Weekly AI Highlights: April 25 - May 1, 2026
What Small Business Owners Need to Know Right Now
Reader,
Last night two coyotes interrupted my evening walk. Actually, I think I interrupted the two coyotes. The way they kept running back and forth in front of me made me think there were pups nearby. (Is that what you call baby coyotes?).
Even though I was bummed to cut my walk short, I was grateful for the interaction. More and more I feel very comforted by nature. I mean, nature is comforting (duh), but I think it’s been MORE SO these days. I spend so much time in this AI space and in front of screens that touching grass is becoming more important to me than ever. Are you feeling this way?
Thank goodness the AI news this week was a little more chill than that fireworks display from last week but there were a couple of updates that made me go wow.
Let's get into it.
1. Gemini Now Builds Real Files Right Inside the Chat
If you use Gemini (Google's free AI assistant), here's what just changed.
You used to ask Gemini something and get back text on the screen. If you wanted that text in a Word doc or an Excel sheet, you had to copy it, paste it, and clean up the formatting yourself.
Now you just ask Gemini to make the file.
You can say "turn this into a budget spreadsheet in Excel" or "give me a one-page PDF" or "build a slide deck in Google Slides" and Gemini hands you the actual file. Download it, or send it straight to Google Drive.
It works for PDFs, Microsoft Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, plus a few others (CSV, plain text, Markdown, RTF, LaTeX).
It's free and rolling out to everyone globally.
Source Link: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/04/move-from-conversation-to-creation-with-file-generation-in-Gemini.html
MY TAKE
This is the kind of update that doesn't make headlines but takes 20 minutes of busywork off your plate every single time you use Gemini. Asking Gemini for a budget? Here's your Excel file. Need a one-pager? Here's your PDF. No more rebuilding it yourself in another app afterward.
ACTION STEP (DO THIS WEEK)
Open Gemini, paste in the messiest pile of notes from your week (a meeting, a brainstorm, a list of half-finished ideas), and ask it to turn the whole thing into a clean one-page PDF. That's it. See how different it feels to skip the cleanup step.
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2. Your Custom Gemini "Gems" Can Now Run Inside Automations
Quick context if you're new to this.
A "Gem" is a saved, custom version of Gemini that you set up once with specific instructions and reference files. Think of it like a trained assistant that does one job well. You might have a Gem for drafting client emails in your voice, one for writing social captions, one for summarizing meeting transcripts.
Workspace Studio is Google's no-code automation builder (the thing that used to be called Workspace Flows). You stitch together steps like "when an email arrives in Gmail" and "post a message in Chat" and "draft a reply" without writing any code.
The new piece: there's now a step called "Ask a Gem" inside Workspace Studio. So your automations can hand work off to one of your private Gems. Instead of an automation running generic AI in the background, it can use the Gem you've already trained on your voice, your files, and your rules.
Source Link: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/04/use-your-gems-in-your-google-workspace-studio-flows.html
MY TAKE
I love Gems. If you've used Custom GPTs over in ChatGPT, this is the exact same idea. A saved AI helper trained on your voice, your files, your way of doing things. The new piece here is that your Gem now runs in the background inside an automation, instead of you having to open it and start typing every time. Can't wait to try this one.
3. Claude Just Plugged Into Adobe and a Bunch of Other Creative Apps
Anthropic is the company that makes Claude. They just announced that Claude can now talk directly to a long list of creative software. Meaning you can give Claude a plain-English instruction and it actually does the thing inside the other app.
The current list:
- Adobe Creative Cloud (over 50 tools, including Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, Lightroom)
- Affinity by Canva (Canva's pro design tools, free with any Canva account)
- Ableton Live (music production software)
- Splice (royalty-free music samples)
- Blender (free 3D design software)
- Autodesk Fusion (3D modeling)
- SketchUp (3D design)
- Resolume (live visuals)
Real-world example: in Affinity (Canva), you can ask Claude to batch-resize 200 images, rename every layer in a file, or export a whole folder to a specific format. The kind of thing that used to eat your Sunday afternoon.
Source Link: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-creative-work
MY TAKE
Batching edits sounds cool. If you have a Canva account (free works), open Affinity, turn on the Claude connector, and pick one repetitive task you've been putting off. A folder of images that needs resizing. A batch of files that need renaming. Ask Claude to do it. Easiest entry point on this whole list.
PROMPT OF THE WEEK
THE SUBSCRIPTION AUDIT
Find out what your phone is really costing you per year (and what to cut)
It's a two-step prompt. First you grab a screenshot of every paid subscription on your phone, then you hand it to Claude (or ChatGPT or Gemini) along with the prompt below. What you get back is a clean, magazine-style infographic that sorts every subscription into Keep, Downgrade, Pause, or Cancel Now, shows your total annual spend, picks one Top Cut to make this week, suggests free or cheaper alternatives for the ones it tells you to drop, and then projects what those savings would grow to if you invested them at 7% over 10, 20, and 30 years.
Use it at the end of the month, end of the quarter, or any time you have that vague feeling that money is leaking out of your phone and you can't pinpoint where.
STEP 1: Open the Settings app on your phone, search the word "subscription," tap into the subscriptions list, and screenshot it.
STEP 2: Paste the screenshot into Claude (or ChatGPT or Gemini) along with this prompt:
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Create a visual-first, editorial-style infographic auditing the subscriptions in the attached screenshot. Show every subscription as a card sorted into Keep ✅, Downgrade 👍, Pause ⚠️, and Cancel Now ❌, with monthly and annual costs displayed. Surface one Top Cut with the highest savings-to-regret ratio. For each Cancel Now and Downgrade, suggest a cheaper or free alternative that delivers most of the value. Show total annual spend, total recommended cuts, and resulting yearly savings. Include Freedom Math projecting the annual savings invested at 7% over 10, 20, and 30 years, alongside a "what this could buy instead" line like a flight, a course, or a month of rent. Keep it magazine-style, minimal text, no paragraphs.
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Source: Allie K Miller
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Comments
If any of this made you think differently about how you want to work with AI, hit reply and let me know. I read every message. Your questions shape what I cover next.
Have a great weekend,
Founder, Front Row AI Club
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