AI Update, July 18, 2025: AI News and Views From the Past Week

OpenAI launches ChatGPT agent to automate real-world tasks OpenAI has released ChatGPT agent, a new tool that combines capabilities like Web browsing, deep research synthesis, and terminal access to complete complex, real-world tasks. Safety features include biological-threat detection and disabled memory to prevent data leakage. Importance for marketers: Enables automation of research and task management, freeing time for strategic decision-making.

Perplexity's Comet browser redefines productivity with agentic AI Comet, Perplexity AI's Chromium-based browser, introduces agentic browsing that allows users to offload tasks to an embedded assistant. Users can engage with the AI agent to perform real-time research while continuing other tasks, increasing efficiency. Importance for marketers: Highlights a new AI touchpoint - agent-powered browsers - that may influence how consumers search, shop, and engage with content.

ChatGPT aims to replace Excel and PowerPoint with native tools OpenAI is testing ChatGPT features that allow users to create and edit spreadsheets and presentations directly, without Microsoft Office. Despite its Microsoft partnership, OpenAI's development of overlapping features indicates strategic divergence. Importance for marketers: Offers a streamlined alternative for campaign planning and reporting tasks, potentially lowering software costs and simplifying tool stacks.