📊 Google Sheets can now stress-test your forecast for you
Sheets canvas turns your financial forecast into an interactive model you can adjust and stress-test with your team.
Four-minute read. In today’s issue: Sheets turning your forecast into a model you can stress-test, Shopify’s Campaign Autopilot opening to every store, WhatsApp cart reminders in Shopify, Airtable Canvas in open beta, and a Mario level floating in someone’s living room.
BUDGETS
Sheets canvas turns your forecast into a model you can stress-test
What changed. Google Workspace says Sheets canvas can turn a financial forecast into an interactive visual model. You adjust key assumptions, see their impact straight away, and share the canvas so your team can test scenarios without breaking the formulas underneath.
What it means for you. You can test “what if sales drop 10 percent” or “what if costs rise” yourself, instead of building a second model or paying someone to run the numbers.
The first step. Open your next forecast in Sheets canvas this week and change one assumption you have been guessing at, like next quarter’s costs or a slow month of sales.
The limitation. Sheets canvas is on Workspace Business and Enterprise Standard and Plus, and Google AI Pro and Ultra, so lower plans will not see it. Google first described it on 11 September and promoted the forecast use on 28 October. We have not tested it.
Google Workspace on what you can build with Sheets canvas (workspace.google.com)
ADVERTISING
Shopify’s Campaign Autopilot now plans and runs your ads for every store
Shopify said on 28 October that Campaign Autopilot is now available to all merchants. You set a budget and guardrails, and it builds a campaign across Meta Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Snapchat, Shop and Shopify Messaging, then moves spend towards what is working.
Choosing channels and shifting budget is the job many small stores pay an agency for. Open the Growth tab in your Shopify admin this week and read what Autopilot proposes before you set any budget.
Shopify on Campaign Autopilot’s new channels (changelog.shopify.com)
Just shipped
Shopify Messaging can now send WhatsApp messages automatically, Shopify said on 28 October, starting from ready-made templates for abandoned browse, abandoned cart and abandoned checkout.
Set your first one up this week under Messaging > Automations. (changelog.shopify.com)
The rest of the day
🔗 When Fill with Gemini fills Sheets cells from the web, each cell now lists the sources it used, and one request covers up to 3,000 cells. It is rolling out to Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise, and Google AI Pro and Ultra. (workspaceupdates.googleblog.com)
📝 Notion’s agent can now use a computer to create and edit files, Notion said, going from a conversation to a finished Excel spreadsheet, Word document, PowerPoint file or PDF without leaving Notion. (x.com)
🗂️ Airtable Canvas is now in open beta, Airtable said: describe the app, dashboard or presentation you need, apply your brand, and click any element to trace it back to your data. (x.com)
📑 Claude for Legal now has a gallery of ready-made artifacts for contract review, regulatory horizon scans and cite checks. Start from the built-in example, add your own documents and share it across the business. (x.com)
🧾 Shopify POS now recognises shoppers who have checked out before at a store using Shopify Payments: when they choose a digital receipt, the sale joins their customer profile without staff asking for an email. (changelog.shopify.com)
🔎 Chrome can now pull flight bookings and order numbers from Gmail to fill in web forms, Google said, using Gemini in Chrome. (blog.google)
🛠️ Built with AI
Jason Lee used Claude Opus 5.5 to build smooth mobile app animations modeled on Apple’s Dynamic Island, the kind of polish that used to need a dedicated motion designer. The same approach could animate your own app’s loading states or notifications. (youtube.com)
🧰 The Open Source Toolshed
What it is. OpenWhispr is a free desktop app: press a hotkey, speak, and your words appear wherever your cursor is. It can also transcribe Zoom, Teams and FaceTime calls into notes.
Who it’s for. Anyone on the team who talks faster than they type, or who wants meeting notes without sending the audio to a cloud service.
How hard it is. Download the app for Mac, Windows or Linux and pick a local model, so your audio never leaves your computer. Cloud models are optional.
MIT licence. (github.com)
📈 The AI Odometer
Source: Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, “The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy”, October 2026, Goldman’s survey of 2,473 graduates of its own small-business programme.
The fastest-growing use case is financial analysis and business planning, which has more than doubled over two years, from 18% of AI users in 2024 to 42% in 2026.
What it means for you. These are owners from Goldman’s own programme, not every small business, but they now use AI to plan as much as to write. This week, give AI one planning job: put last quarter’s numbers in a Sheet and test one what-if before you decide.
Too early
Google DeepMind’s Gemini 4 Carbon is open only to a group of cyber defenders and trusted partners for now. Google says it will reach businesses and consumers “as soon as possible”, with no date. (blog.google)
🍄 One for the road
Lucas Martinic used Claude Opus 5.5 to bring a Mario-style 3D level into his own room. The green hills and castle float in mid-air in front of his window while he plays.
Tech commentator Chubby called it one of the most stunning things he has seen built with Opus 5.5. (x.com)
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