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Happy Wednesday,
OpenAI just had its biggest launch day of the year, so today I'm breaking down ChatGPT's new always-on agents and the ridiculous thing Elon’s company did with the domain name, then five reasons to switch back to ChatGPT, and two Claude prompts that show you why a customer might choose your competitor over you.
Let's get into it.
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IN THIS EMAIL
» ChatGPT Just Launched Always-On AI Agents
» 5 Reasons to Switch From Claude Back to ChatGPT
» Get Claude to Find What Your Competitor Does Better
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🚨 THIS IS BIG
ChatGPT Just Launched Always-On AI Agents
So ChatGPT just launched Dots, always-on AI agents that can actually get things done for you and keep track of what needs your attention.
I think this is the release a lot of us have been waiting for. If I had to guess where AI is heading over the next year, just from what all these companies are building, it's agents that keep working without you having to keep prompting them. That's what makes this so exciting.
Before this, you could already give an agent in ChatGPT a task or a goal and get a finished result. With Dots, the idea is that you give it an ongoing responsibility. It can notice something you missed, remind you about it, or check in with a question without waiting for you to start another conversation.
The way I look at it is you literally have an assistant with their own desk. Each dot runs on GPT-6 Astra and has its own computer in the cloud. You hand it a project, explain what matters, and it keeps moving things forward. If it needs a decision or has a progress update, it can come back and tell you. You don't have to keep asking how it's going.
Unlike Sunday's Remote setup, your dot's cloud computer can keep working with your laptop closed. If you also connect your own computer for access to local files, that computer still needs to be online with the app open.
The example from OpenAI that I liked was an early tester whose dot noticed he'd forgotten to invoice a publication. It prepared the invoice and sent it after he approved it. Remembering to ask for that job is normally half the job.
Create your dot in the ChatGPT desktop app or desktop website and connect the apps it needs. Start with one responsibility. After connecting your email, try this:
For the next seven days, check my inbox each weekday at 8 a.m. in [TIME ZONE] for new or unanswered customer inquiries. Keep a list of who needs a reply, what they want and their deadlines. Draft replies using confirmed business details. Don't send or make commitments. Show me the schedule before activating it. |
You can review its activity and scheduled work in your dot's profile, and set custom rules like asking before it sends a customer message.
It's rolling out on Pro and Business Premium, with an admin-enabled beta for Enterprise. The first dot is included, but deeper work has an allowance. Personal Pro access excludes the UK, Switzerland and the European Economic Area at launch, and rollout can take a few days. This isn't included in the $20 Plus plan yet.
And because these companies apparently can't have a normal rivalry, Elon Musk's xAI bought dot.com, which now sends you straight to Grok Bot. So OpenAI launches Dots, and the address you'd expect to take you there takes you to Elon's competing product instead. I honestly think that's hilarious.
Anyways, I'm going to be testing this over the next week, and I'll share my thoughts, tips and the coolest use cases I find. For me, this is one of the most exciting releases all year.
OpenAI announced more than 20 things yesterday. A few others worth knowing about:
| What's new |
Why you care |
| ChatGPT Space + Pages |
Shared projects and editable documents for you, your team and your agents. Available on Pro, Business and Enterprise. |
| Meetings plugin |
Notes and action items saved into Space. Starting in beta on Mac for Pro and Business. |
| Plugin extensions |
Apps can have their own sidebar home and interactive panels inside ChatGPT, so you can work beside the conversation. |
| GPT-6.1 Sol |
A new model for everyday work across files, apps and code. Available in Work and Codex on Plus and above. |
| Pro 500 + updated Pro 200 |
The new $500/month plan includes 25× the Plus Work/Codex allowance and the new Astra Ultrafast speed option. Pro 200 is back at $200/month with 10× for new subscribers, down from the previous 20×. |
Meet your dot →
See everything OpenAI announced at DevDay →
💡 WORTH A LOOK
5 Reasons to Switch From Claude Back to ChatGPT
If you moved most of your work into Claude a few months ago, at what point do you switch back? OpenAI has had release after release, and the one above makes it even harder to ignore.
For me, it's probably now. Claude is very good and will be better at certain things, and like always, I'd suggest using both. But if you're going to use one, here are five things making the biggest difference right now, and why I'm reaching for ChatGPT about 90% of the time.
1. The models.
I know I might get some flak for this, especially with so many people calling Opus 5.5 the best model ever, but I still think Astra is well ahead for a lot of everyday work. Opus is very good at digging through information and picking apart an idea. But for design, script writing and working through tasks across your computer and browser, Astra is the one I'd choose.
If you're using AI to make something, improve your writing or turn a messy idea into finished work, that's the comparison I'd actually care about.
2. Speed.
Astra has consistently felt faster to me when getting work done. OpenAI already has a Fast mode, and yesterday it announced Astra Ultrafast for Pro 500 and eligible Enterprise plans. It keeps pushing on the part you actually feel as a user: less time waiting between requests. The faster modes use more of your allowance, so there's a trade-off.
3. The usage limits.
I've found ChatGPT's limits easier to work with, and OpenAI has also given out extra usage resets several times this month. Those are bonuses, but they've been useful.
It also just dropped the Pro 500 plan: $500 a month with 25× the Plus Work/Codex allowance. If you're constantly hitting the limits on the $200 plan, that could make a big difference. Just remember the 25× comparison is against Plus, not against your existing Pro plan.
4. Images are built in.
ChatGPT has native photo and illustration generation with Images 2.5, and in my opinion it's the best image model out there right now. Upload a product photo, turn it into an ad, then keep editing in the same conversation. Claude understands images and makes coded visuals, but it doesn't have that native image generator.
5. The plugins make it useful beyond the chat.
For the apps I want to use, ChatGPT has a much better plugin library. The Apple Messages plugin on Mac is a simple example: your texts can become part of the work you're doing with AI. Add integrations with tools like OneNote and Zendesk, and it starts fitting into your existing day instead of becoming another place to copy and paste everything.
Claude has connectors too, but I think OpenAI's growing ecosystem is a big advantage. The more of your everyday tools it connects to, the more useful it becomes.
I've put together a full guide for bringing your preferences, projects and useful Claude history into ChatGPT, including the setup prompt. Move one project first and see how you get on.
Get my full guide to switching from Claude to ChatGPT →
🧠 TRY THIS
Get Claude to Find What Your Competitor Does Better
There is still one thing Claude is really good at, though, and this is a cool way to use it. Give it your website and a competitor's, then ask it to act as the customer deciding who to buy from.
Have it simulate a few different customers: someone watching their budget, someone who needs help quickly, and someone who's been burned before and needs a reason to trust you. They're buying the same thing with different priorities.
You know your own business so well that it's easy to miss what a new customer doesn't understand. Claude can look at both sites through those different priorities and show you where each one makes the decision easier.
Step 1: Open Claude, pick a competitor serving a similar customer, and paste this:
My website is [MY URL] and my competitor's is [COMPETITOR URL]. I sell [PRODUCT OR SERVICE] to [IDEAL CUSTOMER]. First ask me up to three questions about my customers, offer and usual buying objections. Then read both websites, including relevant pricing and service pages. Create three realistic customer profiles with different priorities based on my answers. For each, simulate comparing the sites: what catches their attention, what builds trust, what creates doubt, and which business they'd choose, or why they'd choose neither. Explain the decision factors and cite the page details behind each judgment. Label these as hypothetical customer simulations, not real customer research. Don't invent sales or conversion numbers. If a page won't open, ask me to upload it. Finish with five things they do better and three things I do better. |
This is a thought exercise, so treat the simulated choices as ideas to check with real customers. But it can show you something useful, like your competitor explaining exactly what happens after booking while your site leaves people guessing. You might offer the better service and still lose someone before they ever speak to you.
Step 2: Turn what you learned into changes you can actually make:
Based on those customer simulations, choose the three most useful improvements I can make this week. For each, name the customer's concern and the page detail that needs changing. Write a better homepage headline, opening paragraph and call to action, plus five FAQs using only facts I've provided. Mark any missing information. Keep my voice and don't copy my competitor. Give me a simple checklist of where each edit goes and one question to ask a real customer to check your biggest assumption. Don't publish anything. |
Now you've got a reason for each change and the copy to try, instead of guessing what would make your website better.
I've put together a full guide with 16 prompts for comparing your competitors' websites, ads, offers, reviews and content, then turning what you find into changes you can actually make.
Get my full Claude competitor-analysis guide →
Try one of these on something you're already working on this week. That's where you'll find out what actually helps.
See you Sunday.
Maverick
P.S. Want your business to actually show up inside AI? The brands that rank are seeing up to 3x the conversions. Get your free AI visibility score and see exactly where you stand inside AI.
P.P.S. If you're new here or you ever skip one, I've got a newsletter archive of all my past emails you can catch up on anytime.
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