10 Game-Changing Tools for Small Businesses

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Hey Creators!

In this week's newsletter, we dive into the exciting world of AI and its impact on various industries. From Google's powerful Gemini AI making its way into Gmail on Android, to SoftBank's innovative emotion-cancelling technology for customer service, and Apple's ambitious partnership with Meta, we explore the latest developments in the AI landscape. We also take a closer look at OpenAI's recent acquisition spree and how it aligns with the company's focus on enterprise solutions. Finally, we showcase 10 game-changing AI tools that are revolutionizing the way small businesses operate, helping them streamline processes, enhance customer experiences, and gain a competitive edge. Get ready to discover how AI is shaping the future of business and communication.

What’s latest in town? 

• Gmail on Android Gets Smarter with Gemini AI

• AI Voice Filter that softens the Blow of Angry Customers

• Apple's AI Ambitions Soar with Meta Partnership

• OpenAI's Latest Catch

• 10 Game-Changing Tools for Small Businesses 

• Japanese Culture in SDXL3 Style 

Gemini AI the Email Sidekick in Gmail 

Gemini AI, Google's powerful AI model, is expanding its reach with a new summarization feature designed specifically for Gmail on Android. This innovative tool will automatically summarize email threads into easy-to-read bullet points, making it more convenient for users to quickly grasp the main points of a conversation. 

Gemini Integration: Gemini is a significant development for Google, and the company is pushing its AI model into various products across its ecosystem. As part of this effort, Gemini is making its way onto Android devices, not only as an Assistant but also through extensions that enable apps to interact with each other seamlessly.

Google is now rolling out a feature that allows Gemini to summarize email threads in Gmail on Android. Early reports of this feature date back to April, and it is now becoming available to users. The primary goal of this integration is to make reading large email chains more convenient, especially for users who are on the go and need to quickly catch up on important conversations.

How the Email Summarization Feature Works? To use the email summarization feature, users must grant Gemini access to their email. Once enabled, Gemini will read through an email chain and create a summarized view that highlights the main points of the conversation. 

Emotion-Canceling Technology by Softbank 🔇

SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications giant, has recently announced the development of an AI-powered "emotion-canceling" technology. This innovative system aims to alter the voices of angry customers during phone calls with customer service representatives, making them sound calmer. 📢

How the AI Model Works? The emotion-canceling technology relies on an AI model that has been trained using a dataset of over 10,000 voice samples. These samples were performed by 10 Japanese actors expressing more than 100 phrases with various emotions, including yelling and accusatory tones. 

By analyzing these voice samples, the AI model has learned to recognize and modify the vocal characteristics associated with anger and hostility. When a customer speaks to a call center operator, the model processes the incoming audio in real-time, adjusting the pitch and inflection of the customer's voice to make it sound calmer and less threatening.

Customer harassment: A persistent problem in the service sector, not just in Japan but worldwide. In Japan, this issue is known as "kasu-hara," where workers face aggressive behavior or unreasonable requests from customers. 

The Bright Future: SoftBank believes that by reducing the psychological burden on call center operators, it can create a safer work environment that enables employees to provide even better services to customers. 

The introduction of emotion-canceling technology has the potential to improve customer service experiences by allowing operators to handle calls more effectively. However, the long-term effectiveness of this approach remains to be seen, as ignoring legitimate customer anger could backfire if the underlying issues are not addressed.

Apple's AI Ambitions Soar with Meta Partnership 🤝

Apple has recently announced its foray into the AI race with Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered features designed to enhance its existing products. Rather than focusing on flashy, disruptive innovations, Apple's approach emphasizes practicality and usefulness. 

By integrating AI capabilities into its current offerings, Apple aims to make AI adoption more accessible and seamless for its users. To further bolster its AI prowess, Apple is also seeking partnerships with leading AI companies.

What are Apple and Meta discussing? In addition to its previously announced collaboration with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT into the revamped version of Siri, Apple is reportedly in talks with Facebook's parent company, Meta, for a similar partnership deal. 

Although these discussions have not been finalized and could still fall through, a successful partnership would provide validation for Meta's generative AI technology while making Apple less reliant on a single AI partner. Instead of paying for these partnerships, Apple offers distribution to AI partners, who can then sell premium subscriptions to users.

Apple Intelligence is set to roll out in the newest versions of its operating systems, including iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, later this year. 

OpenAI's Acquisition Spree 

OpenAI continues its acquisition spree with the recent purchase of Multi (formerly Remotion), a startup that develops an enterprise-focused, video-first collaboration platform. This deal comes just days after OpenAI acquired database tech firm Rockset. 

According to a source familiar with the matter, the Multi acquisition is technically an acqui-hire, with most of Multi's team, consisting of around five people, set to join OpenAI following the deal's close. Multi's CEO and co-founder, Alexander Embiricos, announced that the platform will shut down after July 24.

What’s Multi? Founded by ex-Dropbox product manager Alexander Embiricos and ex-Google software engineer Charley Ho, they aimed to create a Zoom-based platform designed for remote teams to collaborate through video chats. 

The platform offered features such as the ability to collaborate across screen shares from up to 10 people simultaneously, customizable shortcuts, and automatic deep links for code, designs, and documents. 

OpenAI's Focus: The acquisition of Multi aligns with OpenAI's recent strategy of heavily investing in enterprise solutions. The company revealed that the corporate tier of its viral AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, had close to 600,000 users, including an impressive 93% of all Fortune 500 firms. 

In May, OpenAI signed an agreement with PwC to resell its tools to other businesses, and in April, the company launched a business-oriented custom AI model tuning and consulting program. These moves demonstrate OpenAI's commitment to expanding its presence in the enterprise market.

10 Game-Changing Tools for Small Businesses 🚀

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about a significant transformation in the way small businesses operate. From customer support to marketing and sales, AI is making a substantial impact across various aspects of business operations. 

As a small business owner, it's crucial to understand how AI can help your venture thrive in the digital age. By leveraging the power of AI tools, you can streamline processes, enhance customer experiences, and gain a competitive edge in your industry.

1. HubSpot: All-in-one CRM platform with AI-powered features

2. SupportGPT™: Generative AI platform designed specifically for customer support

3. Buffer: Social media toolkit with AI-assisted content creation and scheduling

4. Anyword: AI writing platform with templates and predictive analytics

5. Helium 10: Comprehensive tool for Amazon sellers with AI-powered PPC campaigns

6. Grammarly: AI-powered writing assistant for error-free content

7. Notion AI: Collaborative workspace with integrated AI features

8. Trello: Visual project management tool with AI-driven strategies

9. ChatGPT: A versatile AI language model that can assist small businesses with customer support, content generation, and research.

10. Secoda: A data warehouse and AI integration tool that helps small businesses with data governance, lineage, and compliance, making it an essential tool for growing data teams.

Japanese Culture in SDXL3 Style