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In this newsletter:
- Anthropic launches Claude for small businesses with app connectors
- Google announces Googlebook laptops, Magic Pointer, and custom widgets
- Amazon launches Alexa for shopping with cross-device memory
Plus, you’ll find new AI tools and this week’s top AI news headlines!
💼 Anthropic Launches Claude for Small Business With App Connectors & AI Workflows
Anthropic released Claude for Small Business, a package of connectors and ready-to-run workflows that work inside QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, DocuSign, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 to automate finance, operations, sales, marketing, HR, and customer service tasks.
What's new:
- Available now as a toggle install inside Claude Cowork
- Connects to tools small businesses already use: QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, DocuSign, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365
- Ships with 15 ready-to-run agentic workflows across finance, operations, sales, marketing, HR, and customer service
- Includes 15 skills built on repeatable tasks that slow down owners
- You approve before anything sends, posts, or pays
What it can do:
- Plan payroll: Settle QuickBooks cash position against incoming PayPal settlements, build a 30-day forecast, rank what's overdue, and queue reminders for approval
- Close the month: Reconcile books against settlements, flag what doesn't match, write plain-English P&L, export the close packet to forward to the accountant through QuickBooks
- Business pulse: Surface cash position through QuickBooks, sales trend, pipeline movement, week's commitments on one page
- Run campaigns: Find slow stretch in revenue, analyze HubSpot campaign performance, draft promo strategy, generate assets in Canva
- Also includes invoice chaser, margin analyzer, month-end prepper, tax-season organizer, contract reviewer, lead triager, and content strategist
How each tool works:
- PayPal: settlements, invoicing, disputes, refunds
- QuickBooks: payroll planning, monthly close, cash-flow, tax season prep, reconciliation
- HubSpot: lead triage, customer pulse, campaign attribution
- Canva: content generation for every channel, collaborate and edit with team, publish assets, track performance
- DocuSign: sends contracts for signature, tracks status, files executed copy
Security:
- Every task initiated by you, approve the plan first, or let it run end-to-end
- Existing permissions hold - if the employee can't see something in QuickBooks or Drive today, they can't see it through Claude
- Anthropic doesn't train on your data by default on Team and Enterprise plans
Free training and tour:
- AI Fluency for Small Business: free online course taught by owners who built AI into operations (Prospect Butcher Co. in Brooklyn, MAKS TIPM Rebuilders in California)
- Claude SMB Tour: free half-day live AI fluency training and hands-on workshop for 100 local business leaders per stop, starting May 14 in Chicago
- Spring stops: Chicago, Tulsa, Dallas, Hamilton Township, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, San Jose, Indianapolis
- Attendees get a one-month Claude Max subscription
Why it matters:
Anthropic is targeting the 44% of US GDP controlled by small businesses that have been left behind in AI adoption, betting pre-built QuickBooks and PayPal connectors will convert owners who stopped at chat.
The free training and nonprofit partnerships show Anthropic's public benefit mission, though the strategy tests whether small business owners trust AI enough to automate payroll and invoicing tasks that could sink their business if mistakes happen.
👀 Read more about Claude for Small Business!
📱 Google Announces Googlebook Laptops, Vibe-Coded Widgets, and Gemini in Android Auto
Google announced Googlebook laptops built for Gemini Intelligence, plus Android updates, including custom widgets you can create by describing what you want in plain language.
Googlebook Laptops:
- Launching fall 2026 with partners Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo
- First laptops designed from the ground up for Gemini Intelligence
- Magic Pointer: new cursor with Gemini built in
- Android phone compatibility lets you use phone apps right from Google Books
- Ability to create custom widgets
Create My Widget:
- Launching summer 2026 on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones
- Users vibe-code custom widgets by describing what they want in natural language
- Example: "suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week" creates a custom dashboard for the home screen
Android Auto updates:
- Refresh brings more personalization, widgets, and an edge-to-edge experience for any screen shape
- Add widgets to see things at a glance while using navigation
- YouTube Music and Spotify are getting redesigned interfaces for easier car use
- Watch videos on YouTube in 60 fps full HD in supported cars later this year (BMW, Ford, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Škoda, Tata, Volvo)
- Gemini is rolling out broadly on Android Auto for hands-free questions and brainstorming
- Place food orders from the car, starting with DoorDash
3D Emoji:
- All 4,000 Android emojis have been refined to feel less flat, more expressive, and real
- Launching later this year
Creator Features:
- Screen Reactions: records you and your screen at the same time (TikTok/Instagram Reels format), rolling out on Pixel devices summer 2026
- Instagram partnership brings Ultra HDR, native stabilization, and night mode to Android
- Optimized capture-to-upload pipeline keeps photos and videos sharp when posted
- Meta Edit app on Android gets a smart enhancement to upscale photos and sound separation to boost and remove sounds
Gemini Intelligence:
- Takes data from one app and performs multistep functions across apps
- Example: photo of event flyer, ask assistant to find event on Expedia
- Invoke assistant with grocery list on-screen, ask to build cart in shopping app of choice
Gemini in Chrome:
- Rolling out to Android after iOS and desktop launches
- Summarize the content or ask questions about the web page
- Auto-browse feature navigates websites and completes tasks like booking a ticket
Other Features:
- Form filling: Gemini uses Personal Intelligence data to help fill complex forms on mobile (opt-in)
- Rambler in Gboard: turns speech into cleaned-up text, removes filler words like "ums" and "ahs."
- Extended AirDrop support: Quick Share works with iPhones on Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor devices
- QR code sharing for non-compatible devices
- Quick Share coming to WhatsApp
- iOS-to-Android transfer: import passwords, photos, messages, favorite apps, contacts, eSIM, and home screen layout from iPhone (Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices this year)
- Pause Point: 10-second break before launching distraction apps with alternative suggestions
- Intrusion Logging: a security feature for Pixel users with Advanced Protection Mode to investigate suspected spyware attacks
Theft protection:
- Expanding default-on theft protections to all Android users globally
- Enabled by default on all new Android 17 devices, freshly reset devices, or those upgraded to the latest OS
- Remote Lock and Theft Detection Lock automatically enabled
- Reduced PIN/password guess attempts with longer wait times between failed attempts
- Law enforcement can access device IMEI from the lock screen on Android 12 and higher
- Extended to Android 10 and up in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the UK
Why it matters:
Google is pushing Gemini into every corner of Android, from laptops to car dashboards to home screen widgets, making AI the default interface rather than an optional feature.
The Googlebook launch puts Google in direct competition with Microsoft's AI PCs and Apple's rumored AI Macs, while vibe-coded widgets and Gemini in Android Auto reveal Google's strategy to make AI creation tools so simple that users choose Google over competitors who still require technical knowledge.
👀 Read more about Google's Android Show announcements!
🛒 Amazon Launches Alexa for Shopping That Remembers Your Conversations Across Devices
Amazon combined Rufus and Alexa+ into Alexa for Shopping, an AI assistant that uses your conversations from Echo devices, browsing history, and past purchases to personalize shopping on the Amazon app and website.
What's new:
- Rolling out to all US customers over the coming week
- Available free on the Amazon Shopping app and website, no Prime membership or Echo device required
- Combines product knowledge from Rufus with personalized context from Alexa+
- Conversations and preferences flow between Echo devices and Amazon.com in both directions
- Full Amazon store now available on the Echo Show
How it works:
- Brainstorm science fair ideas with Alexa on the Echo. The next day, ask the Amazon app, "Please suggest supplies for my science fair project that we talked about," and get recommendations for supplies
- Type dishwasher error code in the Amazon search bar, Alexa for Shopping knows what dishwasher you own from a previous Echo Show conversation, and provides troubleshooting tips
- Set a price alert for a laptop in the Amazon app, the Echo notifies you when the price drops to the target, ask Alexa to buy it immediately
- Ask Alexa on the Echo to remember nephew's birthday, weeks later open the Amazon app and ask for gift suggestions, get age-appropriate options that arrive on time
Features:
- Ask questions directly in the main Amazon search bar or the dedicated chat window
- Compare products from search results side by side
- AI overviews at the top of search results and on product pages
- Price history for up to a full year on hundreds of millions of products
- Schedule routine purchases: add items to cart monthly, restock household items, get alerts for new book releases, gift ideas before birthdays
- Example: "Add this sunscreen to my cart if the price drops to $10 and I haven't purchased it in the last 2 months."
- Shop other retailers across the web through Shop Direct
- The Buy for Me feature handles the entire purchase using your primary address and credit card
- Add items to cart from past orders: "add my regular dog treats" or "add my frequently ordered cleaning products."
- Personalize experience: view and update family members, pets, interests, dietary needs
- Create custom shopping guides for big purchases, comparing features, prices, and reviews
- Visual search by snapping a photo
- Find deals based on browsing history and shopping lists
- Search items by price range
- Set price alerts and Auto Buy items at the target price
- Track packages and check order status
Echo Show shopping:
- Browse, search, and shop the full Amazon store on the Echo Show
- Navigate entirely by voice, touch, or both with Alexa as a guide
Why it matters:
Amazon is betting that memory across devices will lock shoppers into its ecosystem by making it painful to switch to competitors who can't remember what you discussed on your smart speaker yesterday.
The cross-device conversation continuity creates a moat where leaving Amazon means losing the AI assistant that knows your nephew's birthday and dishwasher model, though the strategy tests whether shoppers trust Amazon enough to let it track every conversation, purchase, and preference across every device they own.
👀 Read more about Alexa for Shopping!
My Latest LinkedIn & X/Twitter Posts:
- Top 15 Perplexity prompts to supercharge your workflow (view post)
- Step-by-step guide to pick the right AI tool in seconds (view post)
- 12 AI skills to learn to future-proof your career (view post)
- 3 levels of prompting to go from basic to expert-level (view post)
- 10 YouTube channels to level up your learning (view post)
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New AI Tools to Boost Your Productivity:
- Retuner: Tailors resumes to specific job descriptions.
- FlashEdit: Generates and edits release-ready videos with AI.
- QuartzMail: Prioritizes important emails and drafts replies in your writing style.
- Iridea: Generates brand-ready ads and social creatives from your website.
- Atomic Chat: Private local AI chat app that runs fully on your device.
- Columns: Turns messy data into charts and insights.
- Synthboard: Generates AI voiceovers and speech audio.
- Veluvanto: Organizes and retrieves documents using AI.
- Recallverse: AI contact memory that remembers everyone you meet.
- Brooked: Connects spreadsheets with data sources and AI analysis.
- GetTheGists: Summarizes webpages into key takeaways.
- Aktok: Workspace for planning and managing work in one place.
- PageLens: Checks AI-built websites for SEO, mobile, trust, and launch issues.
- MythX: Generates AI roleplay stories and interactive characters.
- Repairit: Repairs corrupted videos, photos, files, and audio.
- PosterMyWall: Creates marketing graphics, videos, and social posts.
- Undetectr: Removes AI detection markers from AI-generated music.
- Crafiq: Generates 2D, 3D, video, and audio assets with AI.
- KeyAPI: Provides unified social media data APIs for agents.
This Week's Top AI News Headlines:
- OpenAI Brings Codex AI Coding Assistant to ChatGPT Mobile App for Remote Code Review, Task Management, and Developer Workflows (View Article)
- ClawdMeter Launches Desktop Dashboard App to Track Claude Code Usage Limits, Token Consumption, and Developer Activity in Real Time (View Article)
- OpenClaw, the Open-Source AI Assistant Platform for Autonomous Coding and Workflow Agents, Adds Improved Support for OpenAI Models and Codex (View Article)
- Microsoft Discontinues Claude Code Integration in Notepad After Experimenting With Anthropic’s AI Coding Assistant in Windows (View Article)
- Rumored Google Gemini 3.2 Flash Model Reportedly Matches 92% of GPT-5.5 Coding and Reasoning Performance at a Fraction of the Cost (View Article)
- Meta Launches Developer Tools and Android XR Support to Help Build Apps for Ray-Ban Smart Glasses and Future AI Wearables (View Article)
- Anthropic Increases Claude Code Usage Limits by 50% for Paid Subscribers Ahead of July 13 Developer Promotion Deadline (View Article)
- Perplexity Launches “Computer” Tool to Let Nontechnical Teams Analyze Data, Build Spreadsheets, and Generate Charts Using AI Prompts (View Article)
- WhatsApp Launches Incognito Chat for Meta AI to Let Users Have Private Conversations Without Saving History or Training Models (View Article)
- OpenAI Brings Codex AI Coding Agent to ChatGPT Mobile App for Remote Task Management Across Laptops and Dev Environments (View Article)
- Anthropic Examines macOS Security Flaw that Allowed AI Assistant Claude to Be Manipulated into Exposing Private User Information (View Article)
- xAI Launches Grok Build in Early Beta as Agentic Command-Line Tool for Coding, App Development, and Workflow Automation (View Article)
- Live-Action AI Film Produced by Darren Aronofsky and Starring Paul Rudd and Chris Rock to Premiere at Cannes Film Festival (View Article)
- Google Expected to Unveil Gemini Spark at Google I/O as Persistent AI Assistant that Learns User Behavior and Automates Daily Tasks (View Article)
- Figure, the Humanoid Robotics Startup, Live-Streams Eight Hours of Fully Autonomous Robot Work and Launches 24/7 Public Operation Feed (View Article)
- Perplexity Details Security Architecture Behind “Computer” AI Agent Designed to Safely Automate Data Analysis and Workplace Tasks (View Article)
- OpenAI Explains How it Built Secure Windows Sandboxing for Codex AI Coding Agents to Safely Access Files and Run Commands (View Article)
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Have a wonderful week!
Andrew Bolis
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