AI note-takers are everywhere now. Plaud, Otter, Fireflies, Zoom AI Companion, Copilot. Most firms are using at least one. Here's the bit that catches people out. Somebody asked me recently about adding standing text to meeting invites ... "unless advised otherwise we will record this meeting". Reasonable instinct. It feels like you've covered yourself. But as consent, it fails. Under GDPR consent has to be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, through a clear affirmative action. Silence and inactivity don't count. So an opt-out isn't consent. Here's the link to the guide I created that shows how to fix this. What's interesting is that the same sentence works fine if you're relying on legitimate interests instead, because that needs transparency and a right to object rather than a yes. Same words. Different basis. Two practical things while I'm here. First, if you record in person with something like a Plaud ... turn the recorder on before you ask, and say that you've turned it on. Otherwise the one thing not captured is the agreement itself. Second, check your platform settings. Since January, Zoom makes every participant acknowledge the AI disclaimer before the meeting continues. Google Meet can require explicit consent before note-taking starts, but it's switched off by default. For video calls that solves most of the problem for you. So ... are you recording client meetings? And if you are, how are you handling consent at the moment? Honestly interested in how many people have thought about this 👇

I spent the best part of a month wondering why my AI kept losing track of who I was. Turns out it wasn't me getting something wrong. If you use Cowork and you've set up Global Instructions (Settings → Cowork → Global Instructions) to tell Claude who you are, how you like to work, your safety rules... you might have noticed they occasionally revert to an old version. You update them. They look right. Days later, they're back to something you wrote weeks ago. I checked properly. It's a known bug, not user error: - Settings → Cowork → Global Instructions can silently revert to a stale saved version - It happened to me repeatedly, on two different devices - It's logged on Anthropic's own bug tracker, with several separate reports of the same thing - As of now, it's still unresolved I've linked one of the open reports below if you want to see it for yourself 👉 https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/40175 The workaround that's worked for me... don't rely on that Settings box alone. If you have a folder connected to your Cowork session, put your real instructions in a file there instead (a CLAUDE.md file, if that means anything to you). Claude reads that straight off your files every time, and it isn't affected by this particular bug. Annoying to find. Easy enough to work around once you know. Has this happened to you, or has your Claude been behaving itself? 👇

If you've been searching for the Canvas button in ChatGPT and coming up empty... you're not imagining things. OpenAI has started phasing Canvas out. As of the newer GPT-5.5 models, it's no longer available, and the shutdown for everyone else is only a matter of time. A few things worth knowing: - Canvas isn't gone completely... it's being folded into "Writing Blocks", editable documents that appear inside your normal chat - For bigger, more polished deliverables (reports, spreadsheets, presentations), OpenAI is pushing people towards a newer feature called "ChatGPT Work" - None of this has been clearly announced or explained... which is why it just feels like the button vanished My honest take... this is a pattern worth watching, not just with Canvas. Features you rely on today can disappear or move with very little warning. Worth checking in on the tools you depend on every so often, rather than assuming they'll stay put. Has Canvas disappeared for you too? Or have you already found your way to Writing Blocks or Work? 👇

If you've ever thought Claude was too expensive to run for your firm ... this changes things. There's been a lot of confusion about whether Claude's Team plan needs a minimum of five seats or two. I set one up to get you the real answer ... and it's now just two. That finally makes it competitive with ChatGPT's business plan for solo and small firms. In the video I walk you through: - The real minimum, and why the pricing page confuses everyone - How to set up a Team plan, step by step - The important catch: it creates a new account, so your existing projects and chats don't carry over - Why your old Pro plan keeps auto-renewing until you cancel it Watch it here: https://youtu.be/vVzLXUEgwv8?si=OwCKV8rTsWeb0Ep_ Have you moved to a Team plan yet, or still weighing it up? 👇

Big news this week. OpenAI has launched a new set of AI models called GPT-5.6. There are three versions. Sol is the most powerful, Terra is the balanced everyday one, and Luna is the fast, low-cost option. They've also started rolling out "ChatGPT Work", a workspace that connects to your apps and files and can build documents and presentations from a single prompt. Why this matters for accountants: - More capable models usually mean more of the fiddly admin work can be handed off - Having a cheap, fast option and a powerful one lets you pick the right tool for the job - The pace isn't slowing down ... staying curious is now part of the job I'll be honest with you ... I haven't tested any of this yet, and I'd take the bigger claims with a pinch of salt until we've seen it work on real accounting tasks. New and impressive doesn't always mean useful. So here's my question for you 👇 When you hear "another new AI model just dropped" ... are you excited, exhausted, or a bit of both? Drop one word below.