How to Win at AI and Influence People

Hello, and happy Sunday! Tech companies are racing toward the end of the year by seemingly launching all of their AI products at once. (Merry Shipmas, I guess.) Between OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, and others, at least 15 products were released last week along with major updates to Google’s NotebookLM and Apple’s AI-powered operating system. Read on for more about that, along with everything we published and our take on the latest tech and business news.—Kate Lee

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Knowledge base

"How to Build a Truly Useful AI Product" by Chris Pedregal/Thesis: Building an AI startup is like playing a video game at twice the speed while your competitors have access to all your cheat codes. Chris Pedregal, CEO of note-taking app Granola, explains why traditional startup wisdom often fails in AI and shares his playbook for creating successful AI products in a world where the tech moves quicker than your developers ship features. Read this to learn why consumer AI startups should embrace high costs per user, and why solving today's problems might be tomorrow's waste of time.

🎧 "The Secret to Building Sticky AI Products" by Dan Shipper/AI & I: We've used enough bland chatbots to last a lifetime—what we’re craving are AI products with personality. In this episode of AI & I, Granola’s Chris builds on his Thesis essay to dive into how his meeting notes app has cracked the code, bringing in 5,000 weekly active users and 50 percent retention after 10 weeks. His approach? Build with strong opinions, talk directly to users, and bet on AI costs dropping in the future. Read this if you're trying to build AI products that stick around in users' lives beyond the initial "wow" factor. 🎧 🖥 Watch on X or YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

“Vibe Check: OpenAI’s Sora” by Aleena Vigoda/Context Window: OpenAI finally dropped Sora Turbo, and it's not just another AI video generator—it's a complete creative platform that aspires to be the next Adobe Premiere Pro. By incorporating features like Remix, Re-cut, and Storyboard, plus a built-in social feed for creators, OpenAI is betting that controlling the application layer is as important as the underlying tech. We polled Every Studio and rounded up early reactions to the launch. Read this for a pulse check on the AI video generation space.

🔏 “The No-fluff Guide to AI Agents” by Michael Taylor/Also True for Humans: We've entered the era where AI isn't just thinking—it's doing. Drawing from his experience as a prompt engineer, Michael Taylor reveals how AI agents use a sophisticated loop of Thought, Action, and Observation to accomplish real-world tasks. Read this to understand why your next colleague might be artificial (and surprisingly competent).

"Introducing Our First Synthetic Show: ‘TLDR’" by Dan Shipper: Our latest Studio experiment is TLDR, which turns team conversations into snackable 3–5 minute episodes you can listen to on your morning commute. Think of it as your company's own personal documentary series, complete with key decisions, action items, and the juiciest moments—no endless Slack scrolling required. Read this if you’re curious about turning daily meetings into your team’s personal podcast series. 🖌Apply to be a design partner if you want to bring TLDR to your team.—Aleena Vigoda