Accountants — Is your ChatGPT login now a GDPR risk?

The shift this week is that there's no shiny new tool to sign up for — the big labs were busy with research — so the only moves that matter are a security setting on the AI you already pay for, and OpenAI quietly turning ChatGPT into something that can finish admin jobs end-to-end.

OpenAI has rolled out Advanced Account Security for ChatGPT this week — phishing-resistant sign-in and tougher account recovery, opt-in, free, five minutes to switch on. If anyone in your practice has ever pasted a client's payroll, VAT return, or trial balance into ChatGPT, that login is a confidentiality pressure point — a stolen password gives an attacker a searchable history of every client question your team has typed. Have your office manager turn it on for every seat this week, especially any seat with client data in its chat history.

Trades — Quiet AI week

Nothing AI-relevant moved for trades this week — focus on what's already on your plate.

Retail & Hospitality — Can ChatGPT do the slide deck and the supplier follow-up now?

OpenAI opened up Codex inside ChatGPT so it can draft documents, build simple spreadsheets, and put together slides in one thread — connect your Gmail or calendar, ask in plain English, review the output before sending. For a café owner writing a supplier chase or a salon manager building next month's roster, that's 10–15 minutes a day back, according to OpenAI's own pitch. Try it on one real admin job this week before deciding whether it earns a paid seat.

Agencies & Marketing — Is the new Codex actually fit for client work?

OpenAI is pushing Codex as the everyday-work tool — research, planning, docs, slides, spreadsheets, all inside ChatGPT — and the connected-apps piece (Gmail, Calendar) is the real shift, since it can now see the email you're actually replying to instead of guessing. Test it on one low-stakes deliverable — a meeting recap, a status doc, a draft scope — and see if the output survives your editor's eye. Do not push a live pitch deck through it until you've checked your team's data-retention settings.

Same story as the accountants, sharper consequences. Any solicitor, surveyor, consultancy, or healthcare practice whose team has pasted draft contracts, matter notes, or patient details into ChatGPT has a real confidentiality exposure if that login is phished — and OpenAI's new Advanced Account Security setting closes that door in five minutes for every seat. This is the AI equivalent of finally turning on two-factor on your case-management system; put it on the partners' agenda this week.

Manufacturing & Wholesale — Quiet AI week

Nothing AI-relevant moved for manufacturing and wholesale this week — focus on what's already on your plate.

Money on the table this week

No major AI or innovation funding windows opened this week — it's a thin one for the grant calendar, and that's an honest read, not a lazy one. The one confirmed item is the Adult Skills Fund determination letters for 2026–27 going out to devolved authorities, which means regional training budgets are about to be locked in; if you've been thinking about putting staff through digital or AI upskilling, talk to your local mayoral combined authority or skills board in the next fortnight before the allocations harden. Innovate UK Smart Grants and HMRC R&D tax relief remain open as standing routes — worth a 20-minute call with your accountant to check whether your last AI software spend qualifies. Sit tight on anything speculative; better windows are due through May.

Bottom line: next week we'll be watching whether OpenAI brings Codex to free accounts, and whether HMRC clarifies how AI tool subscriptions sit inside an R&D claim.

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