AI is now inside the tools you already use

People ask me all the time where to actually begin with AI in their business and there were different paths I’d recommend. With Anthropic’s recent release the AI finally showed up inside the tools you are already paying for, instead of asking you to go learn one more new thing.

Here's the post I shared this week, because if you run a business, or you help someone who does, this was the most useful thing I came across.

If you use QuickBooks or DocuSign or PayPal in your small business, last week's launch from Anthropic is something to check out.

This really brings tools you already use into one platform so you have a central dashboard to run your business.

They released 15 workflows across different functions. I think these 4 are great starting points:

All of this runs through Claude Cowork. If you're looking for a real starting point, this is what I'm recommending at the moment. It's the platform where these workflows live -- it's built for people who want AI doing real work in their business. No steep learning curve.

Also: Anthropic is running a free half-day in-person workshop tour for small business owners with 100 seats per city.

Most AI education right now is self paced and online. You watch a video, take a few notes but it's still tough to know how to apply any of it to your actual business. This seems different as it's in person with hands on implementation help (and free).

Small businesses are 44% of US GDP and half of all private sector jobs. If AI has felt like it was built for developers and enterprise teams, it's finally changing.

If one of those cities is near you, it's worth grabbing a seat.

Google is rebuilding search around AI answers and chat-style results, partly to stay ahead of the chatbots that threaten to make the old search bar obsolete. The practical effect is that the box you have typed into for 20 years is starting to talk back, summarizing for you instead of just handing you a list of links. That changes how you should use it. Treat the AI summary like a confident intern rather than a final authority, and keep clicking through to the actual source whenever the answer really matters. Read more on Axios.

Walmart's shopping assistant, Sparky, just got a sizable upgrade and more than doubled its weekly users, while Klarna built a shopping engine inside ChatGPT that pulls live results from more than 100 million products. The checkout aisle is quietly becoming a place where AI does the comparing for you. It's handy for sorting through prices and options. Keep one eye open, though. When an "assistant" is built by a retailer or a payments company, it has a reason to nudge you toward a sale, so let it narrow the field and then make the call yourself. Read more on Build Fast with AI blog.

Analysts say economic pressure is pushing healthcare providers to adopt AI faster this year, using it to automate the paperwork behind the scenes and to get ready for patients who arrive with AI-generated questions of their own. Our age group spends more time in waiting rooms than any other, so this one lands close to home. Before your next appointment, ask an AI tool to help you organize your symptoms and draft the questions you actually want answered, then walk in with that list in hand. Read more on Fierce Healthcare.

New research finds AI chatbots can offer real support and cut isolation for older adults. A separate MIT Media Lab study warns that the most isolated people, the ones who lean on companion bots the hardest, tend to grow lonelier and more dependent over time. Both things are true at once, which is exactly why this deserves understanding rather than cheering or dismissing. If you or an aging parent are trying one of these, use it as a supplement to human contact, not a substitute. A bot that nudges you to pick up the phone and call a friend is doing its job. One that quietly replaces the call is not. Read more on Journal of Medical Internet Research.

The FBI is warning that scammers now use AI to clone voices, often impersonating a grandchild in a fake emergency, to pressure older adults into wiring money before they can think. Adults over 60 lost close to $5 billion to fraud last year, and voice cloning makes the con far more convincing than the old version ever was. There's a simple defense. Agree on a family safe word, a phrase only your inner circle knows, and if a panicked call asks for money, ask for the word before you do anything else. Thirty seconds of friction beats a wire transfer you can never get back. Read more on WALB News.