Word, Excel, and PowerPoint inside Copilot. Claude inside Google Docs and Sheets. Gemini querying whole databases from a spreadsheet. Who gets each one, and what to check before you trust it.
This site is for people who already have a job. Goal: dated proof of work you can show a manager in 30–90 days. Not a job board. Not a degree catalog.
Since Sep 27
What changed
AI stopped handing you text to paste and started editing the real file. That saves time, and it removes the moment where you used to read everything before it landed. Agents that keep working while you are away arrived as previews, and five new models shipped. Each card says who can use it now and the one thing to watch.
Read the full brief: checks for in-file edits, database answers, a delegation brief for agents, and a model-by-task table.
Microsoft
Microsoft · · Frontier customers
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint open inside Copilot
In the new Copilot app, you start in Chat or Cowork and a real Office file opens beside the conversation. Files save to OneDrive with comments, sharing, and version history kept. In Excel, Copilot shows you what it changed. Source
Try this:
Ask Copilot to turn this week’s notes into your status doc, then end the prompt with “list every change you made.” Check three of them before you share. Go
Watch out:
Frontier only for now. Microsoft has not given a date for everyone else.
Claude now works inside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
The Claude for Google Workspace add-on opens in a sidebar, reads what you have selected, and edits in place: formulas, pivot tables, new tabs, and slides that match your theme. The default mode, “Ask before edits,” makes you approve each change. Source
Try this:
In a copy of a sheet you own, ask for one new summary tab. Then click three cells it filled and read the formulas, not just the numbers. Go
Watch out:
“Accept all edits” skips the approval cards. Keep it off on files other people use. Team and Enterprise owners must enable the connectors first.
Google · · Business and Enterprise Standard or Plus, Google AI Pro and Ultra
Gemini in Sheets now queries the whole BigQuery table
Once a sheet is connected to BigQuery, Gemini answers against the full dataset, not just the rows you can see. Ask for a review and it shows its plan, then builds a tab with pivot tables and charts that refresh on a schedule. Rollout can take up to 15 days. Source
Try this:
Ask a question your data team answered for you last month and compare totals. If they differ, the gap tells you a definition you were missing. Go
Watch out:
Before you present a number, ask for the query, the filters, and the date range it used.
A separate app where Claude flags what needs your attention, finishes tasks you hand it, keeps working while you are away, and checks with you before acting on your behalf. Anthropic says it may still misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent. Source
Try this:
Write the brief you would give a new assistant for one recurring task: the goal, the sources, a never-do list, and when to ask you first. Go
Watch out:
Its background checks count against your plan’s usage limits. Do not hand it anything that reaches a customer or cannot be undone.
Google’s new frontier model for complex, multi-step work is in the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search. Google says it answers more directly, with less hedging. The app also added a tasks mode that keeps working when you are not at your computer. Source
Try this:
Give Argon and your usual model the same multi-document task. Keep whichever output you would have to fix less, and note why. Go
Watch out:
Less hedging means fewer built-in warnings. Your own check matters more, not less.
OpenAI · · Work and Codex on paid plans; Chat for everyone
GPT-6.1 Sol for work, Intelligent UI for everyone
GPT-6.1 Sol nearly matches GPT-6 Astra on professional work at a fifth of Astra’s API price. It is in ChatGPT Work and Codex, not the Chat tab. In Chat, GPT-6 now answers with charts, diagrams, and small interactive tools when that fits the question. Source · Intelligent UI
Try this:
Ask for a chart of a number you already know. If it matches, then try one you do not know, and check its inputs before you trust the picture. Go
Watch out:
A clean chart built on a wrong paste is still wrong.
A dated reading of official OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft posts
One concrete work action per item, with an internal page to do it
A model table you should re-check on the vendor page
This is not
A rewrite of vendor press releases or a rumor roundup
A paid research product or a 6-hour news crawl
Advice for students hunting a degree. This site is for people who already have a job.
Tip
Your AI chats are work records
On October 22, Google said Vault can export Gemini in Workspace conversations for legal review. ChatGPT’s new locked chats hide a chat behind a PIN, but OpenAI says retention does not change. Write work prompts as if your manager might read them later.
Let the in-file AI make this week’s update to a file you own, with approval on. Ask for a list of every change. Check three by hand. Save the prompt, the list, what you fixed, and the minutes saved. Three weeks of that is a pattern you can show a manager.
"Make this change in the file: [CHANGE]. Keep existing formulas as formulas. When you finish, list every cell, slide, or paragraph you changed with the old value and the new value. Mark anything you inferred instead of read from the file with [CHECK]."