AI news: Agent Skills becomes an open standard, new Claude API, live translation in Meet

There was no big new model this week. There was something more useful for businesses: AI tools are becoming standard, easier to control, and are moving into everyday apps like Meet and Sheets.

Anthropic: Agent Skills moves to an independent foundation

On 22 October Anthropic announced that it is donating Agent Skills to the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), which operates under the Linux Foundation. A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that tells an agent how to do a specific task, plus any scripts and reference material it needs. The MCP protocol took the same route earlier.

According to Anthropic, more than 70 agent platforms support the standard, including ChatGPT, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and VS Code. About one million skills have been published and installed almost 280 million times. The standard stays open, and the roadmap includes versioned releases and security guidance for skill authors and users.

Claude: a new API version and more admin control

For companies that use Claude inside their own applications, this was a week of technical changes:

• On 21 October Anthropic released API version 2026-10-21 with new SDKs (for example Python 2.0.0 and TypeScript 1.0.0) that use it by default. The new SDKs include breaking changes that need code updates, and they are now licensed under Apache 2.0 instead of MIT.
• On 20 October it introduced user profiles. A company can say which of its own customers a request is for, so an enforcement action by Anthropic applies to that customer only, not to the whole organisation. Admins can now also switch off web fetch or limit it to certain domains.
• On 15 October fast mode for Claude Opus 5.5 left research preview and no longer needs an access request.
• Since 22 October the Claude API can also be used through a Google Cloud project, with access through Google Cloud IAM and billing through Google Cloud Marketplace.

Pro and Max users can also try Claude Duet from 21 October, an app in which Claude works as a proactive agent. For now it is a research preview.

Google: Meet translates speech live in 63 languages

On 22 October Google expanded real-time speech translation in Google Meet to 63 languages, with automatic language detection, including when a speaker switches language. It runs on the Gemini 3.5 Live Translate model. It is available on Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and Google AI Pro and Ultra. Translated meetings are capped at 90 minutes on the base plans. Domains on Scheduled Release get it from 2 November.

In Google Sheets, Gemini can analyse BigQuery data from plain-language questions since 19 October. Gmail AI Inbox and Gmail Live are still limited to the US and to English.

Microsoft: Volkswagen gives Copilot to more than 330,000 employees

On 21 October Microsoft said Volkswagen Group has rolled out Copilot to more than 330,000 employees. Copilot Chat passed 300,000 monthly active users, and more than 26,000 agents were active across the group in the past month, in engineering, production, procurement and sales.

What it means for your business

1. Write down your processes as skills. Because Agent Skills is becoming a shared standard, instructions you write once work in several tools. That reduces dependence on a single vendor.
2. Plan the move to the new Claude SDKs. If you run an integration on the Claude API, upgrading to the new major SDK version means code changes and testing.
3. Test Meet translation with partners abroad. Before an important meeting, check that your languages are supported and how translation works on a short call.

If you want to bring AI into your processes, see our AI automation service or get in touch.