Weekdays 11:30 and 17:30 UK
The Otto365 AI Brief
AI news for small businesses in plain English, two Briefs every weekday. Each one has its video, a full transcript and the sources we checked. Search them all here.
- Briefs
- 43
- Sources checked
- 70
- Companies covered
- 14
- New Briefs
- 11:30 and 17:30 UK
Every Brief, newest first
November 2026
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OpenAI: buying Pierre's tools to check the code AI agents write
OpenAI announced it will acquire Pierre, a developer tools company, on the 4th of November 2026. This week: Ask to see what changed.
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Amazon: Shop Direct can send its shoppers to your own shop
Amazon's search and Alexa can send shoppers to your own shop. PPC Land reported that Amazon launched its Shop Direct Merchant Workspace on the 4th of November 2026. This week: Check your product feed.
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Google: check whether that image or clip is AI-made
Google's new tools check whether an image or audio clip is AI-made. Google announced its October 2026 AI roundup on the 2nd of November 2026. This week: Check one clip with SynthID.
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Hugging Face: IBM's small model builds decks in your design language
IBM Research announced Palette on the 3rd of November 2026 on Hugging Face: a 20B open-weight model fine-tuned to build decks. This week: Give it one real slide.
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Google: PlanAssist checks your extension plans before an officer decides
Google DeepMind announced PlanAssist, its AI planning tool built with Gemini, for 12 more councils in England on the 31st of October 2026. This week: Check all required documents.
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Nvidia: cities hand routine enquiries to AI agents
NVIDIA announced on the 2nd of November 2026 that cities worldwide are using its agentic AI for public services. This week: Test a chatbot on five FAQs.
October 2026
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Amazon: Alexa compares, tracks prices and buys for shoppers
Amazon announced more than 100 new actions for Alexa for Shopping on the 29th of October 2026. This week: Read one listing as an agent.
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NVIDIA: new laptops keep the AI on the device
NVIDIA announced local AI models and agent tools for its RTX Spark laptops on the 28th of October 2026. This week: Ask where your audio goes.
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Copilot: the harness behind Microsoft's agents is yours to build on
Microsoft announced on the 28th of October 2026 that its Copilot harness is available through Microsoft Foundry. This week: List one task for an agent.
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Gemini: Google builds its new model for cyber defenders
Google DeepMind announced Gemini 4 Carbon, its next frontier model, on the 28th of October 2026. This week: Ask IT about AI patching.
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Amazon: judge AI by results, not by how much it is used
Amazon announced an updated role guideline for its software engineers on the 27th of October 2026. This week: One task: note if AI helped.
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ChatGPT: new data shows the work people bring to it
What work do people bring to ChatGPT? New data has an answer. OpenAI announced new data on the work people bring to ChatGPT on the 26th of October 2026. This week: Test one repeat task.
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Apple: an AI assistant inside Pages, Keynote and Numbers
Apple's work apps get an AI assistant, with a UK catch. Apple announced AI features for Apple Creator Studio on the 27th of October 2026. This week: Check your device language.
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Apple: Siri AI speaks more languages and drafts your emails
Siri AI now speaks more languages and can draft your emails. Apple announced Siri AI in more languages with the 27.2 updates on the 26th of October 2026. This week: Ask Siri to draft one email.
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Amazon: AI tools want to run your restocking, prices and ads
Amazon's new AI wants to run your restocking, pricing and adverts. Amazon announced new AI tools for sellers and advertisers on the 26th of October 2026. This week: Check your Seller Central.
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Hugging Face: AI agents graded on what they change, not what they say
Microsoft and Hugging Face announced ThinkingBox-Training, published on GitHub, on the 22nd of October 2026. This week: Check the record it left.
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Amazon: Polly's computer voices read numbers and addresses correctly
AWS announced an upgrade to the Amazon Polly Generative engine on the 22nd of October 2026. This week: Hear Polly read your order.
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Canva Craft: AI images with text you can read
Canva launched Craft, its own image generation model, on the 22nd of October 2026, available to all users through Dream Lab, The Verge reported. This week: Make one post in Dream Lab.
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IBM: Granite speech models transcribe calls on your own computer
IBM's Granite models transcribe your calls and meetings on your own computer. IBM announced Granite Speech 5.0 on the Hugging Face blog on the 21st of October 2026. This week: Run the browser demo.
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Walmart: AI agents can shop for you, under its rules
Walmart announced Agent Profiles, an Agent Gateway and terms for AI agents on the 21st of October 2026. This week: One page of agent rules.
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Hugging Face: a customer service agent that learns its own playbook
A Hugging Face post shows a customer service AI agent learning from its mistakes. IBM Research announced ALTK-Evolve on Hugging Face on the 20th of October 2026. This week: Chat mistakes into rules.
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Mistral: Voxtral voice agents could answer your phones
Mistral AI announced Voxtral 3, speech models plus a voice agent SDK, on the 20th of October 2026. This week: List calls to hand over.
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Microsoft: sovereign cloud controls ask who can reach your data
Microsoft announced new Sovereign Cloud controls on the 20th of October 2026. This week: Ask about Customer Lockbox.
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Amazon: Bedrock turns your videos into searchable moments
AWS announced TwelveLabs Pegasus 1.5 on Amazon Bedrock on the 9th of October 2026, with a developer guide on the 19th of October 2026. This week: List three moments to find.
