Microsoft Edge gets AI powers

Welcome back, Superhuman. It’s a good day for folks who use spreadsheets at work. A new AI agent for Excel claims to beat junior strategy consultants and investment bankers, while Julius — the AI tool that lets you visualize your data instantly and connects to your apps and databases — announced $10M in new funding.

Also Today: Learn how to manage your email and calendar with Perplexity Comet, and get the latest prompts, headlines, and trending social posts.

TODAY IN AI

1. New Excel agent claims to outperform McKinsey analysts 9 times out of 10: Fundamental Research Labs just unveiled Shortcut, an AI agent for Excel. The company claims the tool beats first-year analysts from McKinsey and Goldman in 89.1% of head-to-head comparisons. It functions like a personal analyst, handling everything from building financial models to filling out files. Despite some obvious weaknesses, the tool has blown up on social media, with some calling it "a ChatGPT moment for financial modeling".

2. Microsoft Edge's new Copilot Mode brings AI to your tabs: The company is rolling out an experimental AI-powered mode in its Edge browser that lets Copilot search across all your open tabs, make restaurant reservations, and even help you compare products. Unlike Chrome's Gemini integration, this optional feature (free for now, but likely headed for subscription territory) will soon be able to access your browsing history to handle bookings on your behalf. You can see it in action here.

3. Chinese startup Z.ai releases its biggest AI models to date: The company just dropped its 'GLM-4.5' model family, which rivals top performers like Claude and Gemini on key benchmarks while adding unique capabilities like letting you create PowerPoint decks with a single prompt. The open-source models offer two operation modes — a thinking mode for complex reasoning and a faster response mode for simpler tasks — making them versatile for both technical and creative applications.

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FROM THE FRONTIER

China punches back with its own AI roadmap as global tech race heats up

Just days after the White House dropped its national AI strategy, China has responded with its own action plan.

The core strategy looks something like this: 

• An economy-wide transformation by pushing AI across all industries — from manufacturing to healthcare.

• Building a domestic ecosystem through new industry alliances aimed at creating a tech stack that doesn't rely on US chips.

• Alternative chip development, demonstrated through Huawei's CloudMatrix 384 system, that’s designed to overcome individual chip limitations.

• Partnerships with the Global South by offering technology transfers with fewer regulatory strings attached.

• The establishment of a global AI cooperation organization that will give China a leading voice in how AI is governed worldwide.

We’ve seen this before — during the 5G rollout, countries were forced to choose between Huawei or Western alternatives. But AI raises the stakes significantly. Nations that align with China's ecosystem may get access to technology with fewer strings attached, while those in the US camp get premium tech with stricter export controls.

For tech companies, the pressure to choose an AI ecosystem is intensifying. Chinese firms are doubling down on domestic chips and LLMs, while US export curbs continue to limit China's access to advanced semiconductors. George Chen, partner at the Asia Group, notes that “two camps are now being formed". One focused on multilateralism, the other on containing China's rise.

THE AI ACADEMY

How to manage your email and calendar with Perplexity Comet

• Open the Perplexity Comet browser

• Go to your profile> Connectors> enable Calendar and Email

• Open Comet assistant and ask anything you want

Sample Prompt: “What’s on my calendar for the coming week?”

Or “Who am I meeting today?“

• You can use it to reschedule any event, get smart summaries, optimize your schedule, and more.

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IN THE KNOW

What’s trending on socials and headlines today

👀 Be Careful: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned that conversations with ChatGPT aren’t legally private, and the company may be forced to produce conversations in court.

🤝 Dream Team: The new sub-agents feature in Claude Code lets you build a team of agents to carry out multiple tasks in parallel — like a team of sales agents or research agents. See how people are building and using sub-agents here.

😶 Bad Romance: Some people are using Claude for more nefarious ends. A user claims to have vibe coded a way to automate swiping and chatting on dating apps.

Tesla has signed an eight-year $16.5B deal with Samsung to manufacture its next generation of AI chips. The deal marks Samsung’s biggest chipmaking deal from a single customer.

Anthropic is introducing weekly rate limits for Claude Code, after claiming that some users were running the tool 24/7 and making it financially unsustainable for the company.

Funding: AI data visualization startup Julius raises $10M, AI-powered lending platform Salient raises $60M, and Germany’s n8n eyes $1.5B valuation in new funding round.

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PROMPT STATION

Business Plan Generator

Prompt: "Adopt the role of an expert business strategist tasked with creating a comprehensive business plan. Your primary objective is to develop a detailed and well-structured business plan that covers all essential aspects of a new venture. Take a deep breath and work on this problem step-by-step. Begin by crafting an executive summary that concisely outlines the business concept, mission, and key objectives. Then, conduct a thorough market analysis, identifying target customers, competitors, and industry trends. Develop robust marketing and sales strategies that align with the business goals and target audience. Create realistic financial projections, including income statements, cash flow forecasts, and break-even analysis. Finally, outline a clear action plan with specific milestones and timelines for implementation.

INFORMATION ABOUT ME:
My type of business: [INSERT TYPE OF BUSINESS]
My target market: [INSERT TARGET MARKET]
My unique selling proposition: [INSERT UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION]
My initial investment amount: [INSERT INITIAL INVESTMENT AMOUNT]
My projected timeline: [INSERT PROJECTED TIMELINE]

MOST IMPORTANT!: Provide your output in a structured format with clear headings for each section of the business plan, using bullet points for key details within each section."

Source: r/ChatGPTPromptGenius

Scoop Summit

ChatGPT Prompt: A cone of huge-mountain ice cream with two miniature micro snowboarders on it, with the one in front freestyle. In the style of a promotional photo: a clear sunny background, blue sky, and birds flying overhead. The focus should be on the mini snowboarders and their dynamic poses, which create slightly blurred swirls of vanilla ice cream and gelato. Award-winning photography, Behance HD photo art.

Whenever you’re ready to take the next step

• Check out our Top 125 AI Tools

• Get better at prompting with our Top 1,000 Prompts

• Learn how to use AI at work and get certified with our free course

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Until next time — Zain & the Superhuman AI team