AI this week: Claude Sonnet 5.5, Gemini limits free accounts, OpenAI agents

This week three major AI vendors moved in the same direction: strong models are getting cheaper per task, and the best features are moving into paid and business plans. Here is what happened and what is worth watching if you run a business.

Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5.5 is faster and cheaper per task

On 28 September Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5.5. It generates output more than 30% faster than its predecessor Sonnet 5, at the same per-token price (USD 2 per million input and USD 10 per million output tokens). Because it needs fewer tokens for the same task, Anthropic says a task can cost up to 30% less. It is available in the Claude apps, through the API and on AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

The same week Anthropic:

• introduced mods for Claude Code on 1 October, extensions that let teams customise the coding tool's behaviour and share it through plugins;
• announced on 1 October that UK bank Barclays is scaling Claude across operations and client service;
• launched Claude Frontier Academy on 2 October: USD 100 million to train 10,000 engineers by the end of 2027, with a 12-week residency in San Francisco, New York and London.

Google: from 9 October free Gemini gets only the lightest model

According to an updated Google support page reported by 9to5Google, from 9 October users of the free Gemini app will only have access to Flash-Lite. The AI Plus plan keeps Flash-Lite and Flash but loses Pro. AI Pro customers gain Deep Think for deeper reasoning, previously limited to more expensive plans. During October Gemini also adds "low", "medium" and "high" effort levels for each model: higher effort gives more thorough answers but uses up the limit faster.

OpenAI DevDay: "Dots" agents and apps inside ChatGPT

At DevDay on 29 September OpenAI presented:

• Dots, autonomous agents with their own cloud computer and browser that complete tasks on the web on their own;
• apps and plugins that run directly in the conversation, with interactive panels;
• Sign in with ChatGPT, which lets users bring their ChatGPT account into other apps (early partners include Notion and Vercel);
• an enterprise app marketplace with more than 30 partners, including Adobe, Figma, Salesforce and HubSpot.

What it means for your business

1. AI automation is getting cheaper. If you postponed automating quotes, email or document processing because of cost, run the numbers again: the same work costs less today than a year ago.
2. Free accounts are no foundation for business processes. If your team relies on free Gemini, it gets a weaker model from 9 October. For recurring work a paid account or an API integration, where you know which model runs and what it costs, pays off.
3. Agents that act on the web need rules. Before an agent researches suppliers or fills in forms, decide which data it may see, who approves its steps and where a record of its actions is kept.

If you want to find out which part of your work is worth automating, see our AI automation service or get in touch.