Funding surge for AI-native marketing, ads, and frontline engagement

Investors are pouring capital into startups that embed AI directly into marketing, advertising, and frontline operations as user behavior shifts from traditional search to AI assistants. Profound becomes a unicorn with a $96M round from Lightspeed and Sequoia to keep brands visible in AI-driven discovery, while Gushwork AI raises $9M to power agentic AI search experiences and Koah secures $20.5M for an AI-native ad platform. On the operations side, a U.K. real estate roll-up gets $93M to streamline broker workflows with AI, Humand raises $66M for AI-powered HR for deskless workers, VoiceLine lands €10M for voice-first enterprise AI, and Slang AI adds $36M to automate customer phone interactions. Together, these deals signal a rapid rebuild of how brands are found, sold, and supported in an AI-first ecosystem.