AI Industry Report

Meta Launches Muse for Small Business, an AI Agent for QuickBooks, Shopify, and Stripe That Meta Says Asks Before It Publishes, Sends, or Spends. Plus Amazon's Sponsored Alexa Answers and OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol

Three stories and two rumors, and Meta just pointed its AI agent at small business, with connections to QuickBooks, Shopify, and Stripe. In this episode: • Update: M

OpenAI Launches Dots, an Always-On ChatGPT Agent. Plus Shopify's Agent Checkout, Google's AI Mode Monitoring, and Manus 2.0

Four stories and one rumor, and OpenAI just launched an always-on agent that it says keeps working for you after you close ChatGPT. In this episode: • OpenAI Launche

Anthropic Says Its New Sonnet 5.5 Is Faster and Cheaper and On the Free Plan. Plus a Muse Security Follow-Up, ElevenLabs' New Phone-Ready Voice, and Gemini Gems Retiring

Four stories and one rumor, and Anthropic just shipped a faster, cheaper Claude that its own announcement says is on the free plan. In this episode: • Anthropic Rele

Ask Your AI to Get You In: Muse's New Early Access Trick, Plus Microsoft's Always-On Autopilot Agent

Three stories and one rumor, and Meta just told Muse users the fastest way to get its newest features is to ask the agent itself. In this episode: • Meta Opens Early

Sol or Luna? Which New ChatGPT Model to Use for What. Plus: Setting Up Meta's Muse the Safe Way

Three stories and one rumor, and if you've been wondering which of ChatGPT's new models you're supposed to use for what, today you get the plain answer. In this episo

Meta Says Its AI Agent Wants Small Businesses Next, With a Fee Attached. Plus YouTube's AI Shopping Guide and Hands-Free ChatGPT

Three stories and one rumor, and Meta says its Muse agent will shop at Walmart, Best Buy, and Sephora, wants to reach small businesses next, and expects to take a small f

On Shopify? Google May Already Let Shoppers Buy Your Products Inside Its AI (If You're Eligible)

Three stories and one rumor, and if you sell on Shopify, Google may have already switched on a Buy button for your products inside AI Mode and Gemini. In this episode

Amazon Locked an AI Shopping Agent Out. Shopify Opened the Door. Which Side Is Your Store On?

Four stories, and the fight over AI shopping agents just split in two: Amazon locked Meta's Muse agent out of its store on Sunday night, and by Monday Shopify said it wil

Meta Just Opened Its AI Agent to Businesses: What a Muse Connector Could Mean for You

Three stories and one rumor, and Meta just opened the door for your business to plug into its Muse agent, so a customer could reach you by asking their AI instead of sear

Google Appears to Be Turning Your Business Profile Into an AI Overview,

Three stories and one rumor, and Google appears to be turning your Business Profile into an AI Overview, so the summary a customer sees when they search your name may now

Your ChatGPT Ad Can Talk Back: OpenAI Tests Sponsored Agents, and ChatGPT Ads Lands in the Shopify App Store

OpenAI announced on September 16 that it is testing Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT Ads, a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent that a user can open a

Meta Now Sells Business Plans Inside Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, From $14.99 to $499 a Month, and Links in Posts Start at $49.99

Three stories, one rumor, and Meta now sells business plans inside Instagram and Facebook, where a link in your posts starts at fifty dollars a month. In this episode

The Rebuilt Siri Went Live Yesterday, in Beta, and It Answers "Who's Good Around Here" From the Open Web

Four stories, one rumor, and the new Siri went live on your customers' phones yesterday afternoon. In this episode: • Update: Apple Shipped iOS 27 on September 14 an

Google Just Built a Pay Button for the Content It Uses in AI Answers

Three stories, one rumor, and Google has started paying people for the content it feeds into AI answers. In this episode: • Google Has Started Paying Publishers Thro

The Listing You Forgot About Is the One AI Reads First

Three stories, and the first one is Yelp's CEO naming every AI assistant that's now reading your Yelp page, and it's most of them. In this episode: • Update: Yelp's

Scammers Are Hijacking Google Listings With AI Photos. Check Yours.

Four stories and one rumor, and the first one is a scam that puts somebody else's phone number on your Google listing, inside a photo, where you'd never think to look.

How to Make Sure Your Business Isn’t Invisible to New Siri in iOS 27

Four stories today, and the first one is Apple quietly telling every website owner which of its robots you can block without disappearing from the new Siri. In this e

ChatGPT's Biggest Upgrade of the Year

Three stories today, and the first one is the biggest upgrade ChatGPT has had all year, landing in the plan you may already pay for. In this episode: • OpenAI Releas

Anyone Can Now Mark Your Business Closed By Talking To Google Maps

Three stories today, and the first one changes who gets to write what Google says about your business. In this episode: • Google's "Tell Maps" Is Rolling Out, So Any

Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1 Launches, Cutting AI Costs Up to 45 Percent

Three stories today, a lighter day than usual, but a genuinely useful one: your AI tools got cheaper, and regulators just started paying attention to ChatGPT the way they