Software Engineer I – Entry Level - Fall 2024-Spring 2025

Delivery apps and retailers unite; how do You measure, measure an ad. Friday, October 2nd, 2026 - 12:03 am Window Shopping Retail partnerships are rarely as tidy as the press releases make them sound. Target ended its formal relationship with Instacart after acquiring Shipt in 2018. But shoppers can still use Instacart to order Target products for same-day delivery. Criteo has similarly retained business with retailers, including Walmart, even after those retailers publicly moved away from its platform. The vendor may lose the marquee role, but not necessarily the account. Macy's is taking the reverse route with DoorDash. The department store has quietly offered DoorDash delivery through its own site and app for several years, but now it's making the partnership much more visible. Macy's fashion and beauty products will be available for purchase directly in the DoorDash app, The Wall Street Journal reports. DoorDash has struck similar deals with Timberland, Vans, Victoria's Secret, Steve Madden and Anthropologie. The company is building a network of apparel and beauty retailers that can fulfill orders quickly from their stores, not unlike a mall repurposed as a distributed delivery hub. The business underneath those partnerships is retail media. DoorDash gets more merchandise, shoppers and signals to monetize, while retailers get another route to demand, plus access to DoorDash's delivery and advertising infrastructure. And the relationship can remain quiet or become consumer-facing, depending on what each side needs. Mind The Measurement Gap Nearly eight months after ChatGPT first launched ads, it's still ironing out some kinks. Namely, measurement. Although OpenAI launched a host of measurement solutions back in May, including its own CAPI, it's not necessarily tracking all conversions and engagement accurately. Digital marketing agency Accuracast, for one, found that OpenAI seems to be underreporting conversions, noting that the platform reported 100 clicks during a period of time when its own measurement tools only reported 20, according to Digiday. OpenAI couldn't explain the discrepancy. Other agencies, including Jellyfish, and tech platforms, such as AdRoll, say they haven't seen click discrepancies - but this doesn't mean they're satisfied. For example, Swedish digital agency Web Guide Partner has expressed concern over how long it takes to receive insights (24 to 36 hours versus just a few on Google). But the issue isn't just how long it takes to get insights. Many advertisers haven't turned on conversion tracking at all. Doing so requires agreeing to OpenAI's tracking terms, which some legal teams are wary of because of potential liability and concerns about how customer data might be used. Party In The PSA Happy election season! The Trump administration is dipping into taxpayer coffers to run pro-Trump ads on TV networks, including Fox News, CBS, MS Now and CNN, Variety reports. The administration spent nearly $2.9 million so far to run three different spots ahead of next month's midterm elections, according to ad intelligence firm AdImpact. A White House spokesperson referred to the ads, in which the president vows to battle socialism and touts his policy agenda as public service announcements. It's a questionable justification for using taxpayer dollars to promote the sitting president right before an election. But Brendan Carr, chair of the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission, says he sees no issue with the ads. At least, they aren't as big a deal for Carr as late night talk show hosts interviewing a Democratic Senate candidate. As for MS Now, some of the liberal-leaning network's staff are surprised and peeved that it's running pro-Trump commercials, Status reports. But some argue that the ads did not violate the standards set by MS Now parent company Versant, which explicitly accept "divergent points of view" related to politics. Trump's crackdown on MS Now's coverage is certainly awkward timing, but networks need to make money somehow. After all, only a few months have passed since Versant spun off from Comcast in an effort to bolster its monetization. But Wait! There's More! Very few marketers - just 6%! - say they're getting a big payoff from AI. So what are the marketers seeing results doing differently? [Business Insider] Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos says the platform "is not growing as fast as [he wants] it to." (Well, it might help if Netflix stopped getting rid of everyone's favorite shows.) [Hollywood Reporter] Who should be held responsible when an AI system goes rogue? [NYT] Shopping platform Swap Commerce acquires Vizby, a Shopify-native service that helps brands show up in AI search responses. [release] You're Hired! OpenX appoints ex-Roku exec John Rogers as SVP of global publisher development. [release] Tagged in:

DoorDash expands access to agentic ordering for offices, corporate customers. Brian Warmoth | Oct 1, 2026 DoorDash unveiled a corporate version of its MCP connector to let companies integrate ordering into AI agents and workplace tools such as Slack, enabling automated purchases of foods and office supplies. DoorDash put its latest artificial intelligence (AI), delivery and ordering options on display at its Dash Forward event in San Francisco on Tuesday, opening up agentic ordering to workplaces for new users. In addition to showing off new drones and its Dasher Returns services, the last-mile delivery platform and marketplace named its first corporate customers for a connector-enabled option that is intended to let companies use their internally adopted AI tools to automate ordering for use cases such as lunch catering and office supplies replenishment. Currently, access is only available through a waitlist, but DoorDash announced that SpaceX, Cognition, Vercel, Mercor and Tempo are all early partners putting the connector to use. How does DoorDash's agentic ordering to offices work? Andy Fang, co-founder and director at DoorDash, noted on stage at the DoorDash headquarters that the company launched the command line interface in beta in July, setting up capabilities that make agentic ordering to workplaces possible. He said that the beta "enables individual developers to connect DoorDash ordering capabilities to their personal agents," creating recurring grocery orders and discovering new options according to their preferences. "In fact, one of the biggest use cases we saw was automating their office work," Fang stated. "And so now, to make it easier for companies to put their office orders and office supply restocks on autopilot, we're excited to introduce the DoorDash MCP for corporate ordering." MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, which is an open standard that lets external services connect to AI applications. DoorDash cited Slack as an example of an app where employees at an office might interact with a bot that uses the connector to place orders through DoorDash for delivery from local restaurants or merchants. "Companies can now use it to bring agentic ordering into tools their teams are already working in, or give internal agents the ability to order through DoorDash," he said. "And this opens up a ton of possibilities for companies to turn the tools that their teams are using every day into a way to get what they need delivered." Andy Fang, co-founder and director at DoorDash, speaking at the Dash Forward event in San Francisco about agentic ordering for workplaces | Image credit: Digital Commerce 360 Who has access to DoorDash MCP for corporate ordering? DoorDash noted that the beta is currently limited in scope as it grants companies access to place orders for their teams. More on This Industries Brian Warmoth | Sep 30, 2026 Abbas Haleem | Sep 24, 2026 Abbas Haleem | Jul 28, 2026 Kevin Williams | Sep 18, 2026 Beth Duckett | Dec 19, 2025 Beth Duckett | Oct 3, 2025

DoorDash unveils new delivery drone. The company plans to begin deliveries in Northern California following its FAA Part 135 certification in July. Thursday, October 01, 2026 at 04:15 PM ET Key takeaways: DoorDash on Wednesday unveiled its own autonomous delivery drone and announced plans to begin pilot operations in Northern California. The company's new DoorDash Air system will initially serve restaurants including Chipotle, Popeyes and Momo N Curry, expanding its existing network of human couriers and autonomous delivery vehicles. The aircraft features six slow-spinning propellers the company says are designed to reduce noise. According to DoorDash, its cruising noise is comparable to a passing car when measured at delivery height. The drone uses a winch system to collect and deliver orders and includes additional safety systems designed to lower the aircraft to the ground in the event of certain failures. Designed around deliveries. "We started with what people order and how local businesses actually operate, then built the entire system from there," Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air, said in the company's announcement. DoorDash estimates that approximately 80% of its typical restaurant orders are small and light enough for the aircraft to carry. The comapany says its Autonomous Delivery Platform evaluates factors including weather, distance, package weight and ground traffic to determine which orders qualify for drone delivery. It reported average delivery times of less than five minutes during initial testing. Commercial operations. DoorDash received FAA Part 135 air carrier certification in July, authorizing the company to conduct commercial drone deliveries. It has not announced a specific launch date or identified the communities that will participate in its Northern California pilot program. The announcement comes as commercial drone delivery operators continue expanding their networks and the FAA faces a legal challenge concerning its environmental review of expanded drone delivery operations. Matt is AVweb's lead editor. His eyes have been turned to the sky for as long as he can remember. Now a fixed-wing pilot, instructor and aviation writer, Matt also leads and teaches a high school aviation program in the Dallas area. Beyond his lifelong obsession with aviation, Matt loves to travel and has lived in Greece, Czechia and Germany for studies and for work.