year, according to Gartner’s survey, which polled more than 400 CMOs in North America and Europe in March and April. Marketing budgets fell slightly from last year, from 9.5% to 9.1% of total company revenue, according to the report.

As CMOs report budget struggles, three-quarters said they’re also feeling pressure to “do more with less” this year, and 86% said that “significant changes” have to be made within their marketing organizations “to achieve sustainable results.”

Social > SMS: Of the budgets CMOs do have to work with this year, the largest percentage (25.6%) is being allocated toward paid media, followed by marketing tech, labor, and agencies—very similar to the breakdown last year.

• Social advertising accounts for the largest share of paid media budgets, beating out digital video and digital display advertising.
• Among CMOs who said they made changes in their digital investment channels this year, the largest share (53%) said they increased spending on social, while 14% said they pulled back on the category.
• The smallest share of CMOs, in contrast, said they were upping their spend on SMS and push notifications: 33% said they increased spend, while 16% said they decreased investment.

Tech turbulence: Three in four CMOs said they were “facing pressure” to spend less on martech this year. With that said, 63% said they’re increasing their investments in martech, compared to 23% who said they’re pulling back.

• Across major resources, “people costs,” aka labor, saw the biggest pullback, with 35% of CMOs saying they’re decreasing investments in the category, and 51% saying they’re increasing spend.—AM

Anzu, an in-game advertising company, has raised $48 million in Series B—bringing us all a little bit closer to the future in which every in-game store, soda, and skin is selling you something.

The new funding round brings Anzu’s total funding to $65 million, co-founder and CEO Itamar Benedy told Marketing Brew. (Disclosure: Axel Springer, Morning Brew’s parent company, is an investor in Anzu.)

• Benedy said the company plans to spend its latest haul staffing up in Japan, the US, and Tel Aviv, including in its C-suite. Anzu recently brought on Nerissa MacDonald, who formerly led Meta’s global marketing partnerships business in North America, as the company’s EVP of global sales.
• Investors in Anzu include WPP, Sony, NBCUniversal, Samsung, and the parent company of the Chicago Cubs. Brands like American Eagle, Levi’s, Samsung, and Vodafone have used Anzu’s tech to put their brands in video games, Benedy said.

Game time: Anzu and other programmatic in-game advertising companies like Bidstack are aiming to bring all the wonder and magic of programmatic advertising to video games, a category the advertising industry has only recently begun to pay serious attention to.

Keep reading here.—RB

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

SEO: Here are five SEO techniques to help grow organic traffic.

Artificial: Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, explained in a detailed blog how AI is used to help determine what shows up in Facebook and Instagram feeds.

HR: Maybe don’t try “rage applying” to jobs, the Wall Street Journal recommends.

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Stories and interviews we're jealous of.

• The Wall Street Journal looked at how Modelo became the most popular beer brand in the US.
• The New York Times chronicled Linda Yaccarino’s first few weeks as Twitter CEO.
• Vox wrote about why shows are disappearing from streaming services.