Two key changes in the AI space this month have changed the game for SMEs looking to get useful work done with AI. The barrier to entry has fallen and the quality of work AI can do has improved.
The first change was the release of GPT-6 Astra by OpenAI. In my (admittedly brief) experience, it is substantially better at taking a task and carrying it through to a finished result with less prompting and handholding than previous models. This makes a big difference, if you have to constantly remind and redirect a model to get a task completed, it does make AI a lot less useful.
The second is Grok Bot, an accessible way to deploy a team of agents.
Tools like OpenClaw and Hermes have already shown how useful persistent AI agents can be. However, getting them setup, connected, maintained and properly controlled takes a level of technical confidence that many business owners simply do not have.
Grok Bot makes that kind of capability much more accessible. You create an agent, give it a job, and connect whatever tools it needs. It has a cloud computer, retains context and can carry out recurring work across applications with built-in approval flows and safeguards. It even comes with friendly little avatars for each agent to make them more approachable.
More capable AI with less friction to deploy and use means more opportunity for small businesses to take advantage. The tools have improved enough that the disappointing experiment from earlier this year deserves another go.