This Week in AI
This Week in AI for Contractors and Home Services: Google Is Putting More Ads Inside Its AI Answers
Plus ChatGPT got cheaper at reading drawings, and it can now read your iCloud email. October 26th to November 1st.
Four things happened in AI between October 26th and November 1st that are worth five minutes of your time if you run a trade or home service business.
All four are about the same shift: more homeowners ask a chatbot first, and the companies behind those chatbots are deciding what to do with that.
Monday: ChatGPT kept sending people to the wrong place for help
On Monday, the tech news site 404 Media reported that ChatGPT has been telling people with ordinary tech problems to email its reporters.
In the main example, a man in Russia lost access to his Instagram account and asked ChatGPT how to get it back. ChatGPT said contacting Meta probably wouldn't work, suggested journalists instead, listed 404 Media with a reporter's email address, and wrote the email for him in English. Other people were told their routine account problems were newsworthy. One was told he had "discovered something journalistically notable." Everyone who wrote in said a chatbot had pointed them there.
404 Media's explanation is that big tech platforms offer almost no human support, so people turn to a chatbot, and the chatbot sends them somewhere. OpenAI has not said publicly why this happens.
What that tells you: this wasn't about contractors, but the pattern is. A homeowner with a leak at 9 p.m. asks a chatbot who to call before they search or ask a neighbor. When the answer is you, that's a free referral. When it's wrong, the job goes to someone else, or the homeowner calls a number that doesn't pick up. You can't control what a chatbot says about your business. You can make the right answer easy to find: your phone number, your service area, your hours, and what you do, written the same way on your website, your Google listing, and everywhere else you're listed.
Monday: OpenAI released a cheaper model that reads technical drawings
Also on Monday, OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra, its middle tier model. OpenAI says it costs 50% less than the version it replaces and is built for workday tasks: drafting proposals, reading technical drawings, filling out forms, and editing videos. It can also operate a computer screen, clicking and typing through a task.
OpenAI says the new model makes far fewer mistakes on prompts designed to trip it up. Those are OpenAI's own test results. No outside testing has been reported yet. It's available in ChatGPT Work, OpenAI's business plan, and to developers who build on OpenAI.
What that tells you: look at the list OpenAI chose to advertise: proposals, technical drawings, forms. That's estimating and office work. Software that reads a plan set or drafts a bid runs on engines like this one, and when the engine gets half as expensive, those tools have room to get cheaper or do more. Treat OpenAI's accuracy claims as a starting point. A missed dimension on a drawing costs more than the time it saved, so anything it pulls off a plan still needs a person to check it.
Tuesday: ChatGPT can now read and send your iCloud email
On Tuesday, OpenAI added iCloud Mail and iCloud Calendar to ChatGPT, for every plan, including free. It already worked with Gmail and Google Calendar.
Once connected, ChatGPT can search your inbox, summarize unread emails, draft and send replies, and create or change calendar events. It can also give you a daily summary of unread mail sorted by priority, with suggested replies. Setup takes an extra step: you create a special password in your Apple account settings just for ChatGPT, rather than using your normal one. It works on the web, on desktop, and on iPhone. Depending on your settings, ChatGPT may ask before it reads or sends anything.
What that tells you: plenty of owners run the business from an iPhone and an @icloud.com address. If that's you, you can now ask ChatGPT which customer emails you haven't answered, or have it put an estimate appointment on your calendar from a message, at no cost. Connecting it means a chatbot can read everything in that inbox, including bids, signed contracts, and customer addresses. Decide whether you're comfortable with that before you connect it, not after.
Wednesday: Google is putting more ads inside its AI answers
On Wednesday, on its quarterly earnings call, Google said it is "scaling high-quality ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode to more users and queries." AI Overviews are the AI written summaries at the top of Google search results. AI Mode is Google's chatbot style search.
Ads in AI Mode are coming to ten more countries, including Canada and Australia, with Brazil, Mexico, and the UK to follow this quarter. In the US, ads will also start showing up next to the follow up questions people ask in AI Mode. Google's business chief said sponsored products in AI Mode get clicked about as often as regular results.
The reason is in Google's own numbers. Search revenue grew 12% from a year ago, down from 17% the quarter before. Google's business chief said people asking more questions in AI Mode was part of the slowdown, because "AI Mode monetized less." Alphabet's stock fell 8% after the results.
What that tells you: most trade and home service work starts with a Google search like "roofer near me" or "AC repair." Google's AI answers made it less money than its normal results, so it is filling them with ads. That means the top of the page is changing. Fewer homeowners scroll down to the map and the list of businesses, and more read an answer that will increasingly have paid spots inside it. Nothing to buy today. But if you run Google Ads or Local Services Ads, ask whoever manages them whether your ads can show inside AI answers, because that's where Google is sending the attention.
Putting it together
A chatbot told people who to email for help. ChatGPT moved into the iPhone inbox. And Google started selling ad space inside the answers that are replacing its search results.
More homeowners are asking an AI before they call anyone. Whoever controls that answer controls the referral.
None of this means you need to chase every new tool. It means the places homeowners ask for help are changing, and it's worth knowing what those places say about you.
P.S. Open ChatGPT and ask it, "Who should I call for [your trade] in [your town]?" Then ask it for your own phone number and service area. If either answer is wrong, that's what some homeowners are being told.
Aristotle Taylor is CEO and co-founder of Levron Labs, where he and his team help businesses put AI to work.
Sources
ChatGPT routing tech-support seekers to journalists (October 26)
GPT-6.1 Terra (October 26)
ChatGPT iCloud Mail and Calendar (October 27)
Google ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode (October 28–29)
Keep reading
Guide
How Contractors Can Make Their Phone Tell Them Who Is Calling Before They Answer
Your iPhone or Pixel can type out what an unknown caller says while they say it. It is free, it is built in, and it takes two minutes to turn on.
Guide
This Week in AI for Contractors and Home Services: Prosecutors Say AI Copies of CEOs Stole $129 Million
Plus Meta paused its website crawling terms, and your Google Maps listing needs a quick check. November 2nd to the 8th.
Guide
Have AI Tell You Which Customers You Haven’t Answered
One prompt. Longest wait first. Connect ChatGPT to your email and get a short list of who’s still waiting on a quote, a schedule, or a promise you already made.
Let’s find the hours.
Bring your last ten quotes and a normal week off the schedule. Forty-five minutes is usually enough to see where it’s going.