Welcome to Lead with AI, the only executive AI brief for busy leaders. Every edition, I deliver the latest AI updates through real-world insights and discussions from our community of 150+ forward-thinking executives.
In this issue, I have news and inspiration for you to apply AI in your work, team, and organization:
- Your AI Team: Gemini Memory, Advanced Voice Mode on all devices, Microsoft Self-Created Agents
- AI Implementation Case Study: Lessons from JPMorgan’s GenAI Rollout
- The AI Brief: AI Spending Up 6x, How Enterprises Are Making Generative AI Work? (Report)
- From the Community: Wispr Flow demo, ex-Google CEO on the benefits of AI
and other must-know AI news for busy leaders.
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“Your AI Team” Platform Updates
Essential updates from our core AI platforms can mean big changes in your and your team's productivity. Here's what's new from the essential AI tools that most Lead with AI leaders are using:
Google Gemini
- Gemini Advance has a ‘Saved Info’ feature, just like ChatGPT Memory, to remember certain details about you for more personalized interactions. (See examples here.)
- Google is accelerating the AI agent market with the launch of AI Agent Space, a new category in Google Cloud Marketplace where businesses can easily find and deploy partner-built AI agents.
ChatGPT
- Advanced Voice Mode is now also available on the web version.
- ChatGPT is moving closer to launching its "Live Camera" feature with Advanced Voice Mode, as hinted in the latest beta build. This long-anticipated update will let the AI interpret objects during video calls, unlocking new possibilities for accessibility and real-time interaction. (See demos from OpenAI and an early tester.)
- ChatGPT-4o has received a "creative writing" boost (for Plus subscribers or API) for more natural writing, enhanced thoroughness when working with files, and improved readability in outputs. Did you spot the differences in quality? (Read more and see a creative test case here)
Microsoft Copilot
- Microsoft introduced Copilot Actions at Ignite, now in private preview, to automate routine tasks like summarizing Teams meetings and preparing weekly reports.
- Updates also include new SharePoint AI agents that provide real-time insights, summaries, and custom workflows based on specific projects, files, or sites (Check it out here). More agents for streamlining meeting management, automating project workflows, and simplifying employee support are coming soon (Read details here).
- OpenAI vs. Google LLM competition escalated last week as Google quickly released Gemini-Exp-1121 with significant upgrades in coding, reasoning, and visual capabilities, just a week after the top-ranked Gemini-Exp-1114. The new model, once again, beats OpenAI's latest upgraded ChatGPT-4o in Chatbot Arena rankings. (Try it in Google AI Studio)
Claude
- Claude now lets Pro and Work users upload Google Docs directly into chats, making it easier to analyze, summarize, and ask questions about your documents. (Tutorial here)
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How Companies Implement AI
JPMorgan Aims to Equip Each Employee with an AI Personal Assistant
America’s largest bank, JPMorgan, has equipped 200,000 employees with its generative AI assistant, the LLM Suite, to streamline everyday tasks. Their future interactions aim to integrate AI deeper into daily workflows, transitioning from “five minutes of efficiency to five hours of efficiency.”
What we can learn from this:
- Value-Driven Pilot Phase: Begin by focusing on areas with immediate and tangible efficiency gains. For JPMorgan, this meant automating repetitive tasks and summarizing lengthy documents. They piloted AI tools with a single team, identified effective use cases, and generated demand from other divisions, creating a "flywheel effect" that drove wider adoption.
- Address "Pockets of Resistance" Early: JPMorgan's first rollouts focus on driving engagement and adoption, preparing for deeper “AI worker” integration into daily workflows across the firm. AI lead Teresa Heitsenrether shares that early engagement reduces skepticism, as hands-on use with proper guidance helps people understand that AI is meant to augment, not replace, their role. The bank enables that with training materials, workshops, and "superusers."
- AI Ambassadors Work Well: Embedding "superusers" within teams helps drive adoption by providing local expertise and support. Even CEO Jamie Dimon actively uses these AI tools and pushes for mobile accessibility, setting an example from the top.
Read what AI lead Teresa Heitsenrether shares here.
The AI Executive Brief
Generative AI: No More a Pilot Project, But a $13.8 Billion Enterprise Reality (Data)
Menlo Ventures just dropped the 2024 report, “The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise,” sharing key insights on how businesses are adopting generative AI.
With enterprise total AI spending growing sixfold in 2024, companies are no longer asking “if” AI has a place but rather “how” to scale its impact effectively across the organization.
Important findings from the report include:
- AI Budget is Shifting: Nearly half of AI spending now comes from reallocated budgets, showing that companies are weaving AI into their long-term strategies rather than treating it as a one-off experiment.
- “Usable” Apps are Gaining Traction: Spending on practical AI tools has skyrocketed to $4.6 billion, up from just $600 million last year. This reflects that the market is more accessible, with companies finding concrete platforms to leverage AI for improved efficiency, productivity, and measurable outcomes.
- AI’s Growing Role Across Industries: Companies across industries are adopting a proactive stance in deploying AI solutions that deliver tangible ROI. On average, companies have identified ten AI use cases to improve their operations, with nearly a quarter of those prioritized for near-term implementation. This reflects a growing confidence in AI’s ability to directly impact bottom-line results.
- AI Agents on the Rise: Generative AI is evolving into dynamic agents capable of handling complex tasks that go beyond simple automation. Companies are embracing ready-built agents for customer support and coding, while 12% are even developing custom agentic architectures to meet their unique operational needs.
- Modern AI Stack: Companies still rely heavily on foundation models, with $6.5 billion invested and closed-source options, including OpenAI and Anthropic, dominating at 81% market share. But they are also investing more in data scaffolding, integrations, and multi-model strategies to build reliable production systems.
Read the full report here.
Quick Hits
- OpenAI is developing "NLWeb," an AI-powered browser embedding ChatGPT into tasks like shopping and recipe searches. With key hires from Chrome’s original team, would it pose a new threat to Google’s dominance?
- French AI startup Mistral unveiled new AI models and updates to its Le Chat platform, offering nearly all the paid features of ChatGPT, including web search with citations, a built-in canvas, and custom "GPTs" in its Le Chat chatbot—for free. (Read out our quick review or try it here).
- Amazon is investing $4 billion more in Anthropic, making AWS its primary training partner as it prepares to integrate Claude into a revamped Alexa by 2025.
- Salesforce launched the Agentforce Testing Center for enterprises to evaluate and monitor AI agents' performance through synthetic tests, sandboxes, and observability tools, aiming to enhance the agent lifecycle from development to deployment.
- Writer, a generative AI for enterprise startup valued at $1.9 billion, has developed a new self-evolving model that can update itself with new information in real time, which will help eliminate the need for costly and time-consuming retraining cycles for client companies.
- OpenAI is working to make its AIs safer by employing a "red-teaming" approach that combines human experts and AI systems to uncover and mitigate potential harms.
From The Lead with AI Community
Every day, Lead with AI members discuss practical ways to benefit from AI in their work and organizations.
This week's highlights include:
- Carlo shared Ethan Mollick’s piece on prompting, which closely reflects the concepts we've covered in the course.
- Joe shared a demo using the AI voice dictation tool Wispr Flow to save time in email writing.
- I shared a short video of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on why people should lean into AI rather than be afraid.
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See you next week,
Practical Tips for the AI-Driven Workplace
Get real strategies AND implementation guides from business leaders delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.