⚙️ Google just put an automation builder in your Workspace
It is off by default. Someone has to switch it on before 30 September.
Three-minute read.
First up: Google put an automation builder inside Workspace, and your admin has to switch it on. Then two more worth knowing, two short lines, one thing that is coming but not yet, and a robot duck.
GOOGLE WORKSPACE ⚙️
The automation tool you pay for is now in the thing you already pay for
What changes. Workspace Studio gets third-party integrations and webhooks: prebuilt connections to QuickBooks, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Slack, Asana, Jira and Confluence. Rapid-release domains get it on 21 September, everyone else on 30 September. (workspaceupdates.googleblog.com)
What it means at your size. This is the job you pay a separate automation tool to do — move a thing between apps when something happens — and it now sits inside a subscription you already have. That does not make your current setup wrong. It means the next small automation might not need a new account, a new bill, or a new thing to learn.
The first step. It is off by default, so nothing appears until someone turns it on: Admin console, Apps, Google Workspace, Workspace Studio. Switch on integrations, then pick the dullest repetitive job you have and try to rebuild just that one.
The limitation. The prebuilt integrations are the part a non-developer can use. Custom starters and steps need Apps Script, which is code. The webhook allowlist is Business Plus and above. We have not built anything in it, so this describes what Google documents.
GMAIL 📧
Your inbox search starts answering in sentences
From 21 September, AI overviews in Gmail search finish reaching scheduled-release domains, which is most business accounts. Ask “what did the supplier say about the delivery date” instead of guessing keywords, and you get an answer rather than a list. It needs smart features on, and it goes quiet the moment you use an operator like from: — so the old habit and the new one do not mix. Worth ten minutes on a question you would normally scroll for. (workspaceupdates.googleblog.com)
OPENAI ⚖️
The first industry gets its own ChatGPT
OpenAI launched Astra for Law this week: the model plus legal research across US case law, and plugins into tools firms already run, like Clio. If you run a practice, ask your existing software vendor whether they are building on it rather than buying anything. If you do not, this is the template — one industry at a time, arriving through software you already use rather than as a thing you go and choose. Selected firms only for now. (openai.com)
THE REST 📋
The rest of the week, one line each.
- 📚 Gemini notebooks open to every Workspace customer. Ten sources per notebook, grounded answers. (workspaceupdates.googleblog.com)
- 🔬 Someone started auditing the AI benchmarks. Fifteen rated verified, flawed, or unclear — useful next time a vendor quotes you a score. (twitter.com)
TOO EARLY 🕐
A model that cannot make the answer up. A startup called TypeSafe released Jev, built for automation rather than conversation. Instead of writing text it returns a structured value with a confidence score, so an invented or malformed answer is impossible by construction rather than merely unlikely.
If that holds, it removes the reason someone has to check every automated output by hand — which is why most small-business automation stays small. Not yet, though. Early access, waitlist, developer pricing: call it a year before it reaches the tools you pay for. Nothing to do today but know the name. (typesafe.ai)
ONE FOR THE ROAD 🦆
Hugging Face is selling a 25cm open-source robot duck for $399. It walks, kicks, picks things up with its beak and roller-skates, and you teach it new tricks. Ten thousand sold; the queue is four to six months. (techcrunch.com)