📝 Claude now edits your Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
Claude sits in a sidebar inside Google Workspace and edits the file you have open, in beta on every paid plan.
Four-minute read. In today’s issue: Claude working inside your Google Docs and Sheets, cheaper supplier payments for US Shopify stores, a cheaper Google image model, how few people actually pay for AI, and a musician’s instrument built by describing it.
WORKSPACE
Claude now edits the Google Doc, Sheet or Slide you already have open
What changed. Anthropic put Claude inside Google Docs, Sheets and Slides on 6 October. It sits in a sidebar, reads the file you have open, and edits it in place. You approve each edit before it lands.
What it means for you. The copy-paste round trip between a chat window and your files goes away. Pricing sheets, proposals and pitch decks can be fixed where they live, and file access follows your normal Google sharing.
The first step. Open one spreadsheet your team updates every week. Ask Claude to explain its formulas and flag anything that looks wrong, and approve only the edits you understand.
The limitation. It is a beta, on paid plans only (Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise). We have not tested it, and edits you approve without reading are still your errors.
Anthropic on Claude in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides (support.claude.com)
PAYMENTS
Shopify stores in the US can now pay overseas suppliers straight from Balance
Shopify released international payments from Balance for US merchants on 6 October. Eligible stores pay foreign suppliers from the Balance mobile app, with no extra setup.
Shopify calls it the more cost-effective route, with transparent pricing. If you import stock, put your next supplier invoice through it and compare the total against your bank’s wire fee and exchange rate.
Shopify on paying suppliers internationally (changelog.shopify.com)
Just shipped
Purchase-order reports in Shopify Analytics. Three new reports show what you ordered, what each supplier charged, and which orders are still in transit. You can export them. If you reorder stock by gut feel, run the “Purchases on order” report before your next order. (changelog.shopify.com)
The rest of the day
🍌 A cheaper Google image model. Google says Nano Banana 2.1 makes higher-quality images at a new, lower price, in the Gemini app and AI Studio. Re-run one product-photo edit you paid for last month and compare. (x.com)
🎬 Google Vids now shows only what is on screen at that moment while you edit, instead of every element in the scene at once. Fewer overlapping text boxes when you build a short promo. (workspaceupdates.googleblog.com)
🧩 Airtable’s built-in agent takes bigger jobs. Upload a spreadsheet and Omni builds it into a base; describe an automation or a page and it wires it up. It sits in Airtable AI Labs, so expect rough edges. (community.airtable.com)
👁️ Gemini can describe what your phone camera sees, step by step. Guided Vision in Gemini Live is now on Android 9 and above, built with blind and low-vision users. (blog.google)
💬 Claude was the most-talked-about AI topic again, from 11 separate sources, mostly about today’s Google Workspace launch and people sharing their actual prompts. Dan Shipper’s team at Every says it now runs as much work as possible through Claude agents. (x.com)
🛠️ Built with AI
Boris Cherny, who works at Anthropic, asked Claude to build an interactive website companion for a podcast episode, watercolour illustrations included. If you publish a podcast, webinar or long guide, the same move gives readers a visual page to explore it. (x.com)
🧰 The Open Source Toolshed
What it is. EmbeddingGemma 2, Google’s free open model that lets a computer search photos and documents by meaning, running on the device itself.
Who it’s for. Honestly, nobody at a small business directly yet: it needs someone technical to set up. It is here because it is what will make “search your photo library by describing it” free inside apps you already use.
How hard it is. Needs someone technical.
Open model, Gemma licence. (deepmind.google)
📈 The AI Odometer
Source: a16z, “The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, 7th edition”, Olivia Moore, 5 October 2026.
“In August, 4.5% of eligible consumers in YipitData’s U.S. e-receipt panel had an active paid personal subscription to at least one of ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude”
What it means for you. Fewer than 1 in 20 US consumers pays for AI. If you already pay for one plan and use it every week, you are ahead of most of your competitors, so spend on using it better before adding a second.
Too early
Meta and Sierra, the start-up chaired by OpenAI’s Bret Taylor, are building shared standards so customers’ personal AI agents can deal with businesses’ own agents. No product or date yet. (cnbc.com)
🎹 One for the road
Google’s Flow Music now lets producers describe an instrument or effect in plain English and export it as a VST3 or AU plugin that loads in their normal recording software. No coding needed.
Producer Khris Riddick-Tynes built one called “No Chaser” to keep his instrumentals and vocals sounding studio-quality wherever they were recorded.
What it means for you. “Describe it and get a working tool” now reaches music gear. Your next jingle may come with its own instrument.