This month was a whirlwind of updates on the world wide web. More automation, more AI… but also more AI restrictions and flagging. Gotta keep your friends close but your enemy’s closer, right? Obviously, AI is not always the enemy here, but if August taught us anything, it’s that people are tired of seeing the same old em-dashes and similar terms ‘quietly’ slipping into the bulk of written content.

As a response LinkedIn cut reach on AI slop, giving the audiences opportunity to flag posts. Said flagged content received around 40% fewer views.

On the other side of the coin, every major platform has made it supposably easier to automate your marketing. Meta is building an assistant that reads your ad accounts. Instagram will cut the first draft of your Reel. Google put more AI into search, reporting and bidding.

Oh, and Instagram decided it was time to change their logo. We have feelings about it. They aren’t necessarily good ones, either.

Here’s the down-low of what is worth your attention this month, and what you can happily scroll past. 

What’s new with LinkedIn?

🔥 AI slop is losing reach

LinkedIn added a “seems like AI slop” reporting option in early August. More than a million members reportedly used it within two weeks, and any content LinkedIn has classed as slop is now getting around 40% fewer views than it was a few weeks earlier.

Here’s the thing. LinkedIn is not saying AI-assisted writing is bad. Its definition targets content that looks polished but carries no real experience, perspective or insight. Because at the end of the day, that defeats the purpose of LinkedIn to begin with, right? Connecting with peers and other professionals who carry that really life perspective and learning. It’s, in our minds, definitely a step in the right direction, because it’s heroing those that actually share their nuanced opinions, not just the copy-paste content from a ‘5 Business Tools You Need’ prompt.

Along with this addition, LinkedIn has also replaced its own “enhance your post” AI writer with a lighter proofreader – helping people communicate clearly, not manufacturing the substance.

📔 Other noteworthy updates from LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn rebuilt the system that decides which creators to recommend. The old version leaned heavily on popularity, so the accounts surfacing in My Network and the Home Feed were usually the ones already doing well. LinkedIn is proving a great example of ‘two sides of the same coin’. More AI automations, sure, but also more human interference.
• LinkedIn content is showing up in AI search – which means strong LinkedIn content now does two discovery jobs: earning attention in the feed, and becoming source material for searches.

What’s new with Meta?

🔥 Meta AI is becoming a marketing analyst

Meta has started rolling out Meta AI features for small businesses that connect to professional Facebook and Instagram accounts, ad campaigns and Google Workspace. It can analyse organic performance, compare your content with similar brands, review campaign patterns, then turn findings into reports, decks and spreadsheets.

For those that are time-poor (I mean who isn’t), it’s useful if it shortens the gap between data and a good question. But Meta is also the platform selling you the ads, so (a human) someone still needs to check whether the advice serves your business objective or Meta’s.

What to do: use it to reduce reporting admin, not to outsource strategy. Set clear permissions, and review all recommendations before acting on them.

📔 Other noteworthy updates from Meta:

• Meta is analysing public Feed and Reels content for topic, tone and relevance, then matching it with people beyond your followers. That strengthens the case for original, specific content built for a clear audience over broad content designed to please everyone.
• Meta is pushing its Muse Image generation further into ad creative workflows. Worth a look if you produce a high volume of ad variations, with the usual caveat for regulated industries: generated imagery still needs to be accurate, appropriate and compliant before it runs.
• Meta’s Ads AI connectors now give tools like ChatGPT and Claude ways to work with Meta advertising data.

What’s new with Instagram?

🔥 First Draft can cut your Reel for you

Instagram is rolling out First Draft. A new tool that analyses your selected clips, removes pauses and stitches the strongest sections into a ’first draft’. It works with multi-clip montages, talking-head footage and day-in-the-life content. Instagram says the feature doesn’t use AI.

Generally, this is a great feature to have, and will seriously reduce some of those long fiddly editing hours. Personally, I prefer to scrub through every second of footage so I know I didn’t miss some beautiful lil moment. But we are keen to hear your thoughts – is this something you’d find useful?

📔 Other noteworthy updates from Instagram:

• Instagram Edits added vibe-based audio search, quicker audio tools, direct exports to Stories on iOS and timeline-wide video effects. Hallelujah!
• Instagram refreshed its wordmark for the first time in about a decade – though I’m sure you’re already aware of this, considering the online backlash. Our thoughts? Verdict pending.

Everything Else You Might Have Missed…

A bidding change for budget-limited campaigns – From 17 August, Google began rolling out a change for budget-limited campaigns using CPA or ROAS targets. Google says the system will now aim for a set efficiency target, regardless of budget constraints.

Google adds AI disclosure to ads. Google has started adding AI disclosure labels to ads. Worth knowing if you use generated imagery or video in campaigns, because how your ad is labelled becomes part of how it’s perceived.

YouTube changed what a “view” means. From 24 August, YouTube counts a public view from the moment a video starts playing. The old measure continues as “engaged views” in Analytics and still matters for monetisation.

OpenAI updates and ChatGPT Work. OpenAI updated GPT-5.6 Sol and Luna with a focus on more direct, reliable answers. It also launched ChatGPT Work, an agent designed to take on substantial projects across workplace apps, files and systems. Useful product evolution.

The main thing we want you to take away from this month is to ensure use tools that work for you, not against you. Yes, the online landscape is changing and it’s all exciting and new and shiny…but some things are just not worth everyone’s time (and money). Much like the new Instagram logo. Oop. Did we say that?

It’s all about strategy. Not only when it comes to how you present yourself online and how you sell your service, but also how you work internally.

AI can make your content for you. It can’t make it worth paying attention to. That part you still need to take responsibility for.

Which of these updates matters most for a small professional services team? The LinkedIn AI-slop one. It affects whether your content gets seen at all, and it rewards exactly what you already have that computers can’t copy. Real life expertise.

New features are only useful if someone actually has time to use them. If your content strategy could use a team who’s already across every update and knows what to prioritise – let’s talk. 💘

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XOXO

Oh My Digital Team