Ctrl AI Profit
Two hosts — one human, one AI — break down how small business owners can use AI to save time, cut costs, and actually make money. No hype, no jargon, just what works.
Episodes
244 episodes
Ep. 244 | OpenAI Just Shelved Its Newest AI for Doing More Than It Was Told
OpenAI says it won't release GPT-6.1 Astra, the next version of its do-the-task AI, because in internal testing it "didn't quite meet the bar" on staying within scope and authorization, and on how it reports back about the work it did. If you'v...
Ep. 243 | Microsoft Is Adding a Meter to Your Copilot Bill
Microsoft is adding a meter to Copilot: starting October 19, 2026, new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business purchases made directly from Microsoft come with pay-as-you-go usage-based billing switched on by default (December 1, 2026 for purchases thro...
Ep. 242 | Google Just Replaced Gemini Gems With Skills
Google just replaced Gemini Gems with Skills — so the custom instructions you used to save as a Gem are becoming reusable Skills you can call with a slash. Mike and Frank walk the official Sep 30, 2026 receipt: Skills are reusabl...
Ep. 241 | Claude Just Made Sonnet 5.5 Your Everyday Docs Engine
Claude just made Sonnet 5.5 your everyday docs engine — so the model you use for proposals, slide decks, and spreadsheets got faster and cheaper for most of that work. Mike and Frank walk the official Sep 28, 2026 receipt: Claude...
Ep. 240 | Shopify Just Let Sidekick Redesign Your Store on Canvas
Shopify just let Sidekick redesign your store on Canvas — so instead of fighting theme settings or waiting on a developer, you chat with Shopify’s AI and watch the whole store change in real time. Mike and Frank walk the official...
Ep. 239 | OpenAI Just Put Living Pages Inside ChatGPT Space
OpenAI just put living pages inside ChatGPT Space — DevDay — so the doc you used to paste out of chat can live where ChatGPT and your teammates edit the same page. Mike and Frank walk the official receipt: Space replaces Library ...
Ep. 238 | OpenAI Just Gave ChatGPT Dots That Keep Working After You Leave
OpenAI just gave ChatGPT Dots that keep working after you leave — September 29 DevDay — so the agent can keep chasing a job on its own cloud computer even when you close the tab. Mike and Frank walk the official receipt: Dots are...
Ep. 237 | Claude Just Lets Your Slack Tag Use Your Own Calendar and Drive
Claude just lets your Slack Tag use your own calendar and Drive — September 24 Anthropic blog — so when you @Claude in a channel, it can pull what only your login can see without giving the whole team that login. Mike and Frank w...
Ep. 236 | OpenAI Just Let ChatGPT Voice Run Your Connected Apps
OpenAI just let ChatGPT Voice run your connected apps — September 23 release notes — so you can talk to Gmail, calendar, or Slack through the plugins your plan already allows, without typing between five tabs first. Mike and Fran...
Ep. 235 | Google Just Made Free HD AI Video Inside Google Vids
Google just made free HD AI video inside Google Vids — September 23 Google blog and Workspace Updates — so anyone with a Google account can generate a 1080p promo clip without buying a separate video editor first. Mike and Frank ...
Ep. 234 | OpenAI Just Put ChatGPT Inside Microsoft Word
OpenAI just put ChatGPT inside Microsoft Word — September 25 ChatGPT release notes — so you can draft, summarize, and revise the document you already have open without hopping over to a separate chat window first. Mike and Frank ...
Ep. 233 | Adobe Just Put Photoshop Inside Gemini
Adobe just put Photoshop inside Gemini — September 24 Adobe blog — so you can polish a product photo or spin a social graphic from the same chat where you already ask questions, without hopping into a separate design app first. M...
Ep. 232 | Google Just Put Your Research Notebook Inside Docs
Google just put your research notebook inside Docs — September 23 Workspace update — so a proposal draft can pull from notes you already gathered instead of starting from a blank page and a pile of open tabs. Mike and Frank walk ...
Ep. 231 | Notion Just Turned Your Best Prompts Into Team Skills
Notion just turned your best prompts into team skills — September 15 Notion 3.7 release — so the one person who knows how to talk to the AI can leave that know-how in a shared library instead of trapped in their head. Mike and Fr...
Ep. 230 | Microsoft Just Lets Copilot Build Business Apps in Plain English
Microsoft just let Copilot build business apps in plain English — September 10 Copilot blog — so a shop can describe the outcome and get a working app scaffold instead of waiting on a custom build queue. Mike and Frank walk the o...
Ep. 229 | Slack Just Put Live Salesforce Dashboards Into Your Channels
Slack just put live Salesforce dashboards into your channels — Dreamforce-week Slackforce Surfaces — so a shop can ask Slackbot for a pipeline or support view and pin it where the team already talks. Mike and Frank walk the offic...
Ep. 228 | Google Just Hooked Gemini Into HubSpot and QuickBooks
On Sep 15, 2026 Google Workspace Updates said Gemini in Workspace can directly interact with Asana, Atlassian Rovo, HubSpot, Intuit Mailchimp, Intuit QuickBooks, Monday, and Salesforce through Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations — across ...
Ep. 227 | Claude Just Put Docs and Slides Inside Your Chat
On Sep 16, 2026 Anthropic merged Claude Cowork and chat into one Claude and launched Claude Docs and Claude Slides in beta. Ask for a document or a deck in the same conversation, edit it, share by link, or export — Docs to Word, PDF, Markdown, ...
Ep. 226 | OpenAI Just Put ChatGPT Ads Inside HubSpot and Shopify
OpenAI on Sep 16, 2026 brought ChatGPT Ads into HubSpot (first CRM partner) and Shopify (first ecommerce partner). HubSpot shops can connect a ChatGPT Ads account, create ads, track performance, and follow up on leads inside HubSpot. US Shopify...
Ep. 225 | Claude Just Packed 43 Shop Workflows Into One Plugin
Anthropic expanded Claude for Small Business on Sep 15, 2026 — 43 workflows and 27 new integrations inside the Claude Cowork plugin, including Shopify, Square, Stripe, Gusto, Xero, and Zapier. Default is approval mode: Claude drafts and stages,...
Ep. 224 | Apple Just Dropped Siri AI Onto Your Phone
Apple released Siri AI with the 2027 software updates — a rebuilt Siri powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence. Official newsroom (Sep 14, 2026): personal context, onscreen awareness, and systemwide app actions such as drafting an ...
Ep. 223 | Salesforce Just Put Your CRM Inside Claude
Salesforce unveiled AIforce with Claudeforce — Salesforce inside Claude via a prebuilt MCP server. Official Salesforce story (Sep 15, 2026): available to all customers in beta after pilots with companies like Deloitte, GitLab, and Legora. Zero ...
Ep. 222 | Salesforce Just Built a CRM Brain With Nvidia
Salesforce and Nvidia announced Koa — Salesforce’s first CRM reasoning model for Agentforce, built on Nvidia Nemotron. Official Salesforce story (Sep 15, 2026): no customer data used to train; inference stays inside Salesforce’s trust boundary;...
Ep. 221 | OpenAI Just Built a Small Business Shelf Inside ChatGPT
OpenAI put a Small Business collection of sixteen plugins in ChatGPT. Partner posts from HoneyBook (Sep 9, 2026) and Dropbox (Sep 8, 2026) name tools like Stripe, Shopify, Slack, Canva, Dropbox, DocuSign, and HoneyBook. Connect a tool you alrea...
Ep. 220 | Google Just Dropped Gemini Onto Windows
Google launched a native Gemini app for Windows 10 and 11. Press Alt + Space to open help over the screen you're already on. Download at gemini.google/desktop. The Sep 10, 2026 blog post requires a Google AI subscription and does not print a ne...