Pollinger’s Productivity : March 2025

Instagram Considers standalone Reels app amid TikTok Uncertainty

Instagram is reportedly exploring the launch of a standalone app for its short-form video feature, Reels, aiming to compete more directly with TikTok. This initiative, disclosed by Instagram head Adam Mosseri to staff, seeks to capitalise on the current ambiguity surrounding TikTok’s status in the United States.

The backdrop to this development includes significant legal challenges for TikTok. In January 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to divest its U.S. operations by January 19, 2025, or face a ban due to national security concerns. This led to TikTok briefly going offline in the U.S., affecting its 170 million American users, before service was restored following negotiations and a 3 month extension granted by President Trump.

This wouldn’t be Meta’s first attempt to rival TikTok; the company previously launched Lasso in 2018, which was later discontinued due to limited adoption.

Insights: Instagram’s consideration of a standalone Reels app underscores the dynamic nature of the social media landscape, where platforms must continually adapt to regulatory shifts and user preferences. For businesses and content creators, this presents an opportunity to diversify their reach and engagement strategies across emerging platforms. Whilst not yet confirmed, a launch of a separate app is highly likely. As flagged up here last month, a standalone Meta video editing app called Edits is launching on 13 March.

OpenAI’s “Operator” AI tool launches in the UK

OpenAI has introduced Operator in the UK but only to Pro users, who are subscribed to the $200 per month plan. This is an exciting new AI-powered tool designed to autonomously handle online tasks for users, such as shopping, booking restaurant reservations, and filling out forms. The key word here is ‘autonomous’. Operator acts as a virtual assistant capable of navigating websites, clicking buttons, and completing transactions based on user instructions.

This launch marks a significant step toward AI agents carrying out tasks autonomously. Unlike traditional browser automation, Operator mimics human interaction with web pages, making it more adaptable to different websites and interfaces. Users maintain control at all times, with the option to step in and guide the tool manually if needed.

Insights: The introduction of Operator could be huge for small business owners and entrepreneurs who need to streamline repetitive online processes. However, the tool also raises questions about AI autonomy and security, particularly regarding how personal data is handled during transactions. It will be interesting to see how businesses integrate Operator into their workflows and whether this signals the beginning of a new wave of agentic personal assistants for everyday digital tasks. But at $200 per month this isn’t going to happen. However, Operator will no doubt be launched on all paid plans soon.

Would you trust AI to handle your online shopping or bookings?

Sora AI Video Generation Tool Launches in the UK

In another launch from OpenAI, Sora, its AI-powered video generation tool, was yesterday officially made available to paid plan users in the UK and EU. This marks a significant step in AI-driven content creation, allowing users to generate high-quality, realistic videos from simple text prompts. If you’re a ChatGPT subscriber you can log in and try it here: sora.com.

Insights: The expansion of Sora to the UK and EU signals OpenAI’s confidence in its generative video technology and its compliance with regional regulations. AI-generated video is set to revolutionise content marketing, making high-quality video creation more accessible to businesses and individuals. While this tool has enormous potential for storytelling, advertising, and education, the challenge remains in ensuring ethical use, avoiding misinformation, and managing the broader impact on video production industries. For marketers, Sora could be huge – reducing production costs and time while enhancing engagement. Whilst the output isn’t currently perfect, it will get better. The key now is to experiment with its capabilities and start to use when you get desired results.

ChatGPT 4.5: More Emotion, More Intelligence💡

In yet another launch, OpenAI has released ChatGPT 4.5, an upgraded version of its AI model that enhances not only reasoning and problem-solving capabilities but also introduces a more emotionally aware interaction style. This latest iteration refines its ability to understand and respond with more nuanced language, making it feel more intuitive and natural in conversation.

Some key improvements include:

Better emotional intelligence – It can now pick up on context and sentiment more effectively.

More accurate responses – Improved logical reasoning and factual correctness.

Faster processing – The AI is more efficient in generating responses, making conversations smoother.

Insights: This is a significant step in making AI interactions feel more human-like. While emotional AI might seem like a gimmick, it has real-world applications, especially in customer service, coaching, and content creation. If it can genuinely adapt its tone to different users and situations, businesses could see a leap in how AI assists with customer engagement. However, it also raises concerns about AI manipulation—as these models get better at mimicking human emotions, should there be clearer guidelines on transparency?