What’s New in the World of AI (Or: Why I’m Getting Less Sleep Than Usual)

Look, I spend half my life in airport lounges and the other half on stages in places like Singapore, Dubai, and occasionally Great Yarmouth (where the seagulls are more aggressive than any boardroom I’ve encountered). And everywhere I go, I’m telling people the same thing: AI isn’t coming. It’s already here, it’s made itself a cup of tea, and it’s wondering why you’re still using that spreadsheet from 2017.

This past week was a perfect example.

While most businesses are still having meetings about whether they should have a meeting about AI, the tech world quietly did several things that actually matter. No hype, no nonsense — just stuff that’ll change how we work whether we’re ready or not.

Let me walk you through what caught my attention.

AI Video Just Got Properly Interesting

Elon Musk’s xAI released something called Grok Imagine, and it’s shot straight to the top of the video generation leaderboards. Now, before you roll your eyes at another Elon announcement, here’s why this one matters:

It’s fast, it costs about $4.20 per minute (compared to $30 from the competition), you can edit it afterwards, it includes audio, and — this is the bit that matters — it’s built to plug straight into actual business workflows.

This isn’t for teenagers making daft videos anymore. This is for sales teams who need a product demo by Tuesday. For trainers who need to show something that doesn’t exist yet. For marketers who’ve been told “we need video” but have neither the budget nor the patience for a three-month production process.

I’ve been banging on about video for years now — not because it’s trendy, but because it’s the difference between getting noticed and getting ignored. This week just made it accessible to people who aren’t video editors.

Google Let Us Walk Inside AI-Generated Worlds (Yes, Really)

Right, this one’s properly mind-bending. Google DeepMind opened up something called Project Genie to the public. You describe a world, add a character, and then you can actually walk around inside it. The AI remembers what it built. The world stays consistent. You can fly, drive, explore — basically play about in a place that didn’t exist five minutes ago.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “That’s nice, Frank, but I’ve got actual work to do.”

Fair enough. But imagine this: Instead of showing a client a PowerPoint deck about your new warehouse layout, you walk them through it. Instead of describing a training scenario, your team experiences it. Instead of explaining what the future might look like, you let people see it.

Once businesses figure out they can do that, the entire concept of “presenting” is going to change. PowerPoint’s had a good run, but this is a different game entirely.

The Real Wins Are the Boring Ones (Sorry)

Here’s the bit nobody gets excited about, but absolutely should.

Someone in my network set up a competitor intelligence system using Claude that creates reports, updates itself automatically, files everything properly, and builds battlecards on demand. Another person used AI to automate their invoice processing and got back hours every single week.

Riveting stuff, I know. Won’t make the headlines. But this is where AI is actually winning right now — not by replacing people, but by replacing the soul-destroying admin that nobody should be doing anyway.

I trained sales teams for 25 years before AI showed up. Trust me, the fewer hours they spend updating spreadsheets, the better everyone’s life becomes.

Hollywood Stopped Arguing and Started Using It

Darren Aronofsky — proper Hollywood director, not some tech startup founder — just released an AI-assisted series recreating the American Revolution.

Let that sink in for a moment.

This isn’t a tech demo or a controversial experiment anymore. This is a real director, working with a real platform, for a real audience, using AI as a normal part of the production workflow.

The same thing’s going to happen in sales, marketing, training, HR — just quietly at first, then all at once. The argument phase is ending. The “just get on with it” phase is beginning.

Follow the Money (and the Lawyers)

Meanwhile, in the background:

• Apple bought an AI audio company for nearly $2 billion
• Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon are hovering around OpenAI with $60 billion in play
• Music companies are suing Anthropic for over $3 billion
• The whole intellectual property mess is heating up fast

That’s what a revolution looks like from the middle: expensive, messy, and completely unstoppable.

Frank’s Quick Tip

Here’s what I’m seeing from stages across 70-odd countries: AI itself isn’t the advantage anymore. Knowing how to use it properly is.

The gap is growing — and growing fast — between people who dabble with ChatGPT when they’re bored and people who’ve built actual systems that do real work.

Between those who ask AI to write an email… and those who’ve taught it to think through problems with them.

One group saves a few hours here and there. The other group is saving years of their life.

The choice is yours. But the window for making it is getting smaller.

Right, I’m off to catch a flight to Orlando. If you need me, I’ll be the one in seat 43B muttering about how the AI on the in-flight entertainment is somehow worse than it was in 2019.