Today at a glance:

• Claude launches in Excel, Adobe rolls out creative AI tools, and Google launches Pomelli for slick marketing campaigns.

• A step-by-step guide to Claude's Skills feature for automating repetitive tasks

• My hands-on AgentKit walkthrough comparing platforms like Zapier and n8n

• Kondo tool review for taming LinkedIn inbox chaos

News: 

Claude is now in Excel

Anthropic just added Claude directly into Microsoft Excel.

Claude works in a sidebar where it can read, analyze, and modify your spreadsheets. The best part? It shows you exactly what it's changing and why.

Those of you who spend more time than you’d like in Excel could save hours on financial models, data analysis, reporting, and more.

Real-time connections to market data and financial platforms are coming soon, plus new "Agent Skills" for tasks like building cash flow models and due diligence reports.

Claude provides full transparency about the actions it takes, tracking and explaining its changes. You can navigate directly to the cells it references in its explanations.

This addresses one of the biggest concerns I hear: "I don't trust AI because I can't see what it's doing."

Adobe rolled out major AI updates across Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud AI assistant handles tedious editing tasks in creative projects. You describe what you need, and it takes care of the work.

They're also introducing Custom Models. These learn your brand's visual style and generate consistent content without starting from scratch each time.

Here's what I appreciate: Adobe is clear that AI is a creative partner, not a replacement.

Instead of fearing AI, creatives should be excited by what they can create by using these tools.

For business owners who need marketing content but lack design resources, this is practical help.

Google Labs launched Pomelli, an AI marketing tool built specifically for small businesses.

Here's how it works: You give it your website URL. Pomelli analyzes your site and creates a "Business DNA" — your brand's tone, colors, fonts, and style.

Then it suggests campaign ideas tailored to your business, or you can type in your own idea.

Finally, it generates ready-to-use marketing assets for social media, your website, and ads.

I tested it, and the speed is impressive. The designs actually look professional, not like generic AI output.

If you're struggling to keep up with content creation, this is worth trying!

One Guide :

Save 5 Hours a Week on Repetitive Tasks with Claude Skills

What are Claude Skills?

Skills are a bit like recipe cards for Claude.

Instead of explaining the same task over and over ("format this spreadsheet like last time," "write this report using our standard structure"), you create a Skill once. Claude saves those instructions and automatically uses them whenever you need that specific task done.

Each Skill is basically a folder containing:

• A clear description (so Claude knows when to use it).

• Step-by-step instructions (how to do the task)

• Optional reference files or templates

Claude only loads the Skill it needs for your current request.

You'll need a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise) to use Skills. Team and Enterprise admins can enable it workspace-wide.

Why Claude Skills are so useful

Skills improve your workflows in three ways:

Consistency — Your team gets the same quality output every time, following your exact standards.

Efficiency problem — You stop repeating the same instructions. Claude remembers your process and executes it perfectly.

Specialization problem — You can teach Claude your industry-specific knowledge. Legal workflows, financial models, content strategies—whatever makes your business unique.

Step 1: Try Pre-built Skills for quick wins

Anthropic already built Skills for common business tasks:

• Excel spreadsheets

• PowerPoint presentations

• Word documents

• PDF handling

These work immediately. All you have to do is ask:

"Create a monthly budget spreadsheet in Excel with formulas for tracking expenses."

Claude automatically triggers the Excel Skill and follows best practices for spreadsheet design. No special commands needed.

Step 2: Create your first custom skill

Here's where it gets powerful. You can build Skills for your specific workflows.

Think about one task you do weekly that follows the same pattern. Use that to create your first Skill.

Let me walk you through creating a simple one:

1. Pick a repetitive task. I chose "weekly competitor analysis report" for this example.

Create your instructions file. Write out the exact steps Claude should follow, like you're training a new team member. Be specific:

• "Start with a 3-sentence executive summary"

• "Analyze pricing changes in a comparison table"

• "End with 2-3 actionable recommendations"

1. Add supporting materials. Include templates, past examples, or reference documents that show what good looks like.

2. Name it clearly. Call it "Competitor Analysis Report Skill," for example. Good naming helps Claude know when to use it.

3. Upload to your workspace. Once it's in Claude, it works automatically when you ask for competitor analysis.

The first one takes time. But you're building a reusable asset. I have five Skills that handle my most common tasks, and I'm adding more weekly.

Step 3: Steal these use cases

Here are Skills that work well:

• Content Strategy Skill: Claude is an amazing AI writer. Feed Claude your brand voice guidelines, content structure preferences, and approval checklist. Every blog post or LinkedIn article will follow your exact standards, and your team will love the consistency.

• Client Proposal Skill: This could include your pricing structure, case study format, and proposal template, and help you get proposals ready to send in minutes.

• Weekly Report Skill: Automatically structures team updates, highlights wins and blockers, and formats everything for leadership review. Save yourself hours each Friday.

• Meeting Notes Skill: Organizes raw transcripts into decisions, action items, and follow-ups using your company's format.

As always, start with one workflow that eats your time. Build that Skill first, then expand.

Step 4: Your action plan

1. Try a pre-built Skill this week. Pick Excel, PowerPoint, or document handling—something you do regularly.

2. Identify one repetitive task you'd like to turn into a custom Skill. Write down the steps you follow manually.

3. Start building that Skill. Remember: it might take 30 minutes to build, but will save hours going forward.

Final notes

Skills work best with structured, repeatable tasks. Creative brainstorming or one-off projects aren't ideal candidates.

Claude can only access Skills in your current workspace. If you switch workspaces, you'll need to recreate them.

Hit reply and tell me: what's one task you wish AI could remember how to do perfectly every time?

One Media:

Build AI Agents Fast with OpenAI's New AgentKit

I just recorded a hands-on walkthrough of OpenAI's AgentKit, comparing it with platforms like Zapier and n8n.

If you're a developer, founder, or operations lead thinking about deploying AI solutions, this will help you figure out how to get AI agents up and running fast with AgentKit.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

One Tool:

Kondo - Organize your LinkedIn Inbox

I’ve often talked about how Superhuman changed my email inbox forever.

Now, Kondo is helping me tame the madness of my LinkedIn DMs.

Here's what makes it practical:

• Split your inbox by priority — You can label conversations and organize them into different inboxes. Hot leads go in one place, casual networking in another.

• Never miss a follow-up again — The snooze feature brings conversations back to the top of your inbox exactly when you need them. If someone says "let's chat next month," snooze it for 30 days.

• Move through messages fast — Keyboard shortcuts for everything. Plus, you can save message snippets for responses you send repeatedly. Less typing and no more copy-pasting from your notes app.

• Sync to your existing tools — Kondo syncs your LinkedIn conversations directly to your CRM, Notion, Clay, or whatever tools you're already using, so your LinkedIn data becomes useful.

You’re probably thinking: "do I really need another inbox tool?"

But if LinkedIn is a crucial source of leads and networking, and you’re getting more than a couple of LinkedIn DMs each day, it’s worth checking out.

Use my affiliate link to get 1 month free (cancel anytime if you don’t see the value).

Don’t lose business opportunities because your inbox is a mess; try Kondo free for a month.

TL;DR:

• Claude enters Excel, Adobe launches AI tools to empower creatives, and Google's Pomelli can build marketing campaigns in minutes.

• With Skills, you can teach Claude your specific workflows once and reuse them forever, potentially saving hours weekly on repetitive tasks like reports, proposals, and content creation.

• In my latest YouTube video, I show you how OpenAI’s AgentKit compares with Zapier and n8n.

• Kondo transforms a messy LinkedIn inbox into an organized, efficient system with features like message labeling, snooze functionality, and CRM integration. Worth trying if you're drowning in DMs.

• 🔔 Reminder: sign up for our next live session about the Top 10 AI Tools, on 7 November.