Welcome to this week’s edition of the Smarter Than Busy. In this edition we wrap-up 2025 and share a prompt that can help you make decisions that don’t end-up costing or generating business pain. 

Let’s dive in.

📰 Essential LLM Updates for SMBs

A weekly round-up of the only AI platform changes that matter to small-business operators. No hype, no clutter — just the updates that save time, reduce workload, or add real leverage.

🧠 OpenAI Launches ChatGPT App Directory

OpenAI introduced an in-product App Directory inside ChatGPT, allowing users to browse and connect approved apps and tools directly within the chat interface. This consolidates connectors, plugins, and integrations into a single discoverable layer.

SMB Takeaway:

ChatGPT is no longer just a tool — it’s becoming an execution layer: fewer tabs, fewer handoffs, and more end-to-end work happening in a single interface.

Date: Dec 18, 2025

Source: OpenAI

🖼️ OpenAI Upgrades ChatGPT Image Generation for Business Use

OpenAI rolled out improvements to ChatGPT’s image generation focused on instruction accuracy, text rendering, visual consistency across iterations, and editability (refining images without restarting from scratch).

SMB Takeaway:

This removes everyday design friction. Slide visuals, explainer graphics, mockups, and simple marketing assets no longer require switching tools or outsourcing.

Date: Dec 20, 2025

Source: OpenAI

⚡ Google Makes Gemini 3 Flash the Default Model

Google rolled out Gemini 3 Flash and set it as the default model in the Gemini app, positioning it as a faster, more capable everyday reasoning model.

SMB Takeaway:

Most users never choose models. Default upgrades quietly raise baseline output quality across research, writing, and analysis without behavior change.

Date: Dec 17, 2025

Source: blog.google

📊 Microsoft Updates Microsoft 365 Copilot App with Library + Navigation

Microsoft refreshed the Copilot app experience with improved navigation, better chat history, and a Copilot Library that centralizes AI-generated pages, images, and content.

SMB Takeaway:

AI output stops being ephemeral. This is the first genuine attempt to manage AI-generated work as durable business assets.

Date: Dec 17, 2025

Source: techcommunity.microsoft

💬 Slack Ships Major Feature Drop with Shared AI Answers

Slack’s latest feature drop allows users to share AI answers into channels and DMs, adds mobile “Explain” for messages, and improves notification and admin controls.

SMB Takeaway:

This shifts AI from individual help to shared team knowledge. Answers become reusable, searchable, and part of the company’s living memory.

Date: Dec 22, 2025

Source: slack.com 

🗂️ Google Expands Gemini Image Generation Inside Workspace

Google expanded Gemini-powered image generation (Nano Banana) directly into Workspace tools like Docs and Slides, enabling inline visual creation.

SMB Takeaway:

Documents become generate-first. This cuts production time for decks, internal docs, and simple visuals without leaving Workspace.

Date: Dec 23, 2025

Source: workspaceupdates.googleblog

 🕵️‍♂️ Feature / Tool Spotlight Deep Dive

Each week, we spotlight a single AI feature from a major LLM platform that can help small teams gain time and work Smarter Than Busy.

This week’s feature is Nano Banana, Google’s lightweight image generation and editing model, now embedded across Google Gemini and Google Workspace.

What Is Nano Banana?

Nano Banana is Google’s fast, low-latency image generation and editing model, designed for everyday business visuals, not art showcases. Unlike heavy image models aimed at cinematic output, Nano Banana is optimized for:

• quick generation

• precise instruction following

• inline editing

• tight integration with Docs, Slides, and Gemini chat

Think of it as “good-enough visuals, instantly, exactly where you’re already working.”

💡 Why This Matters (For SMB Owners)

Most SMBs don’t need award-winning design. They need visuals that are:

• clear

• fast

• editable

• “done enough to move on”

Nano Banana removes a constant friction point:

• opening design tools

• briefing designers

• iterating on minor visual tweaks

It collapses that entire loop into minutes. This is time compression, not creative disruption.

⚡ How Nano Banana Works

You generate or edit images directly inside Gemini or Workspace tools using natural language.

Examples:

• “Create a simple diagram showing our 3-step onboarding process.”

• “Generate a clean header image for this slide, modern style, no text.”

• “Edit this image to remove the background and make it lighter.”

The model:

• generates visuals quickly

• respects layout and context

• allows follow-up edits without starting over

No file exporting. No context loss.

🧩 Core Capabilities

Inline Image Generation: Create images directly in Docs and Slides without switching tools.

Instruction-Following Edits: You can refine images conversationally:

• adjust tone

• simplify visuals

• remove or add elements

Speed Over Perfection: Nano Banana prioritizes responsiveness and usability over artistic depth — which is exactly what most business workflows need.

Context Awareness: Because it lives inside Workspace, the visuals match the surrounding document or presentation.

🎯 Where Nano Banana Is Useful

Internal Docs & SOPs: Add simple visuals to explain processes, flows, or systems without stopping to design.

Presentations & Slides: Generate clean, neutral visuals for decks without spending time on layout or stock images.

Marketing Support: Without escalating every request to a designer.

• blog header images

• explainer visuals

• simple social graphics

Iteration, Not Creation: Nano Banana shines when you need:

• “Make this simpler.”

• “Remove that.”

• “Try a different version.”

Small changes, fast.

🚫 What Nano Banana Is Not

• It is not a replacement for professional design.

• It is not meant for brand-heavy, high-stakes creative

• It is not about originality or style leadership

It’s a utility model, not a creative director.

Bottom Line

Nano Banana doesn’t try to impress you. It tries to get out of the way.

For SMBs, that’s the point. It turns visuals from a blocking task into a background task — something you handle in-line, quickly, and move past.

• Less friction.

• Less switching.

• More forward motion.

If Agent Mode (see previous edition) is about doing work for you, Nano Banana is about removing the minor annoyances that slow work down.

Both matter.

👇 Below are tutorials and resources to help you master Nano Banana this week:

🎥 Nano Banana AI Tutorial | How to Use Google’s Free Tool (Step-by-Step)

🎥 Master Google Nano Banana Pro (Hidden Features)

🎥 Master The Ultimate Nano Banana Prompt Formula (Beginners Guide)

💬 Smarter Prompts

Each week, I share battle-tested prompts that you can start using today in your business. This Week Smarter Prompt  “Clarity First: Bringing Order to Business Overload”

Each week, I share battle-tested prompts that you can start using today in your business. This Week Smarter Prompt  “High-Stakes Consequence Check”

What This Prompt Achieves

Most costly business mistakes don’t come from big, reckless bets. They come from small ‘seemingly,’ sensible changes made to things that were already working.

• A price tweak.

• A new tier.

• A process change.

• A “we should probably fix this now.”

Nothing feels dramatic. Nothing feels dangerous. 

And that’s exactly why people don’t slow down!

When already works, the instinct is often to double down or test for better 

• to relieve pressure

• to capture a bit more upside

• to fix a problem that’s been quietly annoying you

The problem is that changes like these rarely fail immediately. They fail downstream  in sales friction, delivery strain, team fatigue, or trust erosion weeks or months later, when undoing them is expensive.

This week’s prompt exists for one specific moment:

When one thing matters — and getting it wrong would cost you.

This prompt forces the AI to:

• understand your situation correctly

• reason inside your actual business reality

• surface assumptions you may be leaning on without realizing

• walk through what breaks if you’re wrong

If you’re looking for quick answers, skip this. If you want reassurance, skip this too.

But if you’re about to make a “reasonable” change that you can’t easily undo and you want to protect the parts of your business that are quietly doing their job — this is the prompt to use.

👇 Copy the below prompt and start using it today

📝 Smarter Prompt: High-Stakes Consequence Check:

📚 Smarter Stack

Each week, I share plug-and-play resources from checklists, insights  and templates to actionable tutorials that help you build and optimize your Smarter-Than-Busy work stack.

🎥 The Ultimate Marketing Checklist for Beginners & Experts | Boost Your Business Visibility

In this Growth Media Marketing Series, Tony and Nicole share The Ultimate Marketing Checklist that every business owner (beginner or expert) needs to grow visibility, attract leads, and convert customers.

📝 30+ Best Nano Banana Prompts (Free Copy-Paste Templates) 

If you want Gemini AI photo prompts that actually work for your everyday projects, you’re in the right place. These templates are optimized for Nano Banana Pro, Google’s most advanced AI image generator.

📝 Prompt Patterns | Generative AI | Vanderbilt University 

Prompt patterns are strategies for structuring prompts that allow you to tap into the right pattern to elicit a particular behavior. To get the most from AI Models its super-important to understand the underlying patterns that the model has been trained on and seen repeatedly.

📝 Content Audit Template Excel 

This template provides a straightforward way to assess and organize your content, making it easier to analyze its performance and identify areas for improvement. You can download the file as an Excel template or directly through Google Sheets for convenient access on the go.

And that’s a wrap! 🎬

Thanks for spending a few minutes with this week’s Smarter Than Busy. I hope you found something useful, inspiring, or just plain interesting. I’ll be back next week with more insights, tools, and resources to make your work a little smarter (and your week a little lighter).

If this edition helped you, share it with someone who could use it too.

Until Next Week.