💬 From Nuno’s Desk: Rabbit Holes, Bets & The Gold Rush Ahead

The last couple of weeks? Total chaos. Business is moving fast, AI is moving faster, and honestly—I’ve been absolutely lost down some wild rabbit holes. Like days-on-end, forget-to-eat levels of deep dive. I’ve been testing out every major AI platform, comparing workflows, running side projects—just trying to see who’s actually building the future and who’s just playing dress-up.

And every time I think I’ve figured one out—boom, new update drops. Another rabbit hole opens up.

In all my years in Martech, I’ve never seen anything move like this. It’s overwhelming, yes—but also exciting as hell. Because here’s the thing: you’ve got to place a few smart bets. Bet on the tech that’ll matter when the dust settles.

Here’s where I’m placing mine:

• Agents – AI isn’t just chatting anymore, it’s doing. The next skill set? Knowing how to activate these agents, connect them to your tools, and build workflows that let AI actually run part of your business.

• MCPs – Think of them like USB ports for AI. They plug Claude (and soon, every other model) into Google Drive, Shopify, Slack, your calendar, whatever. Learn them. Build with them. Connect dots with them. This is infrastructure-level stuff for the next era of business automation.

• Prompting – Not just “ask better questions,” I mean designing tasks. Prompting that orchestrates tools, moves data, and loops in agents like a conductor running an orchestra. That’s the new marketing ops.

• Smart Glasses + AI – Mark my words: when AR glasses meet real-time AI, we’re going to see another massive wave. The tools that help people build and interact through that layer? Massive opportunity.

• Robotics – Accelerated by AI, coming sooner than you think. Physical world meets software automation. Learn how to tweak, talk to, and train these bots? That’ll be another lucrative lane.

My strategy is simple: build the shovels, don’t chase the gold. If you’re going to fall into a rabbit hole, make sure it’s in a space that’s going to matter. Because the real winners in this next phase? They’ll be the ones who build the picks and axes for the digital gold rush.

HighLevel’s Best Update You’re (Probably) Ignoring

Alright, real talk—HighLevel just snuck in one of those updates that looks small on the surface… but if you actually use workflows (and who doesn’t?), this is the one that’ll quietly save your entire pipeline’s sanity.

They’ve completely reworked how Opportunities function inside automations, and it’s no longer just “create or update and hope for the best.” We’re talking real logic now.

1. Appointment List View Gets a Makeover

• Edit, reschedule, and view meeting details right from the list view.

• Update statuses (no-show, canceled, etc.) directly—no more clicking 10 things.

• Add notes + view activity logs without leaving the page.

• And yes, you can now join the meeting straight from that view. Finally.

2. Paid Event Calendars (Yes, You Can Charge Now)

• Add payment collection directly to event calendars.

• Require at least one guest per booking.

• Works perfectly for workshops, classes, VIP Zooms—anything you wanna gate with $$.

3. Contracts & Documents in Automations – With Draft Mode

• Automatically send contracts or just save them as drafts.

• Draft mode lets you review before sending. (No more accidental $0 invoices 🙃)

• Bonus: Internal notifications when drafts are ready.

4. Conversational & Voice AI Hub (Centralized Agent Controls)

• New sidebar to manage conversational and voice AI.

• One-click access to:

  • Agent creation

  • Autopilot

  • Training

  • Appointment booking

• Unified dashboard shows calls, logs, transcripts, call results (was it positive?), etc.

5. Image Slider in Sites (Designers, Rejoice)

• No more code hacks: pre-built image slider blocks are here.

• Drag, drop, and swipe away.

• Finally, med spas can flex those before/afters without hiring a dev.

6. Typing Indicator for AI Agents

• Purely vanity, but it’s slick.

• Little typing dots show up to make your AI look more human.

• Adds some ✨vibe✨ to the chat.

7. BIG: Opportunities Overhaul Inside Workflows

• Create, update, and find opportunities in a workflow.

• Add/remove opportunity owners or followers (huge for teams).

• Use dynamic fields to auto-fill names, emails, pipeline data.

• You can now separate create/update logic so you don’t mess things up.

• Find the first or most recent opportunity by contact or owner.

8. CC and BCC in Emails

• Took forever but it’s here.

• Add multiple recipients using commas, or pull from custom fields (Agent 1, Agent 2, etc.)

• Works for real estate teams, martial arts schools, families—anyone who needs multiple eyes on a message.

🧪 Bonus Lab Features (AKA: Try These Before They’re Cool)

9. Voice AI Custom Actions (Advanced Users, Lean In)

• Add custom goals that trigger external actions via API.

• Send webhook calls directly from voice AI workflows.

• Combine with Zapier or custom tools to build serious logic flows.

10. Power Dialer Refresh (Call Centers, Rejoice)

• Manual actions now power a cleaner dialer interface.

• Auto-disposition after each call (mark it sold, lost, follow-up, etc.).

• Add leads via automation—load up, press start, call all day.

11. SEO Tool (Powered by Search Atlas)

• Built-in SEO tools now available in agency Labs.

• Toggle it on, activate inside site settings.

• Comes with a full SEO dashboard, powered by AI.

• You can resell SEO for $97/mo as a service. Yup, it’s built to help you make more money.

💡 Pro Tip: Got a follow-up workflow that needs to know if a deal was won, lost, or ghosted? Use “Find Opportunity,” check the status, and trigger the next move like a pro. No more dead-end automations.

This is one of those updates you don’t appreciate until you realize: Wait—I can finally build workflows that don’t need duct tape and prayers? Yes. Yes, you can.

If you’re managing multiple pipelines, teams, or stages—go clean up those janky workflows you duct-taped together last year. This update was made for you.

AI Builds Corner: Claude Just Got Desktop Superpowers (Thanks to MCPs)

What I’m about to tell you is the closest thing we’ve got to plugging a brain directly into your desktop.

We’re talking about Claude + MCPs. And if you’re thinking “What the hell is an MCP?”—you’re in the right place.

Imagine giving your AI the ability to do stuff—like actually open files, search Google, read emails, fetch Airbnb listings for your next Japan trip (yes, really), or even place orders. That’s what MCPs do. They’re like USB ports for AI, letting your assistant reach into the apps and tools you already use—and take action.

What the Heck is MCP?

MCP is basically a standard for connecting Claude to external tools. Before MCP, connecting Claude to something like your sales data or cloud storage meant custom dev work. Now? You just drop a snippet into a config file and you’re done.

It’s like giving Claude access to all your stuff—securely—and letting it actually use that info to help you.

Here’s How You Set It Up (For Real)

The video walks through installing MCPs step-by-step. Here’s the short version:

• Step 1: Download Claude Desktop (not the web version!)

• Step 2: Install Node.js (don’t worry, it’s a few clicks)

• Step 3: Find your config folder:
  C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Claude

• Step 4: Create a claude-desktop.config.json file (this is where you tell Claude what to connect to)

• Step 5: Add MCP server code (the example starts with Brave Search—a great first plugin)

Want Claude to fetch stock prices? Add the Brave MCP. Want it to read your files? Use the Google Drive MCP. Want to install more MCPs easily? There’s even an MCP for installing MCPs. Yup.

Pro Tip: If your config file breaks, just paste it into Claude and say, “Hey, fix this.”
It’ll rewrite the JSON for you. Seriously.

A Few Real Examples You Can Run:

• “What’s Nvidia’s stock price today?” → Claude searches via Brave and gives you the latest.

• “How many red sneakers were sold yesterday?” → Claude queries your Shopify MCP and delivers the count.

• “Find me a place in Tokyo for two in October 2025.” → Claude hits Airbnb MCP and brings you listings.

And if one of your MCPs throws an error? Just remove it from the config file and reload Claude. Some of these third-party servers go up and down, so don’t panic—it’s early days.

Why This Actually Matters

Here’s the big shift: Claude isn’t just a chat interface anymore. It’s turning into an actual assistant.

With MCPs:

• You can ask questions and get real, actionable results.

• You control what data Claude can access.

• You extend Claude’s skills without touching code.

And as more MCPs are created, this thing becomes more powerful. Want Claude to post to Slack? Track leads in Notion? Handle support tickets? There’s an MCP for that—or soon will be. It’s the early App Store moment for AI tools—messy, powerful, and full of potential.

So if you’re still thinking of Claude like just another chatbot… you’re about six plugins behind. Time to pop open that config file, add your first MCP, and let your desktop assistant get to work.

Claude’s not just clever anymore.
Now it’s capable.

AI Update: The Week Big AI Models Went Free (and Got a Bit Sassy)

You know it’s been a wild week in AI when you have to double-check if major news is real or just a well-timed April Fools prank. Between fake product launches and a talking GPT-4 voice that clearly needs more coffee, it was chaos out there. But here’s what actually happened—and yes, some of it is pretty mind-blowing.

Let’s talk about the real breakthroughs, the free upgrades, and the AI agents that are starting to look more like interns on performance-enhancing chips.

🚀 OpenAI: Let Them Eat GPT

OpenAI went full Oprah this week: “You get a model! You get a model! Everyone gets a model!”

• GPT-4 Turbo + DALL·E 3 is now available to free users, including image generation (3 per day limit for now).

• This move triggered ChatGPT’s biggest day ever, with 1 million new users in just one hour.

• Sam Altman warned that “stuff may break” as their servers struggle to keep up (translation: don’t @ us if Claude wins the race this week).

• Meanwhile, OpenAI raised another $40 billion, bringing their valuation to $300B (thanks SoftBank 👀).

• They’re also dropping a free ChatGPT Plus plan for college students in the US & Canada through May. Your move, study buddies.

And perhaps the most interesting bit:

That’s right, they’re dipping their toes back into open-source territory. No release date yet, but they’re actively recruiting dev feedback. (Translation: if you’ve ever wanted to influence a model’s personality… this is your moment.)

🎓 Also quietly launched: OpenAI Academy

Zero fanfare, but a big deal: OpenAI now offers a collection of educational resources and training sessions over at academy.openai.com. Think: AI for nonprofits, older adults, knowledge graphs, and more.

Basically, it’s like Duolingo but for prompt engineers.

🧠 Gemini 1.5 Pro: Free and Freakishly Smart

Google didn’t want to be left out of the party. So now Gemini 1.5 Pro—their best model—is available for free at gemini.google.com. Highlights?

• Supports 1 million token context windows (that’s ~750,000 words in or out).

• Fantastic at code, giant document analysis, and conversations that actually stay coherent.

• Also: Gemini is now the brain behind NotebookLM, which just added a Discover Sources button. You describe a topic, it fetches relevant data for you. Boom—research assistant unlocked.

Pro Tip: If the “Discover Sources” button isn’t showing for you yet, it’s rolling out gradually. Don’t throw your laptop.

🐇 Rabbit OS & AI Agents Are Getting Spooky Smart

You don’t need the Rabbit R1 device anymore. Their new Rabbit OS Intern agent runs straight from the browser and acts like… well, an intern.

• You ask for a music tool → it builds one.

• You give it a financial research task → it runs the entire multi-step workflow and spits out a structured report (yes, really).

This feels like Manis-level workflow automation, but in your browser. Oh, and it’s free—at least for now.

🧪 Nova by Amazon: The Quiet Contender

Amazon’s entry into the AI agent arms race is called Nova Act. It's still in dev preview, but early demos show browser-level autonomy:

• Clicking

• Typing

• Thinking (🤯)

• Filling out forms

The interface is clean and deceptively powerful. If this thing scales, it could sneak up on OpenAI's Operator.

🔥 The AI Video Race: New Players, New Powers

It was an avalanche of updates in video AI land this week:

• Runway Gen-4 is live: V2-level (or better) video quality. Right now, it’s image-to-video only, but the results are 🔥.

• Higsfield AI dropped with fancy camera effects like bullet-time, whip-pans, and robo-arm shots—from just one image. Limited credits, worth playing with.

• Luma AI joined the party with nearly identical effects, including drone-style movement and cinematic transitions.

• Adobe said, “Hold my Firefly,” and launched:

  • AI video generation from text and image prompts

  • AI animation from sketches

  • Sound extension + B-roll frame generation in Premiere Pro

🎵 Sound & Voice Gen Gets a Glow Up

• 11Labs Actor Mode: Guide the emotional tone of a voiceover by uploading a clip of yourself reading it.

• Halo AI’s Miniaax: Turn any file or URL into audio—up to 200,000 characters at a time. Basically, audiobooks on demand.

• MA Music Gen: Another contender in the AI music space (still not Suno-level, but promising).

👨‍🏫 Claude for Education: Not Just the Answers

Anthropic’s Claude is pivoting to a “learning companion” with its new Claude for Education platform.

• It guides students step-by-step through reasoning.

• Doesn’t just spit out answers—it helps them think better.

• Available to select universities right now, but expect expansion soon.

Let’s be real: this is how AI becomes an actual classroom asset and not just a homework hack.

🧪 Bonus Round: The Rest of the Weird and Wonderful

• XAI now owns X (Elon Musk sells Twitter to… himself). Data access? Unlocked.

• Meta’s lip-syncing avatars are creepy-good (but still not Pixar-level).

• MidJourney V7 is probably already out by the time you read this.

• Brain-to-speech tech is giving voice back to the voiceless—literally.

• Tinder built an AI flirt coach. Score high enough, and it lets you date real people. (Romance is officially gamified.)

Big takeaway this week?
AI is breaking out of the browser—and into your workflows, your desktop, your education, your art, and yes… even your dating life.

And the best part?
Much of it’s now free.

The Lawn Mower That Makes Neighbors Jealous

Robots that vacuum? Old news. Robots that cook? Getting there. Robots that mow your lawn while you drink hot cocoa inside because it’s freezing in Nashville? Now we’re talking. Enter the Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD X—basically the Tesla of robotic lawn mowers, but with a little more mud on the tires.

This beast maps your yard (we’re talking up to 2.5 acres if you go full send with the biggest model) and cuts it with GPS precision, all without laying a single perimeter wire. You control the thing from your phone—steering it around like a little RC car to trace your lawn's edges. Took about 10 minutes to set up and map half an acre. Cold fingers aside, not bad at all.

Once mapped, you just hit “Go” and the LUBA gets to work. It adjusts speed and cutting height (tip: faster mowing eats more battery), and this reviewer had it going over sticks, twigs, and less-than-golf-course terrain without flinching. Not a single jam or hiccup. On the higher speed, it ran for around 190 minutes—plenty to get a decent chunk of lawn done before heading back to its base for a recharge like the polite little bot it is.

The setup? Shockingly easy. The mower comes with a charging station and an antenna system that keeps it GPS-locked and accurate to the inch. It even lays out perfect, satisfyingly straight lines—striped lawn goals, activated.

Bonus features include app-based scheduling, integration with Alexa or Google Assistant (“Hey Google, mow the lawn at 2 p.m.”), rain detection, and cutting height adjustment from your couch. And yeah, it even goes back to its charging dock when it's done. Zero babysitting needed.

If you’ve got a big lawn and a bigger dislike of mowing, this thing might be your new best friend. The LUBA 2 AWD handled a rough, pasture-style yard like a champ, so for the more suburban types with smoother turf, it’ll feel like overkill (in the best way). Models start smaller (and cheaper), but this top-tier version costs a few grand—though let’s be real: trading weekend yard duty for year-round lawn automation? That’s priceless.

Would we buy one? Let’s just say if this thing had a snow plow attachment, we’d be proposing.

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