Microsoft's New App Builder

Hi everyone,

Microsoft just rolled out a new app builder in 365 Copilot that's going to make creating dashboards and workflows way simpler.

OpenAI's Sora 2 brings some cool character cameos even amidst some drama over trademarks.

Check out our partners Deel, HubSpot, and Speedeondata.

Let's get right into it.

In this issue:

• 🤝 In Partnership: Your handbook for hiring worldwide

• 🤿Deep Dive: Microsoft adds app builder

• 🤝 Powered by: Free Excel templates built for marketers

• 🖼️AI Art: Examples of great and trending AI art

• 🤿Deep Dive: New features in Sora 2

• 🤝 Supported by: Unlock ready-to-use audience insights

• ⚒️Tool Snapshots: Tools for AI, no-code, and productivity

🤝IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DEEL

You found global talent. Now What?

Deel’s simplified a whole planet’s worth of information on global hiring. It’s time you got your hands on our international compliance handbook where you’ll learn about:

• Attracting global talent

• Labor laws to consider when hiring

• Processing international payroll on time

• Staying compliant with employment & tax laws abroad

With 150+ countries right at your fingertips, growing your team with Deel is easier than ever.

Get the guide

🤿 DEEP DIVE

Microsoft Expands 365 Copilot with App Builder and Workflows

Intelligence: Microsoft is introducing new App Builder and Workflows agents for 365 Copilot Frontier customers, allowing employees to build apps and automate tasks using natural language fully integrated with Microsoft 365’s security and governance.

• App Builder lets users create dashboards, charts, calculators, and lists without database setup, with live preview and editing in Copilot and data stored via Microsoft Lists.

• Workflows automate tasks across Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and Approvals, showing each step in real time and allowing adjustments within the same conversation.

• Copilot Studio connects agents to company content like SharePoint, meeting transcripts, chats, and tools like ServiceNow and Jira, with support for advanced workflows and multi-agent setups.

• Security and governance follow enterprise standards, enforcing role-based access and keeping all activity within Microsoft 365 for compliance.

• Admins manage permissions and visibility through the Microsoft 365 admin center, including agent inventories for group-level access control.

• Available in the Agent Store for Frontier customers, with quick setup via Create Agent in Copilot; example use cases include product launch apps, weekly updates, approval reminders, and agents answering launch questions from company data.

🤝POWERED BY MASTERS IN MARKETING

Streamline Your Marketing Workflow With These Free Excel Templates

Are your spreadsheets helping you move faster—or slowing you down?

Masters in Marketing’s free Excel Toolkit includes 10 customizable templates used by real marketing teams to plan smarter, track better, and stay organized across campaigns.

Inside this toolkit, you’ll get:

• A campaign planning template that keeps teams aligned

• A content calendar format built for busy marketers

• Budget and performance trackers designed to show ROI fast

• Plug-and-play sheets that require zero complex formulas

Unlock the toolkit. Free when you subscribe to the Masters in Marketing newsletter.

Get practical marketing insights, twice a week, from experts who know what works.

GET THE TEMPLATES

🖼️ AI ART

Examples of great and trending AI art

🤿 DEEP DIVE

OpenAI Adds Character Cameos to Sora 2 Amid Trademark Dispute

Intelligence: OpenAI has launched new Sora features, including Character Cameos, Clip Stitching, and Leaderboards, while facing a trademark lawsuit from Cameo founder Steven Galanis over the use of the word “Cameo.”

• Character Cameos let users turn people, pets, illustrations, or toys into reusable avatars for AI videos, starting with pre-made characters and building on Sora’s opt-in self-deepfakes.

• Each character has its permissions, display name, and taggable handle, with options to keep private, share with mutual followers, or open to everyone.

• It’s unclear whether Sora accepts AI-generated fictional people from other tools, how realistic they can be, or how it distinguishes them from real individuals.

• Sora 2 adds clip stitching so creators can combine multiple videos into longer, multi-scene clips.

• Leaderboards highlight the most remixed videos and most cameoed users and characters. Sign-ups are temporarily open without invite in the US, Canada, Japan, and Korea.

• The launch follows a trademark suit from Cameo over the use of “Cameo” in Sora’s feature names, raising questions about brand control and governance in AI video platforms.

🤝SUPPORTED BY SPEEDEON DATA

How to stop sharing audiences with your competitors

Here's what nobody tells you: the best-performing holiday audiences aren't about simple demographics—they're about behavior and intent.

We’ve built 45+ precise digital audiences ready to use immediately. Grab your holiday guide for the full list and crank up your campaign performance this holiday season.

See the holiday audiences

⚒️ TOOL SNAPSHOTS

Futuristic tools within AI, no-code, and productivity

• 🛠️ Tripo AI 3.0 - Transform text/images into superior 3D assets. Free option available.

• 🤖 Bika.ai - AI-powered organizer transforming one-person companies. Free option available.

• 🗒️ Meeting.ai - Transform conversations into memorable visual diagrams effortlessly. Free option available.

• 🔍 StoryChief - SEO optimized articles for heightened AI search visibility. Free to try.

• 🎨 Seedream 4.0 - Unified, next-gen 4K image creation and editing. Free to try.

ℹ️ ABOUT US

The Intelligent Worker helps you to be more productive at work with AI, automation, no-code, and other technologies.

We like real, practical, and tangible use-cases and hate hand-wavy, theoretical, and abstract concepts that don’t drive real-world outcomes.

Our mission is to empower individuals, boost their productivity, and future-proof their careers.

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