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AI Features Driving Immediate Business Impact: New Power Tools from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Canva & Microsoft
Recent advancements in applied AI are delivering targeted improvements to enterprise workflows, team collaboration, and operational efficiency—often at no extra cost and with instant availability. This summary highlights precisely which AI features rolled out in the past week are worth immediate consideration, the functions they support, and how they map to current organizational needs.
OpenAI’s GPT 5.5 Instant: Improved Conversational Performance
The conversation focused on the release of a new tuning pass for OpenAI’s GPT 5.5 Instant, the default model now used by a billion weekly active users. Unlike prior iterations, this update spent engineering focus on improving conversational quality, intent recognition, and the handling of complex constraints, instead of simply outperforming industry benchmarks 03:37. Enhanced intent recognition and response customization open new avenues for companies reliant on customer-facing chatbots, internal knowledge bases, and dynamic Q&A flows.
Business Value:
Organizations with workflows built on ChatGPT can expect more natural, context-aware interactions and better results with local recommendations and transactional queries. As the update is already rolled out to paid and free user tiers, there is no delay or deployment overhead for operational teams 04:01.
Google Finance App: AI-Augmented Portfolio Tracking
A key theme that emerged was the official release of Google Finance as a dedicated Android app featuring portfolio tracking, scheduled briefings, and an AI research tool 06:55. This tool integrates Gemini AI features—such as the ability to upload holdings via screenshots, CSVs, PDFs, or by describing portfolios in plain language. The research tool can answer sector analysis questions, highlight portfolio gaps, or summarize real-time market movements 07:24.
Business Value:
Retail investors, financial analysts, and organizations managing diverse portfolios can streamline the process of performance reviews, sector alignment, and market updates. Custom briefings and AI-powered summaries enable business stakeholders to capture time-sensitive insights with reduced manual effort, enhancing portfolio oversight without incurring additional platform costs 08:27.
Google Gemini-Powered Smart Speaker: AI in the Home Office
The discussion explored the launch of Google's first Gemini-powered smart speaker, made available at $99 in North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The new device enables sustained, multistep natural language conversations—retaining context across follow-up queries and integrating with core Google services such as Calendar, Shopping, and Gmail 12:12.
Business Value:
For businesses operating with remote or hybrid teams—or those reliant on scheduling, calendar management, and rapid information retrieval—the Gemini smart speaker provides frictionless access to contextual AI at home or in small office environments. This device closes the gap where previous voice assistants failed by supporting natural conversational continuity for scheduling, reminders, and general knowledge queries 13:03.
Anthropic Claude Tag: Collaborative AI in Slack Channels
One concept discussed was Claude Tag, Anthropic's multiparty, persistent AI collaboration tool embedded in Slack. Unlike previous Slack integrations, Claude Tag creates a shared AI "identity" in each channel, building persistent memory from channel data and enabling any member to delegate tasks. This feature supports asynchronous workflows—allowing the AI to continue tasks, schedule follow-ups, and proactively surface information 15:43.
Business Value:
Team-based organizations using Slack as a primary collaboration platform can leverage Claude Tag as a persistent channel manager, not just a personal assistant. The tool enables collective task management and project tracking within the team’s shared conversation history. This facilitates distributed work, asynchronous follow-up, and transparent handoffs, which are crucial for knowledge retention and traceability in fast-growing technical and product teams 17:39. Anthropic revealed that 65% of its own product team’s code now runs through its internal Slack-based Claude Tag, underlining its operational relevance 19:45.
Canva Grow 2.0: End-to-End AI Marketing Automation
Several points were raised, including Canva’s release of Grow 2.0—a comprehensive, AI-driven performance marketing suite. This system unifies ad creative generation, campaign publishing, and automatic performance optimization, generating both static and video ads based on brand materials, audience signals, and historical engagement 21:18. Ads can be bulk-published across platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Meta, with creatives updated automatically as data points reveal what is performing best 22:24.
Business Value:
Marketing and creative teams gain a consolidated workflow for multi-platform advertising without leaving Canva’s interface. By combining asset management, campaign deployment, and real-time optimization, businesses can increase campaign velocity, reduce production overhead, and reinvest creative energy into high-impact experiments.
Gemini in Chrome: Instant Contextual AI Prompts
The episode introduced Gemini’s new “select from screen” feature in Chrome, allowing users to highlight any text or image on a web page and dynamically inject that selection into an AI prompt 24:16. This removes the friction of copying and pasting, streamlining analysis, breakdowns, or data extraction workflows directly from the browser.
Business Value:
Information workers, analysts, and content creators can reduce mundane, repetitive effort when working across screens, increasing the speed of insight capture, documentation, and contextual research.
Microsoft Copilot Skills for Excel: Workflow Automation in Spreadsheets
The discussion highlighted Microsoft Copilot’s new reusable skills for Excel 27:14. This feature allows users to automate common processes through predefined or customizable “skills”—templates that can be used to streamline finance tasks like DCF builds, monthly reporting, or variance analysis. Skills are built using open standard markdown files for easy sharing and adaptation 29:34.
Business Value:
Financial professionals and analysts can now move beyond manual formulas, automating complex workbook processes across teams. The ability to create, share, and reuse workflow templates fosters consistency, reduces errors, and unlocks productivity in every finance-centric business unit.
Conclusion: Direct Path to Enhanced Productivity
The transformation detailed throughout these updates is not theoretical or long-term—each tool outlined is either available today or rolling out imminently, with a focus on immediate impact for organizations that adopt. These specific AI features enable measurable improvements in digital collaboration, financial insight, operational efficiency, and creative campaign execution. For decision makers evaluating practical AI adoption, these releases serve as blueprints for tangible value at the team and enterprise level.
Topics Covered in This Episode:
- GPT 5.5 Instant Model Upgrade Details
- Google Finance AI Portfolio Tracker Launch
- Gemini-Powered Google Smart Speaker Release
- Claude Tag Collaboration in Slack Explained
- Canva Grow 2.0 Automated Marketing Platform
- Gemini in Chrome Select from Screen Feature
- Microsoft Copilot Skills Automation in Excel
Episode Transcript
Jordan Wilson [00:00:16]:
So the big news when it comes to AI features you can actually use this week might just be well, we have to wait another few weeks until we get a new large language model from Google or OpenAI. We were supposed to get big updates to Gemini 3.5 Pro and OpenAI's GPT five six in June, but reporting from the information says that Anthropic's fable showdown with the White House has slowed down other labs in releasing AI models. And that reporting also indicates that the new OpenAI g b d 5.6 may be rolling out to customers in tiers, so not all at once. That part may be a bummer, but that didn't stop Google open AI, Anthropic, and others from dropping a ton of useful AI features that are available now and will make your workflow even easier. And I mean, there was a ton this week actually. So many great ones that three personal ones I'm excited about didn't even make our cut of top seven. I mean, Gemini study notebooks, codecs releasing a digital ocean plugin, a Google adding computer use in 3.5 flash didn't even make our list of top seven. But there were a ton that did make this week's 10 or sorry, top seven fresh AI features you can use.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:41]:
So on today's show, you're gonna learn why at home smart speakers may finally be making the AI leap because a l e x a plus is terrible. You're gonna learn how those repeatable tasks in Excel may be a thing of the past plus up for that. And you're gonna know a new way of working collaboratively with AI if your team relies on Claude and Slack. And I think a lot of teams are gonna like that one. We're gonna get into all of that in a lot more on today's show. Welcome to Everyday AI. If you're new here, my name is Jordan Moulson, and, well, we do this every day. This is your daily unscripted livestream podcast and free daily newsletter helping business leaders like you and me keep up with all these AI advancements.
Jordan Wilson [00:02:24]:
I tell you what matters, what doesn't. You use that information to be the smartest person in AI at your company and grow your company and career. Starts here, but make sure you go to youreverydayai.com. Sign up for the free daily newsletter. We're gonna be recapping not just the highlights from today's show, but all of the other AI new news you need to know to get ahead. Yeah. So like I said, a lot of recent news on some of the government slowdowns affecting all labs when it comes to frontier level, large language models. But that didn't stop all these other great useful AI features that we have and are available now.
Jordan Wilson [00:03:01]:
So without further ado, let's get into it, and let's start with well, technically, the most used single model on the world, in the world, which is GBT 5.5 instant. So this is not a model that I use hardly at all, but I know it's gotten a lot better over the last couple of months, and the new update might make me look at it. Alright. So what is the new g p t 5.5 instant updates? Well, it's only a couple hours old, but this is a new tuning pass on chat g p t's default model. So, yeah, talking about a billion weekly active users, this is the one that, like, 95% of them use. So some big updates. OpenAI said it focused on conversational quality rather than benchmarks, and OpenAI described it as making the model more fun to talk to with better intense recognition and a more reliable way of handling complex constraints. So it's already rolled out to paid users and free users should be getting it probably today or maybe over the weekend.
Jordan Wilson [00:04:09]:
And this is actually surprisingly the third update to GPD 5.5 instant since it was launched May 5. So, yeah, May 5, was kind of the, GPD 5.5 launch or early May there. So it's actually been updated a couple of times over the past month. So in theory, right, I think we we've had some slowdowns, right, that I talked about, in the intro because of, you know, mythos and fable getting pulled for some, some guardrail concerns. So maybe in theory, this might be a GPT five six instance in GPT five five instance clothing. Right? You generally don't see the instant model, which is the default model, you know, used to be called auto. You don't see it getting, like, name dropped by OpenAI more than once a release cycle. So who knows? Maybe this is kind of a precursor of what's to come.
Jordan Wilson [00:05:03]:
Here's what OpenAI said about it. They said, we have a new version of GBD 5.5 instant for you, and it's much more fun to talk to. Our most used model is now better at understanding the intent behind a question and adopting its response accordingly. It also handles complex constraints more reliably and makes shopping and local recommendations more useful and cohesive. Then they said rolling out to paid users. Rolling out today, and I believe this was, late last night that they rolled this out, to paid users and tomorrow to free users. So, yeah, that would be today. So, I mean, why is it gonna be useful? Well, if you start, in instant, this is good.
Jordan Wilson [00:05:44]:
Right? And a lot of people don't know this is an advantage that OpenAI has had for a long time that you still don't have, like, in anthropics models, but you can start a conversation with the instant model. Right? If you're needing to go back and forth, and then you can switch over to, you know, a thinking or a pro model and keep that context going. So in that case, I think this is something worth experimenting with, especially if your company is a heavy chat JPT user, and maybe you've tried the instant model before and it hasn't really stuck with your workflow. So, who's gonna find this valuable? I think any power Chativity user, even myself. Right? I usually always default to at least a thinking model, at most times. So maybe this is one that I'll start using myself personally. But, yeah, I mean, talking about the 1,000,000,000 weekly active users now have a new default version. Alright.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:36]:
Let's go next. And this is one that I think we normally wouldn't cover, but I'm like, okay. This is pretty cool. Yeah. Google had a ton of big drops, and now they have, Google Finance, which has been in beta for a while, but now it's rolling out to general availability. So Google finance is exiting beta with a dedicated Android app portfolio tracking. And the big reason why we're talking about here, an upgraded AI research tool. So you can build a portfolio and track it inside of Google Finance with all of the Gemini AI goodies.
Jordan Wilson [00:07:15]:
Just by dropping in a screenshot, you can upload a CSV or PDF or just describe your current holdings that are in your portfolio. Then you can ask the research tool questions like which sectors are underrepresented. So who has access right now? So portfolio and task features are on the web now, And the AI research tool and key moments are right now in the Android app, and the iOS app will be rolling out later this year. So why is this useful? Well, the scheduled briefings let you describe a task in plain language. You know, for example, you can ask for a daily premarket crypto analysis or, you know, you can go in once a week and just talk about, you know, your portfolio. Why did this this stock go up? You know, what should I you know, maybe, like me, maybe you're too heavy AI focused and you're like, hey. What other sectors should I be, thinking about to balance out, you know, to not be too heavily invested in the AI side? So I think people who are actively, you know, active retail investors or anyone, you know, tracking, you know, their own portfolio multiple times a week, you know, this is great. It's a free app.
Jordan Wilson [00:08:28]:
You know, Google, obviously, it's the first thing I do when I check a stock. Right? I just go into Google search. It brings it up in the search results. I don't even have to do anything. So at least for me, I'm very familiar with using the Google stock interface. So having that rolled out in the finance app, with some of these AI features, Really cool. So here is Google's, kind of what they said about it. They said today, we're we're also launching a new Google finance app for Android, bringing the core of our new experience directly into the pocket.
Jordan Wilson [00:09:01]:
For people who find themselves checking in on the market multiple times a day, the new app is a dedicated place to easily access your watch list as well as real time data, a live financial news feed, the AI research tool, and AI powered key moments that explain why a stock moved. So, yeah, like I said, the app on the web available to everyone. If you do have an Android app, the new, finance app is available now, and they will be rolling out the iOS app for Google or sorry, for, iPhone users later. Alright. Our next one, another one from Google and another one I'm personally excited about because, go ahead and pause your smart speakers now. Alright. But, Alexa has been very, very disappointing. Right? The Alexa plus rollout, which is something I've been trying to use and my, you know, me and my wife are always joking because we're like, this thing is supposed to be smarter, this Alexa plus, and it's really not.
Jordan Wilson [00:10:03]:
So we might finally have an AI powered home assistant. Right? The the Siri from Apple has been delayed for, years. Right? And they face multiple class action lawsuits for promising an AI voice assistant, but not delivering. Well, we finally finally finally have one from Google. So Google's first audio device built for the Gemini, ecosystem is live with their Gemini for home assistant. So this supports the big thing is that natural language, multistep conversations, that you can have with Google, via Gemini. Right? So, you know, before Google had their home assistant, right, obviously, Siri had their different, smart speakers. I don't think a lot of people use them.
Jordan Wilson [00:10:49]:
They probably just use Siri on on their phone. And then, obviously, the Alexa has their, variety of devices. But until now, at least when you're talking about a dedicated smart speaker at home, you haven't really been able to have that, quote, unquote, smart conversation that you can have with, you know, like a Gemini live on your phone, right, in the Gemini app or the, Google's, advanced voice mode. By the way, we're seeing a lot of reporting that, or or sorry, OpenAI's advanced voice mode. We're seeing reporting that they're gonna be rolling out of bidirectional, voice mode soon. So, but we actually have a piece of hardware that's available now. My gosh. I'm excited about this one.
Jordan Wilson [00:11:29]:
So, obviously, you can't just upgrade an old Google smart speaker. This is a new, $99, smart speaker from Google that is available now. Yeah. Just hit shelves, like, twenty four hours ago. So it's available right now across The US, Canada, UK, and much of Europe, plus Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. So why is it useful? Well, it's you're talking to Gemini. So if you use the, the Gemini live on the Gemini app, it's some I use all the time, it'll sound very, very familiar. So you can ask follow-up questions in real time without having to repeat yourself, carry the context of a conversation, by talking to Gemini, so you don't have to string, you you know, together all these separate ass and just keep repeating yourself.
Jordan Wilson [00:12:16]:
Right? So let's just say you're talking about the World Cup and you say, you know, hey. When does USA play? And then you can just say when's their next game without having to say when is The United States last game, or next game. So, just a great way to carry the conversation on. So here is what Google says about their new smart speaker. So they said get quick answers, something on your mind, ask your speaker, and get questions to just about any question, find it faster. When you remember the strong sorry. When you remember the song but forgot the name, tell Gemini what you know and it takes care of the rest. Say what you need.
Jordan Wilson [00:12:51]:
Get tasks done around the house by describing what you want and maximize your day. Set calendar invites and reminders just by talking them out. Make quick edits to get the date, details just right. I do believe also, you can do the same thing with your email. So any connected, you you know, Gmail service that you might use, or Google service, I do believe that you can use this. So, you know, if you're using Google Shopping, Google Calendar, those things, that's something I'm looking forward to is just being like, hey. It what's what's my next Tuesday look like? And being able to schedule, tasks on my Google Calendar without having to open my phone or sit in front of my computer. That's something I do literally all the time.
Jordan Wilson [00:13:34]:
I'll be, you know, talking with my wife in the house and, you know, be like, oh, yeah. I gotta get down to the calendar. And I I talk about this all the time. I hate typing on my phone. I'm such a slow typer. So usually, I'll literally, like, walk downstairs, get in front of my computer just to add something to my calendar. There's a lot of details to it. So that's, one thing.
Jordan Wilson [00:13:51]:
I'll probably be buying this. Yeah. So let me know in the comments. Do you care about the home smart speakers? At least for me, I think it's, such a big part of people's day to day lives that has yet to actually be truly impacted by AI. Right? We have all these great, you know, things that when we sit in front of our computer and all these, you know, clawed desktop and codecs and, you know, great apps on our phone, but, you know, the smart speaker, piece has always been something that's been sorely missing. Alright. Next one in this, I think might end up being the most used feature of this week and who knows, maybe of all of June, since it looks like we're not getting any state of the art releases. So Claude Tag is out from Anthropic.
Jordan Wilson [00:14:37]:
So this is a new way for teams to work with Claude inside of Slack. You can grant it access to different channels, connect tools, data, and code bases, then tag Claude to delegate tasks. So the cool thing here is it's multiplayer. So you have a shared Claude identity per channel that everyone can see, steer, and hand off to, and it builds context over time from the channels it's in. So this is available now in beta, but you have to be on either a Claude enterprise or a Claude team plan. So this is something I won't be able to use because I'm just on a, I think Claude Pro. Right? The $200 a month plan. So I won't be able to use this.
Jordan Wilson [00:15:20]:
I don't have a Claude team plan, but I know a lot of organizations do, and it's something that seems to be getting a lot of steam and it's pretty popular so far even though it's only been out for a couple of days. So this does, Claude tag, does replace the existing Claude app in the Slack app, and admins can opt in to migrate within thirty days, and eligible orgs can also get launch credit. So why is it useful? Well, you can set a task, and then Claude will just work asynchronously while you focus elsewhere. It can also schedule its own tasks and pursue a project over hours or days. You can also add an optional ambient mode that you can toggle on that lets it proactively surface information and follow-up on stalled threads. So this one to me was a little confusing about how it worked until I looked at it a little bit more because there's been a ton of already, kind of Slack AI assistance. Right? It's pretty easy to build your own. Right? They have a lot of services that can do that.
Jordan Wilson [00:16:23]:
There's a been, you know, official and unofficial plugins for a lot of the services. So I was like, okay. This is technically already been available. So what's different about Claude Tag that wasn't available in the Claude Slack app? So I think one of the best ways to think about it is previously. Right? This is more of your own instance of Claude. Right? That you could, you know, try to, you you know, talk to, like, you would normally talk to Claude as an individual. Whereas Claude Tag, think of it like a manager per channel or a manager per department. So that's the big thing that it's not just yours, right, that carries your contacts or you can assign tasks to.
Jordan Wilson [00:17:01]:
Right? So Claude Tag is actually a coworker per channel that has that channel's memory. So, you know, most people use Slack, but if you don't, right, there's always a lot of very valuable information in there, that, you know, I think all companies need. Right? Probably two or three years ago, I was helping teams, you know, export all this data from Slack. This is before, you know, Salesforce and Slack really became a leader in the headless space, which I think is great. Right? But there's so much great information just in these long Slack channels. So now that's something that each clawed tag in each channel will have access to, which is great. So I think if you shift your thinking of, you know, it being your personal assistant inside of a channel, it is instead like a channel manager that keeps all of that information in mind. So, an approach that I really like it, I really like it.
Jordan Wilson [00:17:55]:
You know, one other thing that a lot of people have been talking about is in the announcement, Anthropic says that 65% of its product team's code now runs through this internal version, which I thought was pretty wild if I'm being honest. Right? So, is this like the new paradigm? Right? A lot of people are calling this the the new paradigm for work. I don't necessarily know. Right? Because you can work inside of Slack and use Claude tag or, you know, you can, you know, use it in Claude desktop and use it in codex. Right? So I don't necessarily know. It depends on how heavily your team uses Slack. Do all of your other important, you know, tech stack, do they all work inside of each Slack channel for whatever reason, permissions, access, all of those things? If so, maybe you might find yourself using, like, clawed desktop less, or codecs less and using this new feature called clawed tag more. So, pretty pretty exciting, because I think it is something that a lot of people are gonna like.
Jordan Wilson [00:19:01]:
So here's what Anthropic said. Claw tag is a new way for teams to work with Claude. We're starting on Slack, which Claude can join as a team member, grants Claude access to selected channels, and connect it to whatever tools, data, and even code bases you choose. Then anyone in the channel can tag Claude in and delegate tasks to it while they focus on other work. Claude builds context by remembering relevant information from the channels it's in and can pan out tasks to complete in the future. They say we see Claude Tag as the beginning of an evolution of Claude Code. It makes the model even more proactive, and it works better with a full team. Tagging Claude is now one of the main ways to get things done at Anthropic.
Jordan Wilson [00:19:45]:
Today, 65% of our products team's code is created by our internal version of Claude Tag. The same pattern is now spreading beyond engineering. We're tagging Claude to chase down product metrics and data, work through support tickets, and even help find the root cause of tricky bugs. And why I think that 65%, is very interesting because OpenAI just released a study, hours ago that said I think it was, like, 99.7% of their internal companies, like, total token usage is inside of codex. So it's interesting to me that the majority overwhelming majority of outputs, from OpenAI is coming from within codex, yet 65% of the just the product teams code in anthropic is coming out of Slack. So it's interesting. Right? Because I think there's been a lot of conversation rightfully so, around harnesses. And, you know, it's my personal opinion and a lot of, people's personal opinion that the codex harness is just way better.
Jordan Wilson [00:20:49]:
And, well, maybe that's because whether Anthropic's ahead of us all, I don't know. Well, they're just getting most of their work done in Slack, it seems like. So, pretty cool feature. And, yeah, let me know if maybe we should do a dedicated, overview of this. I'll just sign up for a team plan if you guys want me to. Alright. Next. Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:21:09]:
Canva. Another tool I use all the time, and I saw this one. And I'm like, okay. Not running any ads right now, but maybe I should because I use Canva all the time. And they just announced and rolled out Canva Grow two point o. So this is an expanded version of Canva's performance marketing platform that now automates the full workflow, everything from ad creation, publishing, and performance optimization in one place. So it generates static and video ads using brand context, audience signals, and past performance with a upgraded magic layers integration to export AI generated ads into the Canva editor for refinement. So this is available now.
Jordan Wilson [00:21:50]:
Right? So they were rolling this out, at as part of, the Cannes, film festival apparently, and it builds on the original Canva Grow that was announced in October 2025. So why is this useful? Well, if you are a marketer or an advertiser and you use Canva, this is huge. And I do know a lot of marketing and advertising teams, well, they use Canva. Right? So Canva has obviously been one of the most popular platforms over the past decade, and they have been rolling out a lot of AI features. So, I mean, why is this useful? I mean, you can bulk publish launches, campaigns across LinkedIn, TikTok, Meta, all at once from your preexisting assets, and then it can refresh the creative can refresh automatically based on what's actually driving results. So this new feature promises to collapse creation, distribution, and optimization in one flow instead of separate tools. So here is what Canva said about it. They said today at Cannes Lions, we unveiled Canva Grow two point o, and with it a new way for marketing teams to create launch and learn from ads all without leaving Canva.
Jordan Wilson [00:23:02]:
So they say we unveiled Canva two point Canva Grow two point o designed to help teams stop managing tools and start building better campaigns. Canva Grow two point o brings ad creation, publishing, and performance optimization into a single AI native workflow and it's the most significant launch we've made for marketing teams yet. So, yeah, we'll make sure to link this in today's newsletter. They have a great announcement post, but visually, you can see it. It makes a lot of sense. Right? It's just gonna pull from all your different assets so you can, throw a lot of different creative, into, you know, if you've used something like, you know, image mode in chat g p t, right, where you can use a handful of images as a source and then get something out of it. So it's kind of like that. So it's using your preexisting brand language, throw in a bunch of your assets.
Jordan Wilson [00:23:49]:
It's going to make, the different ads for the different sizes you need for the different platforms, and then it's gonna track their performance across those different ad metrics. And then you can go in and see which assets actually work best, and then you can go make variations of those. Alright. Two more ones for you. Number one of the last two, Gemini in Chrome's new feature select from screen. So this is a new tool in Gemini in Chrome that lets you highlight your current tab and select any text or image and add it to your prompt. So it's a quick way to focus a Gemini prompt on a specific on screen element. So let me just break this down a little bit more, like, what the heck this actually is.
Jordan Wilson [00:24:37]:
Well, this is possible, because like I kind of alluded to earlier on, Google just released computer use in Gemini 3.5 Flash. So this is a way if you use the, Gemini sidebar, inside Google Chrome, this is a new feature that takes advantage of computer use, by using the Ask Gemini sidebar in Chrome. So this is something I use all the time. I mean, if you're, looking at my screen, you know, you could see oh, it's actually weird. When I pop it out let's see. There we go. Alright. So it's just in the upper right hand corner.
Jordan Wilson [00:25:11]:
And then this new feature allows you to use some of these computer use, capabilities just right inside of Google Chrome without having to leave. So this is rolling out of, in a new update in Chrome, so make sure that you update your browser, after you see this. And it shipped alongside, but is technically separate from that Gemini 3.5 Flash computer used developer release. So here is what Google says about it. They say Gemini in Chrome now lets you focus a prompt with a new select from screen tool, while developers can tap into Gemini 3.5 computer use capabilities. Gemini in Chrome now has a select from screen tool that lets you quickly add an image to prompts. You can find it at the bottom in the plus menu. This highlights your current tab and has a select any text, or image to ask Google.
Jordan Wilson [00:26:07]:
Afterwards, that image can be added to the prompt box. So oh, yeah. So this is actually sorry. A release from, a write up from '9 to five Google. So why is this useful? Well, it removes the friction of copying, pasting, and describing what's on your screen. So this is what I would actually use a lot, and I still do this in other, you know, Claude, you you know, Gemini, Chaggy PTE, etcetera. But now maybe I can just do it in the Gemini app. So it brings the context of anything that's on your screen.
Jordan Wilson [00:26:35]:
So it's almost like if you would take a screenshot of something on your screen and then typing to say, like, hey. Can you describe this a little bit more? Help me break this down. Well, now it takes that, you know, kind of three step process into just one easier step with the computer use. Alright. So, if you are a heavy, Gemini in Chrome user using that sidebar, you might like this. So just make sure that you update Chrome and check it out. Alright. Last but definitely not least for all of our people out there that are spending so much time in Excel.
Jordan Wilson [00:27:08]:
Yeah. We have some new Microsoft Copilot goodies for Excel. So this is reusable Copilot skills for Excel, and they let users automate processes with sample finance skills or you can build your own. So, inside Microsoft Copilot, if you're using Excel, there are some sample or template skills that you can use that kind of create these, you know, all these repeatable workflows that are very normal that anyone would be doing, you know, inside of, Excel. So I think a lot of times, right, you think of different formulas in Excel. But now if you flip it on its head and say, okay. Well, no. Now we're gonna be doing skills.
Jordan Wilson [00:27:50]:
So instead of searching for skills, you can just use formulas that take these repeatable workflows and, well, it just will do it all automatically for you. So a skill guides Copilot through the steps, applying the right structure and formatting to produce output that's easier to review, reuse, and trust. So who has access? Well, this prebuilt finance skills is available for Microsoft three sixty five Copilot customers across Excel for web, Windows, and Mac. And then custom skills are in the insider channel for Windows and Mac. So, custom skills hit general availability next month, but I do know that I mean, this is millions. Right? Millions of people that are already gonna have access to this. So here is what Microsoft says, about skills. A skill extends the capability of an AI model.
Jordan Wilson [00:28:45]:
Skills provide Copilot in Excel with information to complete repeatable tasks. With Copilot in Excel, you can choose from skills available in the Copilot pane or create your own custom skills. To use a skill, open Copilot in Excel, select the add work, add work content menu in the prompt field, and then select all skills. The all skills list shows skills provided by Copilot in Excel and custom skills you've uploaded. Alright. So, I mean, who's gonna find this valuable and why is it useful? Well, skills let teams define how Copilot completes common finance processes like building a DCF, closing your books, refreshing monthly reporting models, or preparing variance analysis. So custom skills are built using an open standard, markdown file, which makes them easily shareable, and that's important. So maybe you have great, you know, finance skills that you've built out in Claude or, Chad GPT or Kodak or something like that.
Jordan Wilson [00:29:49]:
Well, you can import them, into, Excel now, which is pretty cool. So, I mean, if you're a finance professional, accountant, analyst, or if you're just in business intelligence, or if you're just someone like me that ends up spending, a ton of time in spreadsheets anyways, I think, you're gonna find a lot of value out of this. Alright. So that is a wrap. So quick recap on the seven new AI features available today. A brand new version of g p d 5.5 instance, OpenAI's most popular and most used model. We have the Google Finance app with all of the new AI features, rolling out more broadly on the web, available to everyone on the Android app and rolling out soon to iPhone users. Speaking of Google, we have the new Google Gemini AI smart speaker.
Jordan Wilson [00:30:41]:
Bless up. We we finally have a smart AI assistant at home, maybe. We have Claude Tag, which I expect to be a very popular feature, bringing a Claude channel manager inside of Slack. We have Canva Grow, great for marketers who are, creating in Canva and ultimately tracking asset performance inside different platforms and being able to update automatically. Gemini in Chrome, if you are a Gemini in Chrome user, The new select from screen feature that uses Gemini three point flashes, new computer use capabilities, and last but not least, a way to automate a lot of repeatable, kind of mundane tasks in Excel with the new skills feature in Copilot in Excel. Alright. I hope this was helpful. We do this every single Friday, bringing you Friday features that you can use right away.
Jordan Wilson [00:31:33]:
If you're new here to the show, thank you for listening. On Mondays, here's our lineup. On Mondays, we bring you the AI news that matters. On Wednesdays, we normally go hands on with a demo. We do that live. Fridays, we do the show Friday features. And Tuesdays and Thursdays, we switch up the show. So please, if you haven't already subscribed to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, then make sure to go to your everydayai.com.
Jordan Wilson [00:31:56]:
Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next week and everyday for more everyday AI. Thanks y'all.