Two things happened in AI this month that are worth a small business owner’s attention. One needs action before Christmas. The other is worth keeping an eye on.
1. OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs on 11 December
If you or your team built a custom GPT inside ChatGPT, for example one loaded with your prices, your policies or your tone of voice, it is being switched off. OpenAI announced on 11 September that custom GPTs retire on 11 December 2026. Businesses on Enterprise plans with an approved extension have until 11 February 2027.
OpenAI wants people to move to plugins instead. Plugins bring your instructions, your reference files and your connected apps together in one place.
What moves across, and what does not
Your written instructions and the knowledge files you uploaded can move to a plugin. Custom actions, the connections that let a GPT talk to other software, do not move. Neither do your past conversations with it.
What to do this week. Open each custom GPT you use. Copy its instructions into a document and download any files you uploaded to it. It takes ten minutes and means nothing is lost, whatever you decide to use next.
2. Meta launched Muse for Small Business
On 29 September Meta launched Muse for Small Business, an AI assistant aimed squarely at owners. It connects to software many small businesses already use, including Asana, Zoom, Intuit, Box, Canva and Slack, and it can link to your Meta ad account and your business Instagram and Facebook profiles.
Meta says it can take on routine back-office work such as customer messages, cash-flow management, stock tracking and even building a website. It is free with usage limits, with a paid subscription above that.
What it means for you
Meta already reaches around 200 million small businesses through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, so expect to see this inside tools you already use. It is worth a look, but it is brand new. Check whether it is available in your account before you plan around it, and never give any AI tool access to your ad account or your customer messages without checking what it can do on its own.
The bigger picture
The big AI companies are all moving the same way: away from a chat window you visit, and towards assistants that sit inside the software you already use and do the work there. For a small business, that makes the question less about which AI to use and more about which jobs you actually want to hand over. That is worth deciding before the tools decide for you.