Week in Product #481 🚀
Granola expands, Claude takes control of your Mac, Siri opens up to 3p models, The Product job market in 2026, Claude Code and Perplexity Computer guides, & more
Hi friends 👋
Welcome to a new Week in Product!
🎰 The week in figures
$10B: OpenAI is raising additional $10B (part of a $120B+ total round)
$2.5B: Reflection AI, the Nvidia-backed open-source startup, is in talks to raise $2.5B at a $25B valuation to build models countering China's DeepSeek
$600M: Grab buys Foodpanda Taiwan for $600M. The SE-Asian super-app expands food delivery footprint in key market
$200M: Harvey, the Legal AI startup raised $200M at a $11Bvaluation, highlighting VC trend towards domain-specific AI solutions like legal
$125M: Granonla raised $125M at $1.5B valuation (6x jump), as it expands from meeting notetaker to full enterprise AI app with agent support
$100M: ChatGPT hits $100M in annual ad revenue: It has only been 6 weeks since OpenAI began experimenting with showing ads in ChatGPT results
8k: OpenAI plans to double headcount to 8,000 by year-end
8x: HUMAN Security reported automated internet traffic grew 8x faster than human traffic in 2025, with agentic AI traffic up 7,85% and OpenAI generating ~69% of all observed AI bot traffic
📰 What’s going on
OpenAI pulls plug on Sora Text-to-video generator app after poor traction vs established platforms. This also ends the $1B Disney deal
Free ride ChatGPT is over. After testing ads with select US users, ads for free and Go-tier users in the US will roll out in the coming weeks
ChatGPT’s shopping feature flopped. Instant Checkout is being scaled back after users largely ignored it
Anthropic has updated Claude to perform tasks autonomously by controlling your computer through Code and Cowork. The new feature can open files, use web browsers and apps, and run dev tools “with no setup required,” even when you’re away from your computer. Available as a research preview for Claude Pro and Max subscribers on macOS, and requires the desktop app to be paired with Claude’s mobile app. Claude prioritizes connectors to supported services like Slack and Google Workspace first, but will directly control your browser, mouse, keyboard, and display if a connector isn’t available
Claude Code added "auto mode" (research preview), which lets the agent decide which actions are safe to run on its own and which need your approval, eliminating the "babysit every step or let it run wild" tradeoff for developers
Anthropic is discussing an IPO as soon as Q4 2026, expecting it to raise over $60B, which would make it the second-largest public offering ever behind SpaceX
Google launched Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, its best voice model yet, powering Search Live across 200+ countries. Point your phone camera at anything and talk about it in 90+ languages. Already deployed by Verizon and Home Depot
Google makes it easier to switch to Gemini. The company announced a line-up of new Gemini tools allowing users to upload their chat histories and context from other AI apps, like ChatGPT or Claude
Apple announced it will open Siri to rival AI assistants (Gemini, Claude, others) via "Extensions" in iOS 27, ending OpenAI's exclusive partnership. Gemini 3.1 Flash Live is a likely reason Apple accelerated that timeline; Google's voice model is now good enough to be the default Siri brain for millions of users who opt in
Apple has added more than 100 new metrics in App Store Connect Analytics, so you can measure better the performance of your iOS mobile apps. Includes monetization and subscription data
iOS 26.4 adds AI-generated playlists to Apple Music based on mood, activity; the new iOS also integrates Ticketmaster for concert discovery and in-app purchases
Apple announced WWDC 2026 for June 8–12, teasing major Siri upgrades and “AI advancements.”
Meta released TRIBE v2, a foundation model that predicts how the human brain responds to video, audio, and language. Trained on over 1,000 hours of brain scan data across 720 people, it can simulate which parts of the brain activate in response to a given stimulus, without running a single new experiment
Meta's is launching new tools for AI adoption among small businesses. They have been blurry about the “what”, but the types of tools they’re hinting at include things like AI-powered customer service in WhatsApp Business, or AI-generated ad creatives and copy for Facebook and Instagram
Meta preps third-gen Ray-Ban AI glasses launch, with enhanced capabilities and design updates
Spotify launches SongDNA feature to visualize how songs influenced each other, shows genre, artist connections
Tencent launched ClawBot, a tool that brings the OpenClaw AI agent directly into WeChat for its 1 billion+ monthly users
Alibaba launches Accio Work, an enterprise AI agent platform for SMEs. The no-code system deploys specialized agents for compliance, sourcing, and logistics across 100+ markets, with 10M monthly active users already on the platform
monday.com launches Agentalent.ai, a hiring platform for AI agents.Built with AWS and Anthropic, the marketplace lets enterprises post roles, evaluate qualified agents, and onboard them alongside human teams. Wix and Mesh Payments among early adopters
Reforge is being acquired by Miro (monetary details undisclosed). Learning remains a separate brand on Reforge.com, with no changes to cohorts, access, or pricing, while Insights, Research, and Build will gradually integrate into Miro
Ultrahuman launches Ring Pro in the US. The smart ring tracks sleep, HRV, metabolism, and other signals to compete with Oura's dominance
📚 Good reads
State of the product job market in early 2026. Lenny’s latest data pull shows PM and eng openings at their highest in years, with AI roles exploding (especially in the Bay Area and NYC). Design hiring, meanwhile, has flattened, remote options are shrinking, and recruiters are back in demand (pointing to a real rebound). Overall, it looks less like a mass cull of tech jobs and more like a messy headcount reshuffle toward AI-heavy, in-office teams
How to stay on top of everything. Jaclyn Konzelmann argues you don’t “stay on top of everything” by reading more, but by building real things, hitting walls, and then learning just enough to get unstuck. Through her own projects, she surfaces UX and model-limit lessons that loop back into her day job. So…keep reading Week in Product, but also push your AI learning in live, scrappy experiments with real cases, not just reading
Your real job isn’t what you think. David Pereira argues that most teams react to problems by adding more process, meetings, and artefacts, but that just creates work about work and buries real progress. PM’s real job is to relentlessly simplify what others complicate (cutting estimations, rigid ceremonies, or bloated documentation) when they don’t clearly serve outcomes. The best teams, he says, focus on one goal at a time, iterate quickly, protect deep work, and constantly remove clutter so they can ship, learn, and create customer and business value
Anthropic published research finding no material job displacement from AI yet, but a growing skills gap where power users are pulling dramatically ahead of everyone else
🎧 Good listen/watch
[Video] Claude Code for PMs. This short, free, Maven Lesson by ex-Spotify UXR lead Caitlin Sullivan shows PMs how to use Claude Code workflows. She walks through a multi-phase pipeline: parallel sub-agents to audit evidence, an automated assumption register to surface hidden risks, and a generated, prioritized test plan
[Video] The best Product Leaders reject comfortable metrics. Jeremy Epling (CPO at Vanta, ex‑Microsoft/GitHub) shares how to successfully jump from big tech into a fast‑moving scaleup without becoming just a “professional manager.” He argues great CPOs stay deep in the product, own win rate and pricing as much as UX, and build a tight feedback loop with sales. Along the way he shares concrete systems for shipping fast as headcount grows, managing tension with revenue teams, and setting a quality bar
🧑💻 Worth learning
The guide to Perplexity Computer, by Aakash Gupta. Perplexity’s new Computer orchestrates 19+ AI models and 400+ app connectors to research, build, and automate multi-step tasks entirely in the cloud. It can act like a legal aide, analyst, or internal tools engineer, especially once you add Skills, custom instructions, and connectors (Snowflake, GitHub, Plaid, Shopify, etc.). It’s metered, not flat-priced, so keep an eye on your tokens and add guardrails!
Claude Code Cheat Sheet: a quick-reference keyboard shortcuts, slash commands, MCP server setup, memory rules, workflow tips (plan mode, git worktrees, voice mode in 20 languages), and agent configs. Free
🔧 Products to try
Context.dev gives you one API to pull clean data from any website: text, images, products, and brand assets in seconds. Free to scrape 500 pages, or get “brand” from 50
Tempmail Mail generates a disposable email address in seconds so you can sign up for anything without exposing your real inbox. The first 9 addresses are free
Cog adds persistent memory, self-reflection, and scenario simulation to Claude Code, giving your coding agent continuous awareness across sessions. Free (open source)
That’s a wrap for this week!
Feel free to drop your comments/questions/feedback. Would love to hear what you’d like to see more about in WiP, so I can make it better for you.
Have a great weekend.
