RRD Daily AI Update · AIU 05 · October 19, 2026
RiverRun Digital's daily AI update for organizations that run on relationships. Today: Microsoft delays default usage-based billing for Copilot Business, ChatGPT starts building slide decks for paid business plans, OpenAI sets a January shutdown date for older GPT-4o and GPT-4.1 API models, Meta shares how small businesses use its Muse agents, and new survey data says AI training is widespread but the impact is not.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business pairs the per-user license with usage-based billing for advanced features such as Copilot Cowork and other long-running agent work. On eligible new purchases, Microsoft will turn pay-as-you-go billing on by default, with a spending limit of 4,000 Copilot credits per user per month, charged only on actual use.
An October 16 update pushed the timeline back. Direct purchases get the default starting mid-November, first for tenants with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, with Business Standard and Basic tenants following at a later date. Purchases through CSP resellers start December 1, 2026. Note: some blogs still say October 19. That date came from the October 1 version of the notice.
Not changing: existing subscriptions, payment terms, and any spending policy already set. Admins manage limits in Cost Management in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and turning usage-based billing off blocks the features that need it. The change is not initially available in 11 markets, including Australia, France, Germany, and India.
Whoever handles IT for a small office should look at the spending limit before the default lands, not after the first bill. And this is not a price increase: license prices are not changing, and the new charges apply only when the metered features get used.
Sources: MC1476200 via ChangeCockpit · Microsoft Partner Center, October 2026 announcements
ChatGPT can now build an editable slide deck from a conversation, your files, or an outline, and it can follow an example deck's style. You can edit text, images, shapes, tables, and charts directly, or ask ChatGPT to make the changes. Teammates can work on the same deck in real time with shared comments, you can present straight from ChatGPT, and on the web you can export to PowerPoint, PDF, or Google Slides.
Availability is narrow for now: rolling out to eligible Pro, Business, and Enterprise users with Space access, on web and desktop. Free, Go, and Plus plans are not listed. On Windows 10, the desktop app falls back to .pptx files instead of collaborative Slides. Comment-only sharing is not available at launch, and some eligible accounts will not see Slides yet. OpenAI's own help article says to review the text, figures, and layout before sharing or presenting.
A client deck still needs a human read. The tool drafts the deck. You own what goes out under your name.
Sources: OpenAI Help Center · ChatGPT release notes
Coverage note: so far this is confirmed on OpenAI's own pages only. No independent sightings of the rollout have surfaced yet.
OpenAI notified developers on October 14 that five API snapshots shut down on January 14, 2027: gpt-4o-2024-08-06, gpt-4o-2024-11-20, gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18, gpt-4.1-2025-04-14, and gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14. The recommended replacement for all five is gpt-6-luna, and fine-tuned versions follow the same date. Separately, the older text-to-speech models (tts-1, tts-1-hd, and the gpt-4o-mini-tts snapshots) shut down January 6, 2027.
OpenAI says it emails customers actively using a retiring model, and you can check a model's shutdown date through the API. Two clarifications that matter: this is the developer API, not the ChatGPT app. And the notice names specific dated snapshots, not every model with GPT-4o in the name. One open question: the notice doesn't say whether the plain gpt-4o alias is affected.
This hits the quiet stuff. A custom chatbot or automation built last year that calls one of these models directly, and that nobody has opened since, will break in January if nobody moves it.
Sources: OpenAI API deprecations page
Meta launched its Muse for SMBs package late last month, with connectors to third-party tools plus Muse's own analysis. In a press release shared with Social Media Today, Meta says the most common owner request is analyzing ad performance ("What are my highest performing ads and why?"), and many owners use Muse to plan a campaign structure from a creative brief. Some businesses chain Muse's Meta Ads connector with Shopify, Canva, and HighLevel into one funnel, from product analysis to creative brief to built ads. Others use it to set up product catalogs and install pixel tracking.
Treat this as Meta's menu of what's possible, not proof of results. The piece has no usage numbers, performance data, or pricing. Useful for ideas, not for decisions.
Sources: Social Media Today (Oct 18)
Salary.com's 2026 AI Workplace Experience Report surveyed 1,051 employers and 975 employees. 53.5% of employers say they offered AI training or adoption support, and 52.9% of employees say they received it. But only 42.8% of employees say AI has meaningfully changed how their organization works. 31.8% say it's too early to tell, and 25.4% call it a checkbox exercise.
Meanwhile 25.7% of employees say their workload went up because of AI initiatives. Of those, 51.2% also say their organization cut headcount because of AI, compared with 9.5% of employees whose workload didn't rise. Read that carefully: the 51.2% covers employees whose workload rose, and it's their perception, not a company headcount figure. Salary.com sells compensation data and software, so treat this as vendor research.
Rolling out a tool isn't the same as changing the work. If you're the one managing the rollout, measure the impact with the same rigor you measured the adoption.
Sources: Salary.com (Oct 15)
Quick hit: Intuit Intelligence is launching in Australia. Intuit's AI platform is now rolling out internationally to QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Advanced customers, starting with Australia. Beta features include plain-language Automations, Autonomous Invoicing that creates and sends invoices with reminders, and conversational cash-flow reports. The "13 hours a month saved" and "70% confident their books are right" figures are Intuit's own claims.
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