Hi tech & AI enthusiasts, this week's highlights:
ChatGPT Now Works Inside Excel
Google Gives Away the AI Behind Gemini 3 for Free
One Man Used AI and $20K to Build a Company on Pace for $1.8 Billion
The Lab: ChatGPT for Excel: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Get Started
AI Image of the Week: Flowers for wellness and mindfulness content
Let’s get into it.
▲ AI TOOLS
OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Excel, an add-in that brings ChatGPT directly into your workbooks. Describe what you need in plain language, and it builds or updates live models, runs analysis, and handles formatting across large, multi-tab spreadsheets.
What you need to know
Works inside your workbook: ChatGPT reads your cells, formulas, and structure. Ask it to build a budget, run scenarios, or explain a formula and it works directly in the spreadsheet.
Financial data built in: OpenAI added integrations with FactSet, Dow Jones Factiva, LSEG, S&P Global, and others.
Available now on most plans: Available globally for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, Teachers, and K-12 users, and for ChatGPT Pro and Plus users outside the EU.
Key Ideas
▲ Why it matters: Spreadsheets are where most business decisions live. ChatGPT working natively inside Excel, rather than as a separate chat window, makes it genuinely useful for day-to-day analysis, reporting, and modelling.
▲ AI OPEN-SOURCE
Google released Gemma 4, a family of free AI models built from the same research behind its flagship Gemini 3. The largest model ranks third globally among open AI models. All of them can understand images and video, and the smaller ones handle audio too.
What you need to know
Free, no restrictions: Anyone can download and use these models with no usage limits and no licensing fees. Businesses can build products on top of them without paying per request.
Ranges from phone-sized to powerful: The smallest model runs on a phone or laptop. The largest rivals the best open AI available. Google built multiple sizes so teams can pick the right balance of speed and capability.
Understands more than text: These models can read documents, analyse images, watch video, and process audio. Useful for building tools that work with the kind of mixed content most businesses actually deal with.
Key Idea
▲ Why it matters: Google is giving away models built from the same research as its paid Gemini products. For businesses exploring AI, this lowers the barrier significantly. You can experiment, build, and ship without committing to a subscription or API bill.
▲ AI BUSINESS
Matthew Gallagher launched Medvi, an online GLP-1 drug seller, from his living room in September 2024 with $20,000 and no employees. The New York Times reported the company brought in $401 million in its first year and is projecting $1.8 billion in 2026.
What you need to know
AI ran almost everything: Gallagher used ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok for code. Midjourney and Runway for ad creatives. ElevenLabs and custom AI agents for customer service. The entire operation took two months and $20K to build.
Outsourced the regulated parts: Medvi does not employ doctors or handle prescriptions directly. It outsources clinical work to telehealth platforms CareValidate and OpenLoop, keeping the team to two people: Gallagher and his brother.
Running at three times the margin of competitors: For comparison, Hims & Hers reported $2.4 billion in revenue last year with 2,442 employees and a 5.5% net margin. Medvi is running a 16.2% margin with a headcount of two.
Key Idea
▲ Why it matters: Sam Altman predicted a one-person billion-dollar company "would have been unimaginable without AI." The first real example is not a revolutionary AI product. It is selling weight-loss drugs from a living room. The tools were all publicly available. The difference was knowing how to combine them and moving fast.
▲ EVEN MORE NEWS
Other big ideas from the past week.
▲ Replit Launches an SEO Auditor: Replit Agent can now audit your website's SEO and suggest fixes. Click the + button from the input box on Replit after logging in and select the SEO Auditor skill. Free to try.
▲ Google Vids Now Free With AI Video and Music Generation: Google added Veo 3.1 video generation and Lyria 3 music generation to Google Vids, its video creation tool inside Workspace. Create, edit, and share videos at no cost.
▲ Anthropic Blocks Agent Platforms From Claude Subscriptions: Anthropic blocked third-party agent tools like OpenClaw from using flat-rate Claude plans. Users who want to run Claude through outside agent frameworks now need to pay via API or a new pay-as-you-go billing system.
The Lab
▲ AI EDUCATION
OpenAI's new Excel add-in lets you build, update, and analyse spreadsheets using plain language, directly inside your workbook.
What you'll learn:
How to install the ChatGPT add-in and connect it to your workbook
How to build and update models, budgets, and reports using natural language
How to pull live financial data from FactSet, S&P Global, and other providers
Practical use cases for analysis, reporting, and scenario planning
🔬 Interested in learning about AI for business? Join The Lab waitlist.
▲ AI IMAGE SHOWCASE
Create this type of image with Midjourney
Delicate white cosmos flowers with feathery petals ripple in a gust of wind, their blurred outlines forming soft halos against a rich forest green bokeh. The camera captures the motion diagonally, with the foreground in partial focus and trailing petals smudging into the light. Hints of pink and yellow tones flicker throughout the scene. The result feels airy, dreamlike, like a fleeting glimpse of a memory.Image Usage Suggestion: Wellness and mindfulness content, floral brand campaigns, lifestyle blog headers, meditation and calm app marketing, nature photography showcases, or any content that needs a soft, organic, contemplative feel.
💌 Reply to this email with your AI image generation or suggestion of what you’d like to see and I'll feature it in a future newsletter.
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Thanks for reading, until next time.
Stay curious,
Matt Lok, Editor
Brought to you by Metalabs. Digital marketing consulting specialising in AI.