OpenAI to introduce Agent Mode

PLUS: Google’s AI can now make phone calls for you

Barsee

Jul 17, 2025

Howdy. It’s Barsee again.

Happy Thursday, AI family, and welcome back to AI Valley.

Today’s climb through the Valley reveals:

OpenAI will introduce Agent Mode to replace Excel and PowerPoint
Google’s AI can now make phone calls for you
NC State builds faster, more efficient self-driving chemistry lab
Drones, AI, and Robot Pickers: Meet the fully autonomous farm.
Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources

Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…

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THROUGH THE VALLEY

1/ OpenAI is working on payment checkout system within ChatGPT

OpenAI is testing a new checkout system for ChatGPT that would let users buy products directly in the chatbot, taking a cut from each sale. This move aims to create a fresh revenue stream after the company reportedly lost $5 billion last year. Early prototypes have been shown to brands, with Shopify powering the checkout tech. The plan could turn ChatGPT into a major player in online shopping and challenge Google in product search. Marketers are already eyeing “AIO” (AI Optimization) as brands adapt to AI-driven product discovery and the chatbot becomes a new kind of storefront.

2/ OpenAI will introduce Agent Mode to replace Excel and PowerPoint

OpenAI will introduce Agent Mode today, a new feature in ChatGPT that can pull data from Google Drive, browse the web, and create reports without using separate tools. It’s designed to open, edit, and build files like spreadsheets and slides directly inside ChatGPT, blending Operator functions with more memory and automation. Early access is rolling out now. If it delivers, ChatGPT could start handling tasks we rely on Microsoft Office for, like analyzing documents, creating presentations, booking hotels, and sending summaries, all in a single prompt. It’s a big step from smart assistant to autonomous problem-solver.

3/ Google’s AI can now make phone calls for you

Google is rolling out a new AI feature in Search that lets anyone in the US have AI call local businesses on their behalf. The tool can check pricing or availability for services like pet groomers, dry cleaners, and auto shops (no phone call required). When you search for these services, a “have AI check pricing” option appears. Google’s AI then asks for details like your pet’s breed or preferred service time and follows up via text or email. Powered by Gemini and Duplex tech, the feature announces itself as an AI when calling businesses. Business owners can opt out, and AI Pro/Ultra users get higher usage limits.

4/ NC State builds faster, more efficient self-driving chemistry lab

NC State researchers have built a self-driving lab that runs chemical experiments in real time, collecting new data every half-second instead of waiting for each test to finish. Unlike older setups that work with steady conditions, this one uses changing flow systems, so it gathers over 10 times more data in the same amount of time. The system combines robots, sensors, and machine learning to decide what to test next while the experiment is still running. It uses less material and takes less time to find useful chemical reactions. The research was published in Nature Chemical Engineering and could help speed up work on clean energy, electronics, and other materials.

5/ Anthropic brings “Claude for Financial Services” to target Wall Street professionals

Anthropic has launched a Financial Analysis Solution that brings its Claude models to the finance world, bundling real-time data, enterprise tools, and pre-built connectors to platforms like Snowflake, FactSet, and Databricks. Designed for market research, financial modeling, and compliance, the offering positions Claude as a rival to Bloomberg Terminal and Perplexity’s finance tools. Early users like Norges Bank report 20% productivity gains, while partners such as Deloitte and KPMG help firms integrate Claude for regulatory analysis and trading. With strict data privacy policies and AWS availability, Anthropic is pitching Claude as a secure AI layer for financial institutions.

6/ Thinking Machines Raises $2B to build human-friendly AI

Thinking Machines Lab, led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, just raised $2 billion in early funding. The team includes several ex-OpenAI researchers and engineers. Their goal is to build AI that can work with people using text, images, and other formats, instead of just answering questions. The company is set up as a public-benefit corporation, which means it's supposed to consider the public good alongside profit. They plan to open-source some tools, publish research regularly, and focus on safety and transparency. There's no product yet, but early backers include a16z, Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, Jane Street, and others. A first release is expected in the next few months.

Useful AI Links

Trending Tools

Amazon Kiro - Amazon's new Claude-powered spec-driven vibe coding tool.
Reducto Edit - An endpoint that fills out your PDFs automatically.
Asimov - The coding research agent built for understanding code, not just generating it.
Hume - A voice-based LLM that detects human emotion in conversations to improve AI interactions.
AI Playground- All the latest AI video tools in a single place
Basic Memory - Transform AI conversations into persistent, interconnected knowledge. Start local, scale anywhere.
Lightricks - The first model to generate native long-form video, with controllability that beats every open-source model.

Think Pieces / Brain Boost

Drones, AI, and Robot Pickers: Meet the fully autonomous farm.
Context Engineering: A guide with examples.
The future of jobs and the economy in the age of AI - with Chief Economist and COO of OpenAI.
Marc Andreessen’s career advice for the AI era.
My experience with Claude Code after 2 weeks of adventures.
Why scaling AI models won’t deliver AGI: The 4 cognitive quadrants.
Google's study shows that LLMs abandon correct answers under pressure, threatening multi-turn AI systems.
Zuckerberg outlines AI vision with billions in compute, top talent chase.
AI that can improve itself - Richard Cornelius Suwandi
Reflections on OpenAI - Calvin French-Owen.
Humans are sounding more like ChatGPT, a new study suggests.
AI is killing the 5-year IT project.