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Today in AI, Oct 5: agents that do the work, and a record Nasdaq

Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft shipped agents that act on their own. Plus 29,000 new jobs, two big deals and a record Nasdaq close, in pictures.

Work for business owners · by Orion Jones

Real screenshots of the Meta Muse for Small Business announcement and the Microsoft Copilot announcement, beside the headline "Agents that do the work, and a record Nasdaq".

Three of the biggest names in AI shipped the same kind of thing in one week: an agent you give a goal to, which then works on its own. Here is the day in pictures, each with its source.

Meta's own announcement of Muse for Small Business, dated September 29, 2026. The tiles are some of the business tools Muse connects to, including Shopify, Notion, Slack, Zoom, Canva and QuickBooks.
Meta's own announcement of Muse for Small Business, dated September 29, 2026. The tiles are some of the business tools Muse connects to, including Shopify, Notion, Slack, Zoom, Canva and QuickBooks.

Meta's agent runs errands for small businesses

Meta launched Muse for Small Business for owners in the US and Canada. You give it a goal, and it works across the tools it connects to, plus your Facebook and Instagram business accounts. Meta says it is free for most of what people need.

What it means: if your books, store and social accounts already live in those tools, you can try an agent without buying anything new.

OpenAI's "dots" keep working in the background

OpenAI began rolling out dots to ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium subscribers. A dot works on a goal across several projects, messages you in ChatGPT, Slack or Teams, and can reach more than 4,000 apps through plugins.

What it means: an agent that runs without you watching needs a clear list of what it may do alone and what needs your yes first.

Microsoft's Copilot got an agent and a build tool

Microsoft's own announcement of the new Copilot, dated September 25, 2026. The app on the right shows the three new tabs: Home, Code and Autopilot.
Microsoft's own announcement of the new Copilot, dated September 25, 2026. The app on the right shows the three new tabs: Home, Code and Autopilot.

Microsoft added three parts to Copilot. Home puts chat and Word, Excel and PowerPoint in one place. Code lets people who are not developers build small dashboards and internal apps in plain language. Autopilot keeps working on ongoing jobs, with permissions and an audit trail.

What it means: small dashboards and internal tools are becoming something an office can ask for, instead of hiring a developer.

The three agents, side by side

The table puts what each company said next to each other. Where a company did not say, the table says so.

A table comparing Meta Muse, OpenAI dots and Microsoft Autopilot: what you give each one, what it reaches, who can get it, what it costs and what controls it has. Only Microsoft described permissions and an audit trail in what we read.
A table comparing Meta Muse, OpenAI dots and Microsoft Autopilot: what you give each one, what it reaches, who can get it, what it costs and what controls it has. Only Microsoft described permissions and an audit trail in what we read.

A weak jobs report

The US added just 29,000 jobs in September, against about 84,000 expected. Unemployment rose to 4.2%, and July and August were both revised down.

A bar chart of US jobs added: July revised to a loss of 10,000, August revised to 133,000, September expected at about 84,000, and September actual at 29,000.
A bar chart of US jobs added: July revised to a loss of 10,000, August revised to 133,000, September expected at about 84,000, and September actual at 29,000.

What it means: markets now bet the Federal Reserve holds rates at its late-October meeting.

Two big deals before the open

Schneider Electric agreed to buy PTC, and C.H. Robinson agreed to buy RXO. In both, the company being bought jumped and the buyer fell (CNBC).

Two deals: Schneider Electric buying PTC for $22.6 billion at $205 a share, and C.H. Robinson buying RXO for $5.8 billion at $30.25 a share. In both, the target's shares rose and the buyer's fell.
Two deals: Schneider Electric buying PTC for $22.6 billion at $205 a share, and C.H. Robinson buying RXO for $5.8 billion at $30.25 a share. In both, the target's shares rose and the buyer's fell.

The Nasdaq closed at a record

The Nasdaq rose 1.05% to a record close of 27,477.31. Stocks rose after last week's weak jobs report made another rate hike look less likely. Treasury yields are high, so moves like this can reverse. This is a picture of the day, not advice.

A bar chart of Monday's percent changes, all on one scale: Nikkei up 2.40%, Nasdaq up 1.05% to a record close, S&P 500 up 0.66%, Dow up 0.18%, and during the session Taiwan Semiconductor up 2.5% and Intel down 4%.
A bar chart of Monday's percent changes, all on one scale: Nikkei up 2.40%, Nasdaq up 1.05% to a record close, S&P 500 up 0.66%, Dow up 0.18%, and during the session Taiwan Semiconductor up 2.5% and Intel down 4%.

The pattern

Three of the four AI stories in today's brief are agents that act on their own, not chatbots that wait to be asked. So the question is less about what AI can do and more about who approves what it does. Every build we do starts there: a person reviews anything important before it goes out.

The full issue, with every source, is in today's AI Brief. If you want an agent working in your business with that kind of sign-off, book a call below.

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