What's the one thing worth doing today?

Quiet satisfying Monday — not a single AI tool launched, no pricing changed, and nothing happened that needs your attention. Use the two minutes you'd normally spend reading this to do something more useful instead.

What's the one thing worth doing today?

Write down the three tasks you or your staff repeat every single week that feel like copy-paste busywork. Chasing late invoices. Answering the same five customer questions. Moving numbers between spreadsheets. Reformatting the same report every Friday.

Pick one. Spend ten minutes testing whether ChatGPT or Gemini can do it — both have free versions. Don't try to automate your whole business. Just paste in one real example of the task and ask it to do the next one.

Most businesses skip this because there's always something more urgent. Today there isn't.

What to do right now: Open ChatGPT or Gemini, paste in a real late-payment reminder or customer reply you sent last week, and ask it to write the next one in your tone. If it's good enough to send with a quick edit, you've just found your first AI win. If it's rubbish, try the next task on your list.

Quick hits

• Supermarket costs keep climbing. BBC traced the story behind a five pound thirty orange juice — butter, chocolate, coffee, and milk all following the same pattern. No quick fix, but if you're a food business, review your supplier pricing this week rather than waiting for the next invoice shock.
• HMRC updated its customs declaration guidance for importers. It's routine reference code changes, not new rules. If you import goods, your customs broker already knows — no action needed from you.

The bottom line

Nothing happened in AI today worth changing your plans for — but if you've never tested whether a free AI tool can handle one of your repetitive weekly tasks, today's the day.

That's today's briefing. Subscribe free to get this in your inbox every morning.