el producto #442 🚀
Perplexity alerts on WhatsApp, Claude apps, OpenAI collaboration software, Alexa+ rolling out, Context engineering, A positive note on the PM market, Team vibes & more
Hi friends 👋
Happy weekend, and welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$300M: Harvey, which automates legal work like contract review, document drafting, and legal research using AI trained specifically for law firms, raised $300M
$123M: Finom closed €115M ($123M) to expand its SMB-focused fintech operations across Europe
65%: Robinhood announced that some 65% of its customer support issues are handled and closed by AI
3%: 61% of Americans have used AI in the past 6 months, but only 3% of users actually subscribeto premium services. While Gen Z leads overall adoption, 24% of Millennials use AI every single day—higher than any other generation. More interesting data here
📰 What’s going on
Claude now lets you build and share AI-powered apps. Now, Artifacts can actually run Claude inside them. Claude writes the code, hosts your app, and lets users access it through a shareable link where their usage counts against their own subscription, not yours. Here’s a demo
OpenAI and Jony Ive's io are developing a mass-market AI device amid trademark disputes with iyO, with legal filings suggesting exploration of a pocket-sized Assistant device — and not an earbud as rumored
OpenAI is working on “collaboration software” for ChatGPT to make it more like using Google and Microsoft’s suite or tools, with file sharing and the ability to work together
OpenAI is developing advanced autonomous vehicle software, potentially rivaling Tesla. Sam Altman asserts that their tech might surpass current self-driving systems
iOS 26 Beta updates: Apple improved Liquid Glass Control Center readability in the second iOS 26 developer beta with increased opacity, and added a new ringtone
Apple is reportedly considering acquiring AI Search engine, Perplexity, to build an AI-powered search engine and AI capabilities within Safari and across its other services, including Siri
Google released Gemini CLI, a free tool to code with AI by chatting with your terminal
Google has officially launched Offerwall, a recent monetization tool for publishers reeling from declining visitors caused by AI-powered search. Bundled with Google Ad Manager, Offerwall provides publishers with flexible ways to generate revenue, including micropayments, surveys, rewarded ads and more without relying solely on clicks and page views. Tests across 1,000 publishers revealed an average revenue uplift of 9% during the year-long pilot period
YouTube began rolling out AI-powered video carousels in search results for Premium users on mobile, offering more relevant video recommendations for queries about shopping, places, and activities. The debut AI search feature is available to Premium users on mobile, with some non-Premium users in the US granted permission to use the conversational AI tool for follow-up questions and summaries
Meta finally hired four of OpenAI’s “best” engineers, after WhatsApping 100+ others: Trapit Bansal, who was one of the main contributors to OpenAI’s original thinking model, “o1”…, as well as Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai
WhatsApp revealed that it will show ads for the first time, placing them in the Updates tab—not within private chats—and will also offer paid channel subscriptions
Perplexity now lets you schedule tasks on WhatsApp. So, for example, you could ask it for regular updates on specific topics every week or every morning. For product teams, this could be useful for things like industry news updates or competitor intelligence
Amazon's Alexa+ service, powered by genAI, now offers access to over 1M users through invites sent to early signups. The service is not yet publicly available but will expand gradually, with initial availability on Echo Show devices in the U.S
Airtable is pivoting with a major relaunch. After previously competing with the likes of Google Sheets and Notion through spreadsheet / database management, it will now relaunch as an AI-powered mini app builder focused on helping consumers and businesses build lightweight apps they can use at work and at home
11.ai's Voice Assistant: 11 Labs integrates voice-first interaction with MCP for AI assistants to manage tools like Salesforce & Slack, currently in alpha with free access
NativeMind brings AI directly to your browser while keeping everything private and on-device through a Chrome extension. I’ve just started testing it this week, and will share my experience!
X announced that it will soon enable users to invest and trade directly on the platform. X Money will feature a digital wallet with peer-to-peer functionality (launching first in the U.S. via Visa), and a potential physical debit or credit card later in the year
📚 Good reads
Context engineering. Forget “prompt engineering”, it’s time to focus on “context engineering.” AI experts like Andrej Karpathy are pushing this term to reframe how to work with AI because it better describes the challenge: giving your AI all the context it needs to solve your task. What matters the most when getting AI to help you is assembling the right context (examples, background info, tools, conversation history) to reduce the “fog of war” for your model. Think of it like prepping for a presentation: too little info and you'll fumble; too much irrelevant stuff and you'll lose focus. So don’t spend too much time trying to craft the most clever prompt. Focus on giving it thoughtfully curated context that sets your model up to win
A positive note on the PM job market. The market is tough, but Aakash Gupta shows there’s growing demand for PMs who can bridge technical and business gaps. The piece also touches on the skills and mindset needed to thrive in today’s market
Preparing for Google Zero - the great distribution shift. CJ Gustafson explains how Google and LLMs are using creators' content, impacting traditional SEO and customer acquisition. We need to start thinking about diversifying distribution strategies beyond search, and look at niche communities, customer advocacy, and alternative content formats to thrive in a "Google Zero" world
A primer on retention in SaaS. SaaS retention is a recurring test of product-market fit, getting tougher as industries evolve. Elena Verna argues that fixing activation, feature adoption, voluntary churn, and resurrection is the only way to stay ahead. The article is packed with nice insights for SaaS PMs (or really, any PM)
3 team vibes - understanding Product team modes. John Cutler explores 3 common team modes in product development—Team 1 (exhilarating, proactive), Team 2 (frenetic, juggling priorities), and Team 3 (ambiguous, demoralizing). Company culture shapes these states. If you are Team 3, time to do something about it
That’s a wrap for this week! 🌟
I’d love to hear your thoughts—what stood out to you, and how are you thinking about integrating these insights into your Product strategy? Reply to the email or drop a comment on Substack to share your take. And if you found this valuable, forward it to a fellow PM, Product enthusiast, startup founder or entrepreneur who’d enjoy the read
See you next week! 👋
Angel