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How a couple turned their first-date chilli oil recipe into a side hustle targeting $15,000 monthly

A homemade chilli oil recipe from a first date grew into Fiera Flavors, a food business founded by Mariana Carrizosa and Sebastian Jaramillo. After spending up to $20,000 to launch the brand, the couple expanded into more than 40 stores and set a goal of reaching $15,000 in monthly sales in 2026.

Anthropic unveils Claude Duet AI agent app

Anthropic on Thursday unveiled Claude Duet, a standalone AI agent app designed to act as a proactive assistant for professionals and small-business owners, as rivals such as OpenAI and Meta race to develop AI agents that can complete work autonomously on users' behalf.

Google rolls out new Gemini tools to help small businesses manage marketing, finances

The new features will allow business owners to connect Gemini with Google services such as Google Business Profile, Google Ads and Google Workspace, as well as third-party applications including Adobe, Canva, Dropbox, Shopify, Wix, Zoho and Xero, according to a blog post by Google.

Forbes World’s Best Employers 2026: Top 7 companies ranked by employees

A truck driver leaves his job, sells house to tour the world with wife and daughters; he still earns £1,000 a week

After the pandemic, former HGV driver Lee Bodell made a life-changing decision to travel globally with his family. Moving from a career-focused routine to embracing remote work and family adventures, they sold their house for £330,000. With an online business funding their travels, they've explored several European countries and aim to journey into Southeast Asia, hoping to settle abroad after their expeditious travels.

From $250,000 in two months to $12 million a month: How Dylan Jacob built BrüMate

Dylan Jacob’s beer kept getting warm before he could finish it. Eventually, the irritation sent him looking for something that would keep a 16-ounce can cold. An hour of searching online left him dissatisfied. It also gave him an idea.

In 2018, a California couple invested $5,000 in Bala; today, their fitness brand generates more than $30 million in annual sales

Natalie Holloway, Co-Founder and CEO of Bala, shares how she and co-founder Max developed the fitness brand from a $5,000 beginning into a business generating more than $30 million in annual sales. After identifying limitations in traditional wrist and ankle weights, the founders spent two years prototyping while working full-time before testing demand through Kickstarter.

AI agent wars: OpenAI’s Dots wades into a market warmed up by Instinct and Meta’s Muse

The launch of OpenAI's Dots comes amid the agentic frenzy launched by Meta's Muse earlier this month. Muse targets professionals and companies, and also caters to everyday consumers and small businesses as well. Startups and open-source projects such as Instinct and OpenClaw are also part of this market.

Lessons from Chinese AI Firms on Owning Customers’ Habits

As U.S. AI firms compete in an escalating race for superior models, bigger benchmarks, and more advanced features, Chinese companies are pursuing a fundamentally different strategy: embedding AI into users’ everyday habits. The authors argue that this “habit moat” approach may prove more durable than competing on raw capability alone. Whereas Western firms position AI as a destination consumers consciously visit, companies like Alibaba integrate AI into existing routines such as shopping, payments, food delivery, and travel booking, reducing friction until using AI becomes automatic behavior. Once AI capabilities become “good enough,” marginal technical improvements matter less than becoming the default path through recurring customer tasks. The authors outline four strategic imperatives for Western leaders: focus on behavioral cues rather than feature gaps, subsidize customer behavior instead of subscriptions, embed AI invisibly into existing workflows, and optimize for repeat usage rather than first-time adoption. The central warning is stark: AI may not replace employees first—it may instead capture the critical customer moments businesses currently own.

Meta expands Muse AI agent for small businesses

Meta Platforms is expanding its AI agent Muse to small businesses, adding integrations with tools such as Shopify, QuickBooks, Stripe and Canva to help owners run their businesses and find new customers, as the Facebook-parent aims to diversify its revenue beyond advertising.

AI agents take over online shopping: Ecommerce firms rethink pricing, verification

India’s ecommerce and digital platforms are preparing for a surge in personal AI agents that could increasingly make shopping decisions and transactions for consumers, forcing companies to rethink pricing, customer engagement and bot verification.

Meta's Muse rides high, announces multiple partnerships: All you need to know

Launched on September 8, the app clocked over 2.5 million downloads in its first two weeks, outpacing early rollouts of top AI tools such as Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT.

Meta's Charm gadget carries CEO Mark Zuckerberg's big AI ambitions

The device, called Muse Charm, highlights a broader shift at the social media giant that has long sought to escape Apple and Google's operating systems with a platform of its own. Users can tap the gadget to access Muse directly, bypassing AI apps on smartphones.

Meta launches camera-free AI glasses amid privacy pushback

Meta unveiled several new wearables powered by its artificial intelligence (AI) models on Wednesday, including an audio-only, camera-free version of its smart glasses, amid global concerns about privacy and the filming of women and girls without their consent. The audio-only versions will complement the release of dozens of new smart glasses models that keep the video filming option.

Meta's Muse rekindles fears over winners and losers as personal AI agent emerges

Meta's Muse, the first major consumer product to emerge under Alexandr Wang since he was hired to head its AI efforts last year, has split the fortunes of US stocks this week.

Meta leans into AI, smart glasses amid privacy pushback

Meta has spent billions to stay competitive with artificial intelligence, but the tech giant faces growing pushback as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to announce new products built for the AI era on Wednesday. The Muse agent is built on Meta's own AI models and is designed to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.

Tech elite's new school aims to replace university

The most powerful venture capital firm in Silicon Valley is starting a two-year private school for young people intended to replace college, as some US tech elite question the benefits of a classical university education. This will precede the eventual two-year, paid version of the program, which Biyani said would be similar in cost to an elite private university.

Global Market Today: Asian stocks rise after US tech rally, oil drops

MSCI’s Asia Pacific equity index climbed 0.3%, a sixth straight day of gains, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday. Bellwether chip stocks such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. climbed.

Meta's Muse overtakes Claude, Grok in post-launch download race: Report

In the 13-day post-launch window, Muse has roughly 2.5 million downloads, way ahead of 400,000 for Anthropic's Claude and 200,000 for xAI's Grok. However, Meta's agent trails ChatGPT, which logged 3.1 million downloads in that time, according to the report. But Muse briefly held the number spot on Apple’s US free app chart, ahead of ChatGPT.

OpenAI tests advertiser-sponsored agents, expands AI tools for ChatGPT ads

OpenAI said on Wednesday it has introduced AI-powered tools for advertisers and begun testing business-sponsored agents for users to chat with, stepping up its push into the increasingly competitive market for AI-driven marketing.

Inside Ron Baron's $66 billion portfolio: A SpaceX problem and a Tesla cushion

Ron Baron’s portfolio, valued at about $66 billion, is led by SpaceX, Tesla, MSCI, Arch Capital and Gartner. The holdings reflect a focus on long-term growth across space, electric vehicles, financial infrastructure, insurance and data-driven services, alongside substantial positions in technology companies.

Shopify Down: When will the services be restored? Latest update on major Cyber Monday outage

Shopify Down: Shopify is grappling with a major technical outage that has left thousands of merchants unable to access their accounts. The disruption, arriving unexpectedly on Cyber Monday has sparked concern across the retail sector, with sellers reporting problems logging in to dashboards and managing operations