Good morning. Today, Goldman Sachs and Bain bet that a marketing software company can harness AI instead of falling prey to it.

Hightouch, a company that uses generative AI to help marketers create and manage campaigns, has raised a $150 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ Growth Equity division and Bain Capital Ventures, The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Patrick Coffee reports exclusively this morning.

The round values Hightouch at $2.75 billion, up from $1.2 billion in early 2025.

The company has been around since 2018, when it started helping marketers use cloud-based data to segment audiences and plan campaigns, but started developing creative production tools in 2023. It says its ability to train AI on clients’ existing marketing communications helps the output stay on-brand, follow patterns that worked in the past and avoid the “slop” look.

Its funding round comes amid speculation that newer, faster AI tools are going to swamp legacy software companies’ business, a notion that in recent months shaved more than $1 trillion off the valuations of market leaders.

I asked Patrick to put the news in context for marketers.

Does Hightouch represent the old guard that some people think is headed for SaaSpocalypse, or has it grabbed the cloak of “AI disruptor” despite pre-dating the gen-AI boom?

Patrick: Some investors are betting that the household names in business-to-business software will eventually be displaced by a new wave of software companies that can do things faster and with fewer people, because they use AI coding agents to help design their new products. They argue that the older companies can buy new AI startups and integrate their tools, but in order to match the speed and dexterity of these challengers they would need to rebuild their tech stack from the bottom up.

I can’t speak for any investors of course, but it seems clear that a couple of the largest firms actually see Hightouch as a member of this new class.

Hightouch says it topped $100 million in estimated annual recurring revenue this year. Where is all this going?

Patrick: We’re closing in on the day when certain large advertisers farm out a lot of their creative production work, even a majority of it, to AI. I remember more than a year ago, someone telling me that marketers were starting to experiment with AI agents trained exclusively on one brand’s material, so everything they churn out is in that brand’s voice. I was like, wow, that’s fascinating, but it’s the main premise behind Hightouch’s newer services, so we’re already well beyond the point where it’s a new idea.

Also I know we hear this all the time, but the stuff AI is producing today really is noticeably better than it was six months ago. One of Hightouch's founders told me that they often start meetings by showing employees two videos and asking them which one is AI. But they're both AI.

The secret to the viral wet-hair look is K-Y Jelly, Suzanne Vranica writes for the Journal, but don’t bother trying to get K-Y to capitalize on it.

When the influencer Deanna Giulietti posted a video of her unusual hair prep to her 2.2 million-plus followers, she tagged K-Y and had her management team pitch a brand partnership.

Instead of seizing the opportunity, however, K-Y parent Reckitt ran the other way.

“We appreciate the creativity here but please note, our K-Y Lubricants should only be used as directed on the label,” the brand told Giulietti in an Instagram direct message.

While most brands would love to find themselves part of a viral hack, Reckitt seems wary of violating FDA guidelines governing its product.

“K-Y products are designed and regulated as medical devices, for use as personal lubricants, and have not been studied for other uses,” said Julia Kim, Reckitt’s vice president of regulatory affairs and safety. “The safety of the people who use our products is our first priority.”

How brands normally respond to social media: Thayers’ new Hydrating Milky Mist was created in direct response to a TikTok exchange between influencers. [Glossy]

Jimmy Kimmel continued his criticism of President Trump during his show on Tuesday, Joe Flint and Isabella Simonetti report.

Trump had called for ABC to fire Kimmel for joking last week that Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.”

But in his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” monologue last night, Kimmel showed a clip of Trump apologizing to the first lady for likely not being able to match his parents’ 63-year marriage.

“Wait a minute, did he just make a joke about his death?” Kimmel said. “Only Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his old age and then, a day later, go out and make a joke about his own old age.”

Also on Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr launched an early review of Disney’s broadcast television licenses.

The early review is an outgrowth of an FCC probe launched last March into Disney’s DEI initiatives.

Its arrival so close to Kimmel’s latest fight with the administration is “coincidental,” according to a person familiar with the FCC’s plans.

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