Community | University 

Feb 12, 2026

Hello, GrowthHackers! 

Welcome to your Weekly unfair advantage.

Once a week, we cut through the noise to bring you sharp insights, fast news, and fresh sparks to light up your brain and fuel your hustle. From scrappy hacks to big tech moves, AI shifts to culture flips this is your intel to stay ahead, move fast, and break boring.

Think of it as your growth-fueled espresso shot.
Short. Smart. Addictive.

Let’s dive in.👇

Quick Hits

1. ChatGPT rolls out ads
   (The free era officially clocked out)

2. Reddit looks to AI search as its next big opportunity
   (Google has links. Reddit has answers)

3. OpenAI launches a way for enterprises to build and manage AI agents
   (From copilots to coworkers.)

4. It just got easier for Claude to check in on your WordPress site
   (Claude doing site checks while you sleep)

5. LinkedIn Shares What Works For AI Search Visibility
   (LinkedIn profiles officially became landing pages)

6. Bluesky finally adds drafts
   (We can now overthink privately. Growth.)

The Growth joke of the day

Why did the sales team love AI at first?
Because it worked 24/7… until they realized they were expected to do the same.

3-Minute News Bulletin with Roxie

This week's 🙌 News Bulletin explores:
Tech Giants Boost Digital Privacy and Security as AI Reshapes Media
and Marketing

This week’s News Bulletin shows how AI, privacy, and monetization are reshaping digital marketing.

Google expands privacy tools while pushing AI-powered search, OpenAI introduces ads inside ChatGPT, and marketers shift PPC budgets toward buyer intent. At the same time, platforms double down on safety, premium content, and consolidation.

The signal is clear: growth now depends on trust, authority, and visibility inside
AI-driven ecosystems.

Latest Growth Hacking News

Strategies

• Google Releases Core Update Targeting Discover Feed
  Google has started a Discover core update. The rollout may take up to two weeks, with expansion to more countries and languages later.

• Performance marketing is being rewritten by AI
  From targeting and media buying to creative testing and attribution, AI isn’t just helping marketers it’s doing the work, faster and smarter than ever.

• Google Releases Core Update Targeting Discover Feed

  Google has released what it calls the February 2026 Discover core update, a broad change to the systems that surface content in the Discover feed.

• SERPs with Ads + AI Overviews Grew by Over 394% in 2025
  While SEOs spent much of 2025 worrying that AI Overviews (AIOs) would siphon off even more organic traffic, Google was figuring out how to balance improving the AI search experience with their need to maintain an ad revenue model.

• Brand is the decision in B2B, and AI decides first
  AI forms brand perception upstream, long before buyers see your positioning. Consistent delivery across every touchpoint is now the differentiator.

• ActiveCampaign’s latest move signals the era of self-driving campaigns
  The purchase of Feedback Intelligence shows that learning, self-correcting AI agents are redefining how modern campaigns are built and measured.

Did you hear?
The GrowthHackers Podcast is live!🎙️

A Founder’s Journey in Microscope

Building a marketplace is widely considered one of the hardest challenges a startup can face. It requires a fragile balance of matching demand with supply get it wrong, and nothing works.
In our debut episode, "Building Goodbash From Pain Point to Marketplace," we go under the microscope with a founder who dared to implement it. We dive deep into:

• Synchronizing Supply & Demand: How to manage the complexity of multiple personas.

• Reducing Risk: Navigating high marketing costs and fragmented messaging.

• The Waiting List Myth: Do pre-launch strategies create real traction or just an illusion?

Designed for the doers, builders, and growth-minded teams in our community, this episode turns complex startup theory into a proven framework for success.

What's New in Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• AI Recommendations Change With Nearly Every Query
  SparkToro research finds AI tools produce different brand recommendation lists more than 99% of the time when given the same prompt.

• From Svedka to Anthropic, brands make bold plays with AI in Super Bowl ads
  Following last year’s trend of showcasing AI in multimillion-dollar ad spots, the 2026 Super Bowl advertisements took it a step further by leveraging AI both to create the commercials and to promote the latest AI products.

• OpenAI Begins Testing Ads In ChatGPT For Free And Go Users
  OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT for free and Go tiers in the U.S. Ads appear below responses, labeled as sponsored. Paid tiers remain ad-free.

• Tem raises $75M to remake electricity markets using AI
  As AI data centers drive up electricity prices, London-based startup Tem thinks AI might be able to help solve it, too.Tem has built an energy transaction engine that relies on AI to cut prices relative to other energy traders.

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