Canva launches Canva Business and a new design model
Canva announced a new foundational design model that generates fully editable layouts instead of flat images. It understands layers and formats across social posts, presentations, whiteboards, and websites. You can tag the AI assistant in comments for ideas, generate 3D objects, mirror the style of any design, and even link spreadsheet data into interactive mini apps. On top of that, Canva Business—a new tier built for individuals and small teams—includes everything in Canva Pro plus:
- Canva Grow Insights to analyze your ads and suggest better-performing variants.
- Premium access to Leonardo.ai and Flourish for production-grade visuals and charts.
- Integrations with Google Analytics, Salesforce, and HubSpot.
- A print discount and enhanced brand controls.
Pricing starts at US $20 per user/month with no seat minimum, making agency-level design and analytics accessible to solopreneurs.
OpenAI adds “company knowledge” to ChatGPT
Company Knowledge for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Education lets you securely connect tools like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, GitHub, and HubSpot so ChatGPT can answer questions using your content—complete with citations and admin controls. For small teams already paying for ChatGPT, this turns scattered docs and threads into a searchable, conversational knowledge base and cuts time spent digging through inboxes and folders.
PayPal introduces agentic commerce services
PayPal’s new agentic commerce services help small merchants plug directly into AI-powered shopping. Agent ready enables payments on conversational AI surfaces with fraud protection baked in, while store sync pushes your catalog to AI shopping partners via a single integration—keeping you discoverable in AI shopping assistants while you retain control of customer relationships. It’s an early glimpse of how solopreneur storefronts will surface inside AI-native shopping journeys.
Amazon Quick Suite brings agentic AI to workflows
Amazon Quick Suite is an agentic AI application that connects to internal repositories, 50+ built-in connectors, and hundreds of apps so it can research, automate tasks, and take action across your stack. Users can build custom agents, automate workflows, and visualize data with Quick Sight. While positioned for larger organizations today, solopreneurs using AWS or managing complex data should keep an eye on it: the same infrastructure could soon power lean, high-leverage back-office automation.
Yelp rolls out AI phone agents and discovery tools
Yelp’s Fall Release introduced over 35 AI features, including two big ones for small businesses:
- Yelp Host: an AI phone agent for restaurants that answers calls, manages bookings, updates reservations, gives wait times, and sends follow-ups.
- Yelp Receptionist: an AI phone agent for local services that captures project details, qualifies leads, and sends call summaries to your inbox.
Both can be customized with your greeting, voice, and business info. Pricing starts around US $149/month for Host (discounted for Guest Manager users) and US $99/month for Receptionist. Yelp also upgraded Yelp Assistant, its consumer chatbot, and launched Menu Vision, which overlays photos and reviews onto physical menus via your phone—further tightening the loop between discovery and conversion.
Tools You Can Start Using Today
1. Upgrade your design and marketing with Canva Business
If you’re already on Canva Pro, upgrading to Canva Business is a straightforward win. Sign up, turn on Canva Grow Insights to review your past ads, connect Google Analytics or HubSpot, and start testing AI-suggested creatives. Experiment with the new design model to produce 3D elements, dynamic layouts, and mini apps that pull from your own data.
2. Speed up creative work with Adobe Express
Adobe Express now includes a conversational AI assistant. Tell it what you want—“make this flyer more bold,” “adapt this for Instagram Stories”—and it updates colors, fonts, images, and layout for you. Use the free tier to test if it fits your workflow; upgrade only if you need higher-res exports, brand kits, or collaboration.
3. Automate calls and leads with Yelp Host & Yelp Receptionist
Missed calls = missed revenue. In Yelp for Business, enable Host or Receptionist, customize the greeting and FAQs, and let the AI handle bookings and lead capture. Run it for a week and compare call volume, response time, and closed deals versus your manual process.
4. Simplify tax and bookkeeping with BILL’s AI agents
BILL’s W-9 Agent automatically requests, validates, and stores contractor forms, eliminating most manual follow-up. The Reconciliation Agent categorizes expenses and matches receipts. Enable them inside your BILL account and track how many hours of admin time you claw back in a month.
5. Centralize knowledge with ChatGPT & Amazon Quick Suite
On ChatGPT Business or Enterprise, turn on company knowledge and connect Slack, Drive, or email so you can ask, “What did we agree with Client X?” and get an answer with sources. If you’re already deep in AWS, explore Quick Suite as it becomes available: connect your main data sources, test a simple agent (e.g., weekly performance summary), and evaluate the lift.
Turning AI News into Growth Opportunities
Together, these launches confirm a clear shift: AI tools are evolving from generic chatbots into focused agents that own specific workflows. Design assistants in Canva and Adobe Express understand your layouts and brand. PayPal and Amazon are building rails that plug your catalog into AI-native commerce. Yelp’s AI phone agents and BILL’s finance bots tackle the unglamorous but critical edges—calls, forms, reconciliation—that steal your time.
Early adopters are already seeing gains: restaurants offloading phones to Yelp Host free up staff and improve ROI; teams using Quick Suite report major reductions in ticket handling time. The pattern is consistent: when you give a well-designed AI a narrow, high-value job, it delivers.
There are trade-offs. Many of these features sit behind paid tiers, and every agent you deploy needs clear guardrails around tone, privacy, and decision-making. Start with one or two tools that directly address your biggest bottleneck, test in a low-risk slice of your business, and only scale what proves its worth.
Your AI To-Do List
- This week: Trial Canva Business or Adobe Express AI. Create one campaign’s worth of assets end-to-end using AI support.
- By next week: Test Yelp Host or Yelp Receptionist if calls are slipping through the cracks. Track booked reservations or qualified leads vs. your baseline.
- Within two weeks: Enable company knowledge in ChatGPT Business or request access to Quick Suite. Connect your top apps and measure search time saved.
- By month-end: Turn on BILL’s W-9 and Reconciliation agents and document how much admin time you recover.
- Ongoing: Monitor PayPal’s agentic commerce updates. Join waitlists so your products are eligible for AI shopping placement as it rolls out.
Ready to Experiment?
The AI landscape is moving fast, but you don’t need to chase every headline. Focus on tools that attack your biggest friction points—design, marketing, calls, or finance—and run small, measurable experiments. As you find what works, share your wins and lessons with the SoloAITool community. Which of these updates do you think will move the needle most for your business? Tell us in the comments, and check back for the next roundup.
