Tech News : Zapier Launches New AI-powered Business Diagramming Tool
Zapier, the company behind the automation tool that lets apps link up to each other, has announced the launch of ‘Canvas,’ an AI-powered diagramming tool to help visualize, plan, and automate business-critical processes.
Why & Who?
Canvas is a tool designed to help businesses that need to gain clarity and refine their work operations when trying to solve complex business problems with automation. The new tool enables businesses to visualise and automate critical business processes in one place, thereby scaling their impact faster.
Zapier says the new diagramming tool’s ability to allow visualisation of a system will be particularly helpful for:
– Those who need to create whole mission critical systems.
– Those struggling to communicate how their interface systems work together, i.e. those needing to explain a complex process to their team.
– Anyone who needs to sketch-out a business-critical process before building it, e.g., those planning a new process, or mapping out a customer journey.
– Anyone who needs recommendations on how to further automate their process.
The Power of AI
Zapier says that Canvas users can “skip the trial and error of tinkering” and quickly transform a plan into a workable automated solution thanks to AI-powered recommendations on what to automate next.
What Can You Do With It?
Canvas can be used as a basic flowchart diagramming tool to document processes and, for the components that are already connected, it also acts as an interface to edit those processes. Examples of what users can achieve by using Canvas include the ability to:
– Plan workflows and sketch processes confidently using Zapier’s existing integrations, built-in tools, and products.
– Visualise entire processes, not just Zaps. A ‘Zap’ is an automated workflow that connects your apps and services together and consists of a trigger and one or more actions. Zapier says using Canvas as a planning tool can help “demystify processes for your team,” spot where human intervention is needed, and “link Tables to store data, and connect to existing Zaps and Interfaces pages.”
– Share, collaborate, and refine plans.
– Take the most efficient course of action. For example, when users are ready to start automating, the AI in Canvas transforms the plan into a drafted Zap that can achieve the goal most efficiently.
– Discover more automation opportunities by using AI to get recommendations on what to automate next (based which apps have already been used and what’s already been automated).
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The attraction of Zapier has always been that it can help businesses to punch above their weight in terms of marketing processes and the level of in-house technical skills because it’s a relatively user-friendly and easy low-code/no-code way to enable smarter working by automating workflow tasks.
Canvas now takes this up a notch by giving businesses greater convenience and transparency, and more expert (AI) help. Canvas gives businesses an all-in-one-place tool where they can create, see, and edit whole workflows (whether they are connected to Zapier or not) that are based not just on “the trial and error of tinkering”, but on generative AI-powered recommendations. The AI makes things faster and easier and makes Zapier more accessible to more users, e.g. users just need to tell Canvas what kind of problem they’re trying to solve, and it generates the process for them. For Zapier, it offers a way to improve its competitive game (there are other integrated workflow platforms and competitors including Make/Integromat, Leadsbridge, Automate.io/Notion), build generative AI into its services in a value-adding way, plus address some of the drawbacks that some customers have found, e.g. trouble dealing with larger and more complex projects effectively.
Tech News : Adobe Photoshop On The Web Arrives…With AI Features
After a long beta testing wait, Adobe Photoshop for the Web (which includes Firefly generative AI features) is now available as part of all Photoshop plans.
Major Milestone
The release of Photoshop on the web, which Adobe describes as “a major milestone” offers creators who are new to Photoshop “a streamlined user experience” (with easier navigation) and gives existing Photoshop users access to new tools like Generative Fill from any web browser. In short, it’s a simpler version of Photoshop, but it offers the convenience of being accessible from anywhere (with an Internet connection), and the power of Adobe Firefly’s generative AI features.
Web
The advantages for users of having a cloud-based version of Photoshop are that download / installation aren’t necessary, it’s easy to access and get started, users can pick up where they left off on any Photoshop document on the web, and users can choose to jump back into the desktop app with the click of a button.
Also, the web version enables collaboration on projects through by allowing users to invite others to collaborate, even if they don’t have a Photoshop subscription, simply by sharing a link.
Made Easier For New Users
With users able to invite non-subscribers, i.e. new Photoshop users, it makes sense that Adobe has tried to simplify Photoshop. Some methods that it says it’s achieved this include grouping the tools in the tollbar together based on workflows, thereby making it easier to retouch a portrait, select an object in an image, or apply a quick action. Also, Adobe says it’s added tool names to the toolbar for users who aren’t familiar with Photoshop tool icons.
Existing Users Can Switch To Old Desktop Look
Not wanting to alienate its existing users, Adobe has provided the option in Photoshop on the web for existing and experienced Photoshop users to hide the new view and work with the old, familiar desktop-style interface.
Generative AI
One of the recently introduced value-adding additions to Photoshop desktop (which will now be available in Photoshop on the web) is the Adobe Firefly family of creative generative AI models. In short, users can use a text field (just as with ChatGPT and other chatbots and image generators) to describe how they want to change and add to an image and features like Generative Fill and Generative Expand will do it. Obviously, this saves a great deal of time and effort in having to learn how to use all the Photoshop tools.
Adobe says: “These features allow you to add, expand, or remove content from your images non-destructively, while magically matching perspective, lighting, and style of your image to deliver truly mind-blowing results.”
The Contextual Task Bar Too
First introduced in June in Photoshop desktop, Adobe is also including its Contextual Task Bar with Photoshop on the web. This AI-powered on-screen menu gives users recommendations designed to help reduce clicks and save steps in common workflows in design projects, e.g. replacing the background of an image or adjusting the lighting and tone of images. This again is a way to make Photoshop more user-friendly to all and save time, while still giving a professional-looking output.
How Much?
Now the (long) beta phase is over, a free-to-use version is no longer be available, and Photoshop on the web paid plans for the app start at $9.99.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Adobe’s Photoshop has enjoyed being an industry-standard professional designer’s tool for many years but in recent times it’s seen some strong competition from cheaper alternatives such as Affinity. It’s also seen competition from ready to use, template-based alternatives such as Canva, from free image editors like GIMP, and from free, online (more limited but still valued) touch-up alternatives like Pixlr.
The huge, disruptive game-changer has been generative AI and the introduction of AI image generators, which enable users to quickly create incredible-looking images with no need to spend time learning how to use all the tools that would normally be needed to create them. Many of us are now also used to using cloud-based apps where work is automatically saved (pick up where you left off) and accessible from anywhere. Of course, Photoshop is a trusted brand, most strongly associated with professional/business use, with its own considerable use base, but it has very quickly (like the major Photo vendors), found itself in an environment where there are many good (and cheaper, and free) alternatives. It’s also an environment where there are a large number of potential customers who don’t want to spend a lot of money and time learning just to carry out basic image tasks on complicated and expensive professional tools, or where they can still quickly meet their needs and get professional looking results with trusted alternatives e.g., Canva, or simply by typing a description into an AI image generator.
Photoshop on the web (with Adobe’s generative AI Firefly tools thrown in) represents a way for it to compete and stay relevant in a rapidly changing market by trying to meet lots of customer needs in one go. For instance, it’s online (convenience), it has AI (you don’t have to learn the tools), it allows collaborative working even with non-subscribers, it’s simplified and more user friendly but experienced and invested users can have the old desktop look if they want (retention), it’s SaaS, and more.
Adobe appears to be looking primarily for new users here and as a leading brand in the photo editing world that’s packaging generative AI with cloud-based convenience it will have high hopes for its long-awaited Photoshop on the web.
Sustainability-in-Tech : Smart 5G Street Lamps Trial Smart Street Lights
Six areas across the UK will receive funding to trial a new multi-purpose smart street lamps that house EV charging hubs and boost wireless coverage including 5G.
Funding
As part of The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT’s) Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme (SIPP) to level-up digital connectivity, six councils will receive funding for the smart street lamps pilot. The funding for the £1.3 million pilot, which will run from October to 31 this year to March 2025 and is designed to test next-generation digital technologies, will range from £165,000 to £250,000 per council, with the local authorities expected to invest a further collective £2.7 million.
Why Smart Street Lamps?
The rising demand for wireless services, the need to speed up the rollout of 5G and free public Wi-Fi to enable the UK to catch up with other countries, together with the need to dramatically expand the EV charging network to overcome battery limitations and boost EV purchases have led to many different ideas being explored. Examples of options considered by companies include the installation of infrastructure on lamp posts, traffic lights, CCTV columns, benches, bins, and bus stops because they are already sited in large numbers across the UK and are particularly prevalent in towns and city areas.
The Benefits
In addition to boosting connectivity, the infrastructure installed on streetlamps as part of the pilot scheme can be adapted to carry out a range of functions, e.g. from charging EVs to monitoring air quality, and from displaying public information to saving energy with street lighting. The benefits include:
– As the Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure Sir John Whittingdale points out: “digital connectivity – and a world-class wireless infrastructure will be the foundation for the jobs, skills, and services of the future.”
– The ability to adapt the smart infrastructure to carry out a range of functions could enable councils and combined authorities to unlock new opportunities and improve public services, e.g. from rolling out electric vehicle chargers to boosting business growth and helping keep streets safe.
– Being able to charge EVs from streetlights could provide confidence in the charging infrastructure (overcoming “range anxiety”) that could help boost EV sales in the UK. However, Rishi Sunak’s recent announcement that the government would push back the ban on new fossil fuel vehicles from 2030 until 2035 has been criticised for the possible negative impact it could have on EV infrastructure investment and EV sales.
What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?
The UK is lagging behind in terms of 5G and the availability of free public Wi-Fi, much to the frustration of UK businesses. Also, EV sales aren’t living up to expectations, partly because of the lack of a charging infrastructure of an adequate scale. In addition to these challenges the government is aware that a better wireless infrastructure could boost the economy, jobs, skills, and services, and although extended, the target date for a ban on new fossil fuel vehicles (2035) still seems very close.
All these challenges have put pressure on the government to try new ideas and come up with some fast solutions that won’t cost the earth. Adding connectivity infrastructure as an adjustable bolt-on to existing, widely available architecture like lamp posts, traffic lights, CCTV columns, benches, bins, and bus stops, could therefore be a way to tackle all these challenges at once. Clearly, it’s worth the investment to find out, and each of the six local authorities (which are also investing) are, no doubt, also hoping that this idea may offer them an innovative way to improve their public services and create new opportunities. If the pilot is successful, and once the new connectivity infrastructure is added to lampposts (which would be a major project in itself), businesses may start to feel the economic benefits, the economy could see a vital boost, and the EV industry could also start to grow more quickly.
Tech-Trivia : Did You Know? This Week in Tech-History …
‘Stooky Bill’ : 02 October 2025
In days gone by, a Scottish person with a broken appendage might well have said their arm or leg was held in a ‘stooky’ (or ‘stookie’) which meant a plaster-cast. It’s thought the word comes from ‘stucco’ (plaster) although the term also has a derogatory meaning for a ‘stupid person’, so perhaps it’s no surprise that one specific dummy was named Stooky Bill.
This particular dummy was a crudely made ventriloquist-model and was chosen because of its highly-contrasted painted facial features. These were necessary because on the second of October 1925, the first ever (grayscale) image was transmitted by television at an incredible five images per second. At the time, the lights were so hot that poor old Stooky Bill was singed and cracked although the inventor, John Logie Baird wasn’t too upset because he’d experienced many, many other setbacks along the way.
Whilst he was famous for pioneering the ‘telly’ he did have various other television-related successes including primitive video-recording (‘phonovision’ 1928), the first transatlantic television transmission (1928), the first 3D Television (1940) and the first colour-TV (1944). Not that he was limited to television because his achievements also included radio direction finding, fibre-optics, infrared night viewing and even a primitive cousin to radar as early as 1926 (according to his son).
However, like all pioneers, he had his fair share of flops too, including rust-resistant razors made of glass (they shattered often) and diamonds made from graphite (too much current required – he shorted-out Glasgow’s power supply). Suffering from poor circulation to his feet, he also worked on thermal socks and pneumatic shoes, although the balloons inside the soles kept bursting so he abandoned his idea. As an aside, his failures in pneumatic footwear didn’t stop Dr Martens boots becoming wildly successful later on, with their air-cushioned soles.
Innovation is the lifeblood of many successful IT companies and it can be developed internally (such as in Baird Television Limited) or acquired externally – just think of all the successful acquisitions companies like Google have made and added to their repertoire (including YouTube as this is a video-themed post).
Whilst watching broadcast-television is now in decline (in the UK it’s declined by around a quarter in the last three years alone) we can nevertheless be thankful that in 2023, we’re not watching unintelligible dummies with overly-painted faces who need to be manipulated by their operators behind the scenes. Or are we?
Tech Tip – Google Chrome’s Link To Highlighted Text Feature
If you’ve found a specific passage of text in a web page that you’d like to show to another person, Google Chrome has a built-in feature that allows you to share a link that goes straight to that text. Here’s how it works:
– In Chrome, highlight the passage text in any web page that you’d like to show to, e.g. to a customer or colleague.
– Right-click.
– Select ‘Copy link to highlight.’
– Share the link.
Featured Article : Google’s Bard Now Manages Your Email
Google has announced that it is embedding its ‘Bard’ chatbot into its apps and services with the launch of ‘Bard Extensions’.
Bard
In a similar way to Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s own ‘Duet’ (for Google Cloud users), and Salesforce’s Einstein Copilot, Google is giving users an embedded chatbot assistant that works across its apps to leverage them and improve productivity.
PaLM 2 LLM
Google’s Bard is its generative AI service which used Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), and more recently is using Google’s next generation PaLM 2 LLM. When first announced, Bard was seen as Google’s rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT (probably because ChatGPT beat everyone to market).
Extensions
Google says that its ‘Bard Extensions’ that will enable the Bard “helpful collaborator” to connect with Google’s apps and services. In a similar way to how OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s extensions enable to access other wider information sources, Extensions gives Bard to access information internally and from back-end systems as well as via Google tools like Google Maps, and Google Flights and hotels (as well as Gmail, Docs, Drive). In short, it’s a way for Google users to access multiple information sources in one place – tying everything together in what should be a fast and convenient way.
Manages Your Email, And More – Example : Planning A Trip
As mentioned in the title of this article, one way you could use Bard is to manage aspects of Gmail, e.g. summarising emails to and from certain contacts. However, the point Google wants to make is that the embedded Bard can integrate, co-ordinate, and pull-in information from multiple sources, saving time and effort and boosting the capabilities and productivity of users.
One example Google gives to illustrate this is by suggesting using Bard to plan a trip by asking Bard to “grab the dates that work for everyone from Gmail, look up real-time flight and hotel information, see Google Maps directions to the airport, and even watch YouTube videos of things to do there — all within one conversation.”
Bard can, of course, do many of the things ChatGTP users are familiar with plus users can also upload images and ask Bard to find information about them.
Security
Google is also keen to make the point to businesses that if you choose to use the Workspace extensions, security and privacy will be maintained because the content from Gmail, Docs and Drive will not be seen by human reviewers, used by Bard to show targeted ads, or used to train the Bard model. For example, fears have been raised that sensitive company information shared with generative AI chatbots could conceivably be revealed as part of an answer to other users is the right prompts were used.
“Google It” Button To Check Reliability
One issue with generative AI chatbots is that they can generate replies to questions that contain often plausible looking but fabricated or simply incorrect information. For example, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman has been very open about ChatGPT’s deductive (fact-based) reasoning leading it to have ‘hallucination’ problems, whereby it confidently states things as if they were facts that are entirely made up. Relying on false information for decision-making or publishing false information could, of course, be very damaging for businesses.
To address this issue, Google says Bard’s “Google it” button will enable users to “more easily double-check its answers.” For example, clicking on the “G” icon, makes Bard read the response and “evaluate whether there is content across the web to substantiate it.” Where Bard’s statements can be evaluated, users can click the highlighted phrases and view the supporting or contradicting information found by Search.
Share A Bard Chat Link
Google says that the new embedded Bard can also help with “conversations” about topics (e.g. business issues) between users by allowing users to share a Bard chat with each other through a public link. This allows users to continue a conversation and ask Bard additional questions about that topic or use it as a starting point for ideas.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Along with Duet, the embedding of Bard in Google’s apps and the use of Bard Extensions provides with another way for Google to compete with and challenge its generative AI rivals Microsoft (with Copilot) and OpenAI (with ChatGPT). It’s the synergies and added value of being able to tie together and leverage so many apps, services, and information sources via one fast, convenient, easy to operate (just conversational language) AI assistant / collaborator that’s the advantage an embedded Bard, Copilot and other similar chatbot brings.
Businesses may need to access information from different places (internal and external) and in different Google apps in its suite, and Bard gives them the chance to save time, and generate valuable information and insights, and increase their capabilities (without extra training) way beyond what could be achieved without it. In the generative AI world, Bard’s been quite a long time coming, and for many people it remains to be seen and experienced how it stacks up against other chatbots. For Google, which has spent many years developing a whole ecosystem of apps, Bard offers a way to give users seamless way to harness their power in new and value-adding ways. Although this is another important step for Google, many commentators are already looking towards a time when generative AI will not just be good with text and pictures but will be able to connect and integrate with other business systems like CRMs and become more proactive in their assistance rather than just responding to questions and requests.