Sep 1 – Oct 1, 2026 · 5 items
The AI week, for a small business owner
A real edition, written for: Small Business Owner
The one thing
Which of these five could free up the most hours in your week?
Amazon ads now run inside ChatGPT
Amazon will let its advertisers place ads inside ChatGPT, starting with selected US brands. Amazon announced the partnership with OpenAI on Thursday. Amazon sets up and manages the campaigns. OpenAI's own ad system decides when and where ads are shown. The ads appear as text or images below a ChatGPT answer and are labelled as sponsored. Delta Vacations is among the brands in the trial. Amazon has otherwise limited access to its store by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini while building its own shopping tools. It has been buying ads on ChatGPT itself in recent months. OpenAI began selling sponsored placements in the US in February.
Why it matters for you
Amazon will place ads in ChatGPT for selected US brands. You sell products and this is a new channel.
- A pilot you can ask Amazon about if you advertise with them
- Ads appear as labelled sponsored placements below answers
- Amazon manages the campaigns, OpenAI controls placement
Try this
Ask Amazon whether your brand qualifies for the ChatGPT ad pilot.
Sources
Salesforce bundles AI agents with Slack and analytics
Salesforce replaced its sales and service packaging with three new editions. Core, Advanced and Max now apply to Agentforce Sales, Service and Industries. Each tier bundles AI agents, Slack, embedded analytics, data security and the Premier Success Plan. Core lists at $195 per user per month and Advanced at $395. Max stays at $550, the same price as the earlier Agentforce 1 Edition. Existing Agentforce 1 customers can move to Max at no extra cost. Each tier carries a set allowance of Flex Credits for running agents. Industry edition pricing takes effect later in the fall. Pricing on legacy editions stays unchanged for current customers. Salesforce says Max editions will later include Headless 360 capacity.
Why it matters for you
Salesforce now sells AI agents, Slack, analytics and support as one package. You run sales and this simplifies buying.
- Core at $195/user/month bundles what you likely need
- Max at $550 adds more credits and features
- Existing Agentforce 1 customers move to Max at no extra cost
Try this
Check whether your current Salesforce spend covers the Core edition.
Google Cloud and Accenture offer on-site AI engineers
Google Cloud and Accenture have formed a joint unit called the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group. The unit sits inside Accenture and helps customers deploy Google Cloud's agent platform. It will be staffed by engineers who work on site at customer premises. Google Cloud will help train up to 1,000 of these engineers. Both firms are betting that on-site engineers are what turns generative AI into business results. Other companies have made similar bets on the same staffing model. The Wall Street Journal reported the launch.
Why it matters for you
Google Cloud and Accenture will put engineers on site to deploy AI. You have a small team and this could fill gaps.
- Up to 1,000 engineers trained for this
- They work at your premises, not remotely
- Both firms bet this turns AI into business results
Try this
Ask Accenture whether they can place an engineer for your size of business.
Thomson Reuters built a frontier model with a small team
Thomson Reuters released Thomson, a family of models built by retraining open-weight Qwen models. The company calls its method continual learning, a staged retraining that adds skills without losing old ones. A team of under three dozen staff did the work on a small cluster in three months. Thomson-1.0-Large scores near the strongest proprietary models tested on an internal cross-domain suite. It leads on instruction following, general agent tasks and political neutrality. It trails on coding, maths and multilingual tasks. Thomson-1.0-Small, at 35 billion parameters, is released with open weights. Blind expert reviewers preferred Thomson's answers over rival systems in most paired comparisons. Thomson Reuters ran the evaluations itself and notes it cannot see hidden safeguards inside rival hosted models. Partners include Imperial College London, DatologyAI and Lambda.
Why it matters for you
A team of under three dozen built a near-frontier model in three months. You want to do more with a small team.
- Under USD 450,000 for the final training run
- Open-weight Qwen models as the starting point
- Scores near the strongest proprietary models on legal and tax work
Try this
Note the budget and team size as a benchmark for your own plans.
Dots are always-on assistants in ChatGPT
OpenAI launched Dots, always-on AI assistants that work without constant direction. They run on GPT-6 Astra with their own cloud computer. Dots connect to over 4,000 apps via plugins. They learn user preferences and work 24/7 on tasks. Users can inspect a dot’s work on its cloud computer. Dots can also use a user’s laptop with permission. They message progress or questions in ChatGPT, Slack, or Teams. Built-in safeguards include read-only tools for background work. Users control access, permissions, and approvals via Custom Rules. Specialist dots for organizations have their own identity and access. These are in focused enterprise pilots. Microsoft Agent 365 will integrate specialist dots. Dots roll out to Pro and Business Premium users in eligible markets.
Why it matters for you
Dots are always-on assistants that work without constant direction. You use ChatGPT and this could automate admin tasks.
- They run on GPT-6 Astra with their own cloud computer
- Connect to over 4,000 apps via plugins
- Roll out to Pro and Business Premium users in eligible markets
Try this
Check whether your ChatGPT plan includes Dots and enable the beta.
Paste this into your AI tool
Context: I run a small retail business and need to automate repetitive admin tasks. Task: Set up a Dot to monitor and summarise daily sales emails from [your email provider]. Constraints: - Only use read-only tools for background work - Summarise in under 100 words Output: A daily summary of sales figures and notable trends.
Sources
Build this
Every week, one small thing to build with AI in something you actually care about. No work in it. Five minutes to set up, and worth keeping if it earns a second run.
A reading order for the books on your shelf, using only the ones you own.
Five minutes to set up
Context: I have a shelf of books I have not finished and want a reading order that respects my time and interests. Task: Create a reading order from [list the titles you already own, one per line]. Constraints: - No books outside this list - Group by theme or difficulty, not by purchase date - Keep each group under four books Output: The order as a numbered list, with one sentence explaining each group.
- List the titles you already own, one per line
- Paste the list into ChatGPT with the prompt above
- Check that every book in the answer is one you named
- Adjust the groups if the first answer feels off
Yours arrives Thursday.
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