October 13, 2026 · AI news

Today in AI, Oct 13: reusable AI skills and agents that sell

Google's reusable skills reach the Gemini app, Salesforce turns on selling agents, Microsoft's power-saving chip, and the big banks open earnings season.

Work for business owners · by Orion Jones

Today's AI news is about reusable skills and agents that sell, as Google, Salesforce and Microsoft each make AI more repeatable, while the biggest banks open earnings season. Here is the day in pictures, each with its source.

Google is rolling out reusable "skills" in the Gemini app

Google began rolling out skills in the Gemini app on October 13, and expects the rollout to finish by mid-November. A skill is a set of custom instructions you save once and reuse any time you prompt Gemini, and you can stack several in one prompt, such as a brand-voice skill plus a formatting skill. They use the open SKILL.md standard, so instructions made in other tools can be brought in, and they replace Gems.

What it means: If your team keeps retyping the same instructions, saving them once as a skill makes the tool follow your standard every time instead of starting from scratch.

Salesforce turned on its agents for everyday selling

Salesforce made its Winter '27 release generally available on October 12. Its Agentforce agents gained a plain-language store search, which lets shoppers search in their own words instead of exact product names, and Salesforce says early results show a 13% lift in purchases and a 17% rise in add-to-cart rates. The release also added voice agents that book appointments without a human handoff.

What it means: If you sell online, letting customers search in their own words is a concrete change you can turn on and measure against your current search.

Microsoft unveiled a new AI chip built to use less power

Microsoft announced Maia 300, its next custom AI chip, and said it will expand its Maia systems to multi-gigawatt deployments starting in 2027. Microsoft says the chip delivers 40% more work per unit of power than leading chips from other makers, and up to seven times the output of its earlier Maia 200 in a full server rack. Production begins in 2027.

What it means: The firms that sell AI are spending to cut the power each answer uses, which is the cost pressure sitting behind the price you pay for AI tools.

The three launches, side by side

The table puts what each company shipped next to each other, and when you can use it.

The biggest banks opened earnings season

The largest U.S. banks reported third-quarter results on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs posted revenue of $18.68 billion, above the $16.71 billion analysts expected, helped by strong trading. JPMorgan Chase reported revenue of $50.91 billion and raised its full-year forecast for net interest income, the gap between what it earns on loans and pays on deposits, to $106.2 billion, while Wells Fargo earned $1.87 a share on $21.87 billion (CNBC).

What it means: Bank results are an early read on how businesses and households are borrowing and spending, and this set pointed to steady activity rather than a pullback.

Domino's U.S. sales growth nearly stalled

Domino's Pizza reported third-quarter revenue of $1.19 billion, up 3.4% from a year earlier. U.S. same-store sales rose just 0.3%, down sharply from 5.2% a year earlier, and international growth slowed to 0.2%. Net income rose to $152.2 million, or $4.60 a share (CNBC).

What it means: When a large everyday brand sees its sales growth stall, it is a sign households are watching discretionary spending, worth noting if you sell to consumers.

A voting Fed official argued for keeping rates high

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack, a voting member of the Fed's rate-setting committee, said on Monday that a restrictive policy stance is appropriate to ensure a timely return to 2% inflation. She added that she prefers smaller, quicker rate adjustments over waiting and risking a larger correction later (CNBC).

What it means: At least one voting official wants rates kept high to fight inflation, so businesses counting on cheaper borrowing soon may be waiting longer.

The market on Monday

On Monday the Dow rose 0.38% to 51,850.55, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.06% to 7,807.24 and the Nasdaq fell 0.44% to 27,245.90. Energy was the strongest group as Brent crude traded above $105 a barrel on Middle East tensions, while technology and chip stocks were weakest. South Korea's Kospi dropped 3.65% to 6,384.24 (CNBC). Moves driven by oil prices and a single data release can reverse quickly. This is a picture of the day, not investment advice.

The pattern

The three AI stories are all about making agents dependable and repeatable rather than just capable. Google lets you save instructions as reusable skills, Salesforce hands search and scheduling to agents inside a store, and Microsoft is building chips to run all of it at lower cost. The question keeps shifting from what AI can do to whether it does the same thing well every time.

The full issue, with every source, is in today's AI Brief. If you want an agent doing the same repeatable job in your business, with a person who signs off on anything important, book a call below.