Unpuzzling AI · November 11, 2026
Where will work happen next?
From the November 11, 2026 edition. News and invitations reflect that date. Recipient-specific links have been removed.
Where will your team work next?
This week’s announcements from ChatGPT and Claude have me wondering how much longer we’ll be working across the same collection of software we use today.
ChatGPT has rolled out Businesses in ChatGPT, allowing eligible organizations to claim their businesses, update information, and see how people engage with them. You can check whether your organization and its separately listed programs, including camps and preschools, are eligible here.
Claude is also moving further into work we’ve traditionally done in other software, announcing Claude Meetings, Claude Whiteboards, and Claude Sheets. Meetings will allow you to add Claude to calls to take notes and update documents in real time. I can see it becoming a serious competitor to Otter and Granola if it can act on the files discussed in the moment.
Whiteboards and Sheets allow for team collaboration and visualization within Claude.
As these offerings expand, I’d ask whether your existing tools can fulfill a need before purchasing or building something new, and which tools you may no longer need.
Are you looking for AI to work inside the tools your team already knows, or are you becoming open to replacing some of those tools? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
With heart,
Amanda
Insights
News that matters, and why
Here are the changes behind that bigger question, with a closer look at what they could mean for your team.
Claude Meetings: Prepare for more than a transcript
Anthropic says Claude Meetings is coming soon, with the ability to take notes and update working documents during a call. That would move AI beyond recording what happened and into helping produce the work while people are discussing it.
Why it matters
If this works as described, less work will need to be reconstructed after a meeting because the discussion and its supporting documents can develop together. That could shorten the gap between a decision and follow-through, while giving staff more room to participate instead of dividing their attention between the conversation and their notes. It also makes human confirmation more important: a document updated during a discussion can look final before the team has actually agreed.
Claude Sheets: A shared spreadsheet you can build by describing the work
Claude Sheets is a new spreadsheet inside Claude, where colleagues and AI can edit the same cells. It supports multiple tabs, formulas, formatting, and dropdowns, with edits visibly marked as they happen. It is in beta on paid plans, enabled by default on Team and disabled by default on Enterprise.
Why it matters
Building and adjusting a spreadsheet through conversation lowers the technical barrier for staff who understand the work but struggle to translate it into formulas and structure. Teams could spend less time setting up files or waiting for the colleague who knows Excel, and more time interpreting the information. The tradeoff is responsibility for another shared workspace, because an easier way to create a spreadsheet does not establish who maintains it or whether its calculations are correct.
Worth knowing: This is separate from editing Google Sheets through a connector. Claude Sheets can export to Excel or CSV, but it currently lacks protected ranges and pivot tables, cannot pull live data from connected apps, and offers only basic read-only mobile access.
Claude Whiteboards: Keep the team in the brainstorming
Anthropic has also introduced Claude Whiteboards in beta on paid plans. Teams can collaborate on a shared visual board while Claude helps organize ideas, group themes, and develop a timeline with owners and dates. The work can then become a document or presentation.
Why it matters
Bringing AI into a shared board could reduce the work of collecting separate contributions, organizing them, and turning them into a plan, while making the team’s thinking visible to one another.
Claude Data: Better reporting starts with agreeing on the numbers
Claude Data, previously called Claude Dashboards, is now generally available on paid plans and needs a connected data source. It can create dashboards and explanations from organizational data; new capabilities include certified queries and live sharing in beta. Certified queries let a data team designate the approved calculation behind a metric.
Why it matters
Easier access to organizational data could reduce dependence on the person who knows how to pull every report and help staff answer follow-up questions while decisions are being made. Shared definitions could also reduce conflicting numbers across departments and board materials. The limit is the information underneath: AI can make reporting more accessible, but incomplete records or inconsistent calculations can still produce a polished, misleading explanation.
Claude’s connectors: Availability, permission, and approval
Anthropic’s interactive connector update lets supported apps open beside a Claude conversation, with Claude able to make changes inside them. The rollout depends on the app, account, and organization’s Claude experience. This builds on the connector rollout described in your admin notice, including connections to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Why it matters
Staff could spend less time moving information between tools and re-explaining the same work, because Claude can use context and make changes where the work already lives. That makes AI more useful across a full process, while increasing the consequences of a mistake: an inaccurate answer can become an inaccurate shared record. Organizations will need to distinguish permission to retrieve information from permission to change it, and make responsibility for reviewing those changes clear.
The connector guide distinguishes making a connector available from authenticating access to it. Each person usually connects their own account, although eligible Team and Enterprise organizations now have an organization-managed authorization option. Ask the account owner to review available connectors and their read/write capabilities.
From shared work to visual storytelling
The updates also reach the materials your communications team creates.
OpenAI Images 2.6: Faster image creation, with motion
OpenAI’s Images 2.6 update adds GIF creation, faster image generation, and improved consistency across edits in ChatGPT, Codex, and the API. OpenAI says generation is 50% faster.
Why it matters
Faster generation and more consistent editing could reduce the time spent rebuilding visual materials after each revision, giving small communications teams more room to refine their work. GIFs also add a motion option without requiring a full video production process.
News
Resources and opportunities
If one of these changes connects to work on your desk, these learning, funding, and planning opportunities may be useful.
Tomorrow: Make Claude useful on a real nonprofit task
Thursday, November 12 | 10:00–10:45 am PT / 1:00–1:45 pm ET
Anthropic’s Claude for Nonprofits: A Staff Guide to Making Claude Useful on Day One is a 45-minute session using a fictional nonprofit’s data to work through an appeal. It covers organizational context, connected tools, nonprofit skills, and what staff should check against their AI use policy, with Team and Enterprise examples identified.
Mozilla funding: A fit for builders with working, community-shaped technology
Mozilla’s Human-Scale AI Incubator will provide selected projects $300,000 and 12 months of support beginning in April 2027. Strong progress may lead to an additional $200,000 and two more years of support; that follow-on funding is conditional. Initial proposals are due November 20 at 11:59 pm PT, and an information session takes place November 12 at 9:00 am PT / noon ET.
Mozilla wants working technology already deployed with its intended community, even through an early pilot, that uses resources thoughtfully and gives people meaningful control. Projects must have a charitable purpose; applicants need not be nonprofits.
December: Leading What’s Next
AI Strategy Retreat for JCC Professional Leadership
December 15–17, 2026 | JCC Association’s Mercaz, 520 8th Avenue, New York City
When you’re moving between budget conversations, program decisions, and the next staff question about AI, it can be hard to find time to think about where all of this is heading for your JCC.
This retreat brings executives and senior professionals across JCC departments together for strategic thinking, peer discussion, and hands-on application. We’ll begin with governance and executive judgment, then explore how AI can support collaboration, organizational data, market research, program decisions, marketing, and fundraising.
You can participate whether you’re just getting started or already experimenting, and coming with a colleague is encouraged so you have someone to carry the work forward with you. Interested in joining us? Reply and I’ll share the registration link.