Plus the three mindset shifts that separate owners who actually profit from AI versus those just spinning their wheels.

ChatGPT wants to watch you work. OpenAI is testing a feature called Computer History inside its macOS app. Opt-in, for now. When you turn it on, ChatGPT logs your mouse clicks, keystrokes, and which apps you have open so it can remember your workflow later, without taking screenshots. Think of it like giving a new assistant a notepad to jot down what you worked on Tuesday so they can pick up where you left off Thursday. The upside is real: if you already use ChatGPT for work, it could stop asking you to re-explain context every single session. The downside is also real: you are handing OpenAI a running log of your daily computer activity. Before you flip the switch, spend ten minutes thinking about what's on that machine. Client files, financial data, passwords in browser fields. Decide deliberately. Don't just click "enable" because it sounds useful. Read the full breakdown here.

Most owners are using AI wrong, and a professor at Boston University just explained why. His argument is blunt: you're automating tasks when you should be redesigning workflows. There's a real difference. Automating a task is like putting a faster engine in a horse cart. Redesigning the workflow is building a car. The three shifts he lays out are worth sitting with. First, start with the business problem you actually have, not the tool someone demoed for you. Second, design your team and the AI to make each other sharper, not to swap one for the other. Third, connect your small wins into a system that builds on itself over time, so the gains compound instead of plateau. If AI feels like a lot of effort for not much payoff, this framing is probably why. Worth a read before your next tool purchase.

Tools Worth a Look

[Vizard Agent](https://agent.vizard.ai): Give it a brief and it produces a finished video, no timeline editing, no complicated workflow. Built for small business owners and marketers who need social ads or edited clips without hiring an editor. Included with existing Vizard accounts.

More Headlines

Small business owners are pushing back on the AI doom narrative with actual results -- worth reading if your team is skeptical about adoption.

How SMBs turn AI into lasting business value -- an overview of integrated workflow approaches that go beyond one-off tool use.

AI-native work: why adding tools is not enough -- the 3x versus 30% framing for founders is a useful gut check.

Google now lets you remove the visible watermark from AI-generated images -- the AI fingerprint (SynthID) stays embedded in the file even without the visible tag, good to know if you publish AI visuals.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on AI backlash -- says only real breakthroughs, not marketing, will rebuild public trust.

Anthropic details prompt caching to cut Claude Code costs -- if you or a developer are building on the Claude API, this is a practical money-saver.

OpenAI API Builder Bootcamp: free five-part live series starting Aug 19 -- covers agents, retrieval-augmented generation (basically teaching AI to search your own documents), voice, and production. Free, live, and worth bookmarking if you have a developer on staff.

-Scott

SmartOwner is published (almost) daily by the team at DigitalTreehouse. Want AI consulting or automations for your business? Reply to this email.