Week in Product #471 🚀
Google's commerce protocol, Apple gives Siri to Google, Claude Cowork, OpenAI's health bet, The disposable software paradox, Agents in Slack, Marketplaces & LLMs, & more
Hi friends 👋
Welcome to a new week in Product!
🎰 The week in figures
$1.4B: Skild AI raised $1.4B to build a universal AI brain for robots trained on human videos and simulation that works across any robot form factor
$350M: Lambda (AI cloud infra) plans to raise at least $350M in a pre-IPO round, with Nvidia as a key partner. Despite a $175M loss, its $520M revenue shows strong growth
$350M: Berlin-based Parloa has raised $350M at $3B for their agentic customer service
$330M: ElevenLabs, a leading voice AI startup, reached $330M in ARR in 2025, growing from $100M in 15 months. It raised $180M so far, at a $3.3B valuation
$150M: Alpaca just raised a $150M Series D at a $1.15B valuation, doubling down on its ambition to become the global standard for brokerage infrastructure
$130M: Higgsfield, an AI video platform, founded by ex-Snap executive Alex Mashrabov, hit a $1.3B valuation on raising a $130M Series A extension. With 15M users, & $200M ARR, it targets professional social media marketers
$100M: OpenAI acquired 1-year-old health records startup Torch for ~$100M. The technology consolidates medical records into a unified context engine for AI to support the ChatGPT Health service
40M: Wing and Walmart are expanding drone deliveries to 150 more stores & 40M+ Americans, they plan 270 locations by 2027 nationwide
-10%: Meta is cutting 10% of staff who focus on metaverse-related VR projects. That’s about 1,000 employees
📰 What’s going on
Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, bringing Claude Code to non-technical users. The Mac-only tool was built in just 10 days and lets you organize files, crunch data, create documents, and automate workflows by giving Claude access to local folders. Available for Claude Max subscribers ($100-200/month), and in preview to some Pro users (I got access).
Anthropic debuts Claude for Healthcare, an AI toolkit to aid providers and patients by connecting to data
Anthropic added MCP Tool Search to Claude Code, enabling “lazy loading” of tools that reduced context usage from 134K to 5K tokens
OpenAI announced it will begin testing ads in ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers, outlining early ad formats and principles centered on user trust and transparency. The company says ads won’t influence model responses and are part of a broader effort to expand access while maintaining a clear separation between advertising and AI outputs
Replit launched Mobile Apps, letting you build production-ready apps and push directly to the App Store. It integrates frontend, database, auth, and third-party APIs end-to-end
Salesforce evolves its Slackbot into a full-fledged AI agent. This version, available to Business+ and Enterprise+ customers since last week, can find information, draft emails, and schedule meetings directly within Slack. The upgraded Slackbot can connect to and interact with other enterprise products like Microsoft Teams and Google Drive, pulling information across platforms within Slack
Google launched Personal Intelligence, connecting Gemini to your Gmail, Photos, YouTube, and Search data. US only, opt-in, currently in beta for AI Pro/Ultra subscribers
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) enhances agentic commerce with an o-s standard, dynamic pricing, real-time inventory checks, and tokenized payments. Google partnered with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart on the initiative
Google has rolled out updates to Veo 3.1 that let users turn portrait images into native vertical AI videos, aimed at short-form formats used on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and similar platforms
Walmart AI partners with Google to integrate AI assistant Gemini into its product discovery and purchase experience
Microsoft introduced "Copilot Checkout" to enable AI-driven shopping within chat interfaces. Microsoft tapped PayPal and Stripe to process its conversational payments
Samsung is reviving Bixby with Perplexity AI for complex queries in One UI 8.5 beta
Apple signed a multi-year deal to use Google Gemini to power next-gen Siri. The partnership comes after internal AI setbacks left Siri falling behind rivals. Google gets Siri distribution; Apple gets to skip building foundation models.
Apple is expected to launch a low-cost MacBook with an A18 Pro chip ($499-$799) in 2026. New MacBook Pro models, iPads, a foldable iPhone, AR glasses, and a Studio Display with 120Hz ProMotion and mini-LED.
Apple launched Creator Studio, a $12.99/mth subscription for creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro
Klarna moved into the peer-to-peer payments space by launching a new social money-sending feature
Airbnb hires former Meta AI chief: Ahmad Al-Dahle, who formerly ran the generative AI division for Meta Platforms, jumped over as Airbnb’s CTO. Comes with a new AI push at the firm, and the hope is that AI can learn from your behavior, along with the folks around you, transforming the app from a hotel substitute into a full-on guide
📚 Good reads
LLMs vs. Marketplaces, by Dan Hockenmaier. A framework for which marketplaces will win or lose as ChatGPT becomes a shopping interface. Key insight: DoorDash will be fine (managed marketplace, hard supply); Expedia is in trouble (easy supply, low consideration). PMs at marketplaces should read this
The disposable software paradox, by Jaclyn Konzelmann. When software costs nothing to build, the hardest part becomes deciding what’s worth keeping. We’re entering a bifurcation: ephemeral utility apps vs. enduring systems you trust with your data. The barrier to entry has fallen, but the barrier to trust has never been higher
How to get unstuck. Anne-Laure Le Cunff argues that feeling stuck at work is usually a nervous system issue, not a lack of ideas or discipline. She offers quick somatic tactics to help when productivity dips, or when deep thinking feels hard
The unconventional growth levers that made Canva a $42B company, by First Round Review. Cameron Adams shares how SEO and localization—not typical startup growth tactics—unlocked massive scale
You’re using AI wrong. Reid Hoffman chats with Parth Detroja about how AI isn’t a faster “tool,” but the meta‑layer you point at almost any problem in your work. Instead of polishing perfect prompts, you should treat AI like a colleague: speak to it, let it interview you, and use role‑playing to uncover blind spots. And for PMs who are ready, the frontier is orchestrating multiple specialized agents as a small autonomous team (see the section below for a “How to” on that!)
🧑💻 Worth learning
[Video + article] Claude code masterclass. Claude Code hit $1B ARR in 6 months by obsessing over deep coding, MCP-based tool integrations, and power-user workflows. This piece walks through PM workflows (research → PRD → decks → tickets) powered by MCPs, skills, and Opus 4.5, showing how to turn Claude into your “remote worker.” Complement with 1) this TL;DR version on working with Claude Code; 2) this piece by Omar Shahine showing how Claude Code plus terminal agents can solve multi-tool problems end‑to‑end
[Video] Claude skills explained in 15-mins, by Peter Yang. Written (paid) version here
How to do AI evals step-by-step. Aakash Gupta argues that evals are core product work, not just a QA chore, and that PMs should own error analysis. The article walks through setting up observability, manually reviewing conversations, turning recurring errors into tight categories, and then into code checks plus LLM judges. IT’s a practical blueprint to move from “vibe-checking” to a disciplined eval practice that keeps AI products from quietly doing the wrong thing
🔧 Cool products to try
ChatGPT Translate is OpenAI's first standalone utility tool competing directly with Google Translate
Clawdbot runs locally and automates your entire workflows through WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord. Controls Chrome browsers, manages email, runs cron jobs, handles flight check-ins, controls IoT devices, and replies autonomously using your own Claude/GPT API keys (docs). Free and open source (you just need your own API keys)
Trails automatically discovers thematic connections across books; e.g. showing how “Pivots” drove success across multiple companies, or how “Father Wound“ links Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Leonardo da Vinci through absent fathers driving ambition. This is how it was implemented. Nice and fun tool to help you find your next book!
That’s a wrap for this week.
Have a great weekend.
