Hi {{first_name}}!
It’s been a big week of new tools and announcements for Google. If you’re a Gemini user you may have noticed Gemini 3 went live a couple days ago with serious performance upgrades. Google Vids became available for business video creation, and Workspace Flows is Google’s answer to building automation inside Google Workspace without relying on third-party tools. Add in OpenAI's personality-focused GPT-5.1 update and some game-changing NotebookLM features, and you've got one of the biggest weeks yet in AI!
This week we're covering:
New AI Updates - Gemini 3, GPT-5.1, Grok 4.1, and more
Google Vids - AI-powered video creation for business
Workspace Flows - Google's simple answer to Zapier
Okay, let's get into it!
New and Noteworthy
Gmail's Help Me Schedule: Gmail's new Gemini-powered feature automatically pulls available time slots from your Google Calendar directly into email threads. No more back-and-forth trying to find meeting times. Google also launched AI-powered search features for travel planning and finding cheap flights.
Gemini 3 Is Officially Here: Google's newest AI model launched with a 2x performance jump over existing state-of-the-art models. The release includes better multimodal and reasoning capabilities, plus coding tools that help developers build faster. Gemini 3 can now handle multi-step workflows from start to finish on your behalf, like booking local services or organizing your inbox. Google Advanced subscribers can test these agentic capabilities in the Gemini app today, with expansion to more Google products coming soon. This is Google's most significant model update yet, positioning Gemini as a serious contender in the frontier model space.
Manus Browser Operator: Manus launched a browser extension that operates autonomously within your active tabs in your existing browser, using your logins to complete multi-step tasks across different sites. Unlike tools that require constant supervision, you give it a goal and it can plan, navigate, and execute the entire task while you focus elsewhere. Worth exploring if you're spending hours on repetitive browser-based research, data entry, or cross-platform workflows.
OpenAI Releases GPT-5.1: Last week OpenAI launched GPT-5.1 with a major focus on personality. The new model is designed to feel warmer, more conversational, more empathetic in interactions and more concise. This matters because the experience of working with AI is becoming just as important as its capabilities. Expect ChatGPT to feel more natural and less robotic. And maybe best of all… the ability to once and for all remove “em dashes” from prompt outputs. If you know – you know! ;)
Deep Research Comes to NotebookLM: Google integrated Deep Research directly into NotebookLM, meaning it can now autonomously browse hundreds of sites, generate a comprehensive report, and import both the report and sources into your notebook. This turns NotebookLM from a research assistant into a research team that does the heavy lifting while you focus on insights.
Grok 4.1 Launch: xAI released Grok 4.1 with improved conversational control and gains across creativity, emotional intelligence, and factual accuracy. The update focuses on making the model more usable for everyday tasks while maintaining its reasoning strength. Available now on grok.com, X, and mobile apps.
ElevenLabs Debuts Image & Video: ElevenLabs combined leading visual models with their voice technology, music, and effects. This means you can now create complete multimedia content with consistent, high-quality AI voices integrated throughout.
Meta's Generative Ads Model (GEM): Meta released details on GEM, the AI system powering ad recommendations and creative optimization across its platforms. If you're running Facebook or Instagram ads, this is the engine behind what you're seeing in your campaigns.
Anthropic Shares Real-World Claude Use Cases: Anthropic highlighted how businesses across industries are actually using Claude in production. Worth checking out if you're curious about practical applications beyond the hype.
Tool Spotlight: Google Vids
I stumbled across Google Vids last night. This is Google's answer to professional video creation, but built specifically for work. It's powered by Gemini AI and integrated directly into Google Workspace, so if you're already using Gmail, Drive, and Docs, this slots right into your existing workflow.
You can create training videos, client presentations, or team updates without any design skills. Just give it a prompt like "Create a video explaining our onboarding process" and it generates a full video storyboard with suggested scenes, stock footage, background music, and even voiceovers. You can record yourself talking, capture your screen for software demos, or let the AI generate the whole thing using avatars. The collaboration features mean your team can jump in and editing the videos is as easy as editing the video transcript to make cuts, remove words etc,
Real business applications:
Employee training modules that don't require scheduling a videographer or production crew
Client proposal videos that can help explain your services more engagingly than a PDF or deck.
Quick team updates that feel more personal than another email in everyone's inbox
Product demos that show exactly how your service works without expensive screen recording setups
Onboarding videos that new hires can watch at their own pace instead of sitting through repetitive live sessions
Availability: Google Vids is now rolling out to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise, and Education plans. If you're already on one of these plans, you should have access now or very soon. Not on Workspace yet? This coupled with Gemini 3.0c Gems and Flows might be the reason to consider the upgrade or the switch.
Google Finally Built Its Own Automation tool (And it's live)
Google just launched something that caught my attention: Workspace Flows. Think of it as automation for people who don't want to learn Zapier or N8N or build complex workflows. It connects your Google apps (Gmail, Drive, Chat, Calendar, Forms, Sheets, Docs etc) with Gemini AI to automate repetitive tasks.
You describe what you want automated, and Gemini helps build the workflow for you. Most automation tools require either technical knowledge or hours of setup. Flows removes that barrier for some of the more straightforward automations that can still help save a ton of time.
The tool is still in early access (alpha phase), but it's rolling out to Workspace customers through the Gemini Alpha program. I'll be diving deep into this inside the Ampra Circle community over the next few weeks, showing you how to actually build these flows and which ones make sense for different business operations.
A Limited Offer for those needing some AI and Automation Help:
If you’ve been following these updates and thinking “I really need to get started with AI, but I don’t know where to begin,” I built something just for you.
It’s called Ampra FlexFlow Sessions. It’s a simple way to get real momentum with AI and automation without any big commitments, long proposals, or expensive retainers.
For under $1,000, you and your team get two focused two-hour working sessions where we roll up our sleeves together and get real work done. No theory, just clarity and progress!
Here’s what we’ll help you with:
Set up of your own dedicated N8N server or Zapier account (that you fully own)
Identify and prioritize your biggest automation opportunities
Answer your AI and automation questions and show you the ropes so your team understands what’s possible
Walk you through prebuilt AI agents we’ve already created and customize them for your business (if they are of interest to you)
Most importantly, we build your first automations and agentic workflows live so you leave with real time savings, not just a report
After the four hours you will have:
An AI and automation roadmap
New automations running in the background
A clearer understanding of how automation works and what to automate next
More time back in your week
This is hands-on support for small businesses that want to stop reading about AI and start using it to reclaim real hours and reduce busywork.
If that sounds useful, reply with “FlexFlow” and I’ll get you the details and next steps.
We’re doing 10 of these sessions at a reduced rate under $1,000 before the price goes to $2,500
Cheers,
Julien
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