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🤖 Microsoft and Google Compete to Own your Workday

🤖 Microsoft and Google Compete to Own your Workday

Plus: EU commits €1.6B to close the AI gap

October 16, 2025

Hello AI Enthusiast,

Microsoft and Google are fighting to be the platform where your company works with AI. Microsoft's building its own models to depend less on OpenAI. Google just launched a toolkit that connects Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and everything else. Europe put €1.6 billion behind actually using AI instead of just regulating it. Let's break it down.

The Big Picture 🔊

Google Launches Gemini Enterprise

Google launched Gemini Enterprise, a comprehensive AI platform for businesses built on Google Cloud. It's a separate toolkit that lets companies build and deploy AI agents across departments. The platform connects to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and business apps like Salesforce and SAP. Pricing starts at $30 per seat monthly for enterprise, $21 for smaller businesses.

Andrea MattielloCM and Board Lover

Google's building their Copilot Studio alternative, but connecting it across Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and SAP, not just Google Workspace. The $30 per seat pricing means companies need to actually train people to use it.

We've seen too many buy licenses that sit unused. The conversation's shifted from "which model is smarter" to "which platform actually helps companies work with AI.”

Microsoft Builds Its Own Image Generator

Microsoft AI launched MAI-Image-1, its first in-house text-to-image generator. Built with input from creative professionals, it focuses on photorealistic imagery and faster processing than larger models. Already ranked in LMArena's top 10. This joins their MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview chatbot as Microsoft builds proprietary models beyond its OpenAI and Anthropic partnerships.

Gioele MottarliniCOO and Image Addict

Microsoft's launching a wave of in-house models to reduce its dependence on OpenAI. Makes sense. We've seen people at companies using personal ChatGPT accounts because Copilot was missing features they needed.

We've also seen Microsoft locking down GitHub to stop competitors from training on that code. They've figured out owning the model and data beats just running the servers.

Speaking of actually using AI, most companies are stuck between strategy decks and random ChatGPT experiments. Join our free webinar on October 22nd at 5 PM CET where Gianluca Mauro and John Vetan show you how to move from pilots to working AI agents that create real impact.

EU Goes All-In on AI with Two Major Strategies

The European Commission launched two AI strategies backed by substantial funding. Apply AI puts €1 billion toward industry adoption across healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and defense. AI in Science commits €600 million for research infrastructure and aims to double Horizon Europe's AI investments to over €3 billion, centered around RAISE, a virtual European institute pooling AI resources for scientific research.

Helin YontarCPO and Polyglot

The EU's putting real money behind AI adoption. They're building sector-specific models and AI screening centers for healthcare, plus RAISE to coordinate research resources.

It's vague on execution details, but at least they're shifting from regulation talk to asking "how do we actually use this?”

Bits and Bobs 🗞️

Figure 03 is a next-generation humanoid robot with advanced AI-powered sensory, tactile, and vision systems enabling real-time learning and precise manipulation for scalable home and commercial use.
OpenAI and Broadcom are partnering to co-develop custom AI accelerators and networking systems to build advanced, power-efficient AI clusters for next-generation artificial intelligence.
Salesforce's new Agentforce 360 platform introduces flexible AI agent programming with "reasoning" models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Gemini, plus deeper Slack integration for enterprise use.
Claude Code now supports plugins, allowing users to easily customize and share extensions like slash commands and agents within a community-driven marketplace.
Microsoft Copilot introduced a free adaptive Study and Learn Mode that guides users by nudging them toward answers without directly giving them.
Slack's new platform enhancements and APIs enable secure AI agents that use real-time team conversation data to boost productivity within enterprise workflows.
Google's Gemini 2.5 Computer Use AI model enables agents to interact with web and mobile interfaces by clicking, typing, and navigating, with built-in safety features to prevent misuse.
A new Antropic study found that just 250 malicious documents can successfully create a backdoor vulnerability in large language models, making data-poisoning attacks more practical than previously thought regardless of model size.
Google is integrating its new image editing AI model, Nano Banana, into Search, NotebookLM, and soon Google Photos to enhance visual creativity and learning.

On the Podcast 🎧

Last week’s episode features Melissa Kühn, a Responsible AI & AI Transformation Expert, discussing how companies can balance innovation with ethics and automation with humanity - from the stages of AI adoption to the risks of AI companionship and the cognitive effects of overusing generative AI. Listen here

From Our Founder’s Channels 🤳

In his latest TikTok, Gianluca Mauro uses a heartwarming story about his Italian grandmother to explain how outdated mental models hold us back from seeing AI’s true potential - and why the next generation will use it as their default way to interact with technology.

@gianluca.mauro
AI strategy lesson from an Italian grandmother #Ai #learnontiktok #business

That's a wrap on our newsletter! Before you go, here’s a quick recap of our offerings:

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Customized Corporate Training: Equip your team with the skills they need to unlock the potential of AI in your business.

Catch you next week! 👋