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- Gemini Just Rebuilt Google Maps
Gemini Just Rebuilt Google Maps
Plus, 😲Amazon and Microsoft turn AI into a health companion, How to set up a context file in cowork for zero-brief sessions, and more!
In partnership with
Welcome back to The Shift. Let’s get straight to what matters in AI today…
Today we have:
🗺️ Google Rebuilds Maps Around Gemini
😲How to Set Up a Context File in Cowork for Zero-Brief Sessions
🏥 AI Is Rapidly Becoming Your Health Assistant
🔨Tools and Shifts you cannot miss
🗺️ Google Rebuilds Maps Around Gemini
Google just introduced one of the biggest upgrades to Maps in years by integrating its Gemini AI models directly into the navigation experience. Instead of simply showing locations and routes, Maps is evolving into a conversational planning assistant.
The Shift
1. Ask Maps - Ask Maps lets users ask complex, real-world questions about places instead of typing keywords. Gemini analyzes data from 300M+ locations and 500M+ reviews to generate contextual recommendations and personalized itineraries.
2. Context-Aware Planning - The system personalizes results based on saved places, previous searches, and preferences. Users can instantly book reservations, save destinations, share locations, and convert trip ideas into actionable plans within Maps.
3. Immersive Navigation - Immersive Navigation introduces a vivid 3D driving view showing buildings, overpasses, traffic lights, crosswalks, and terrain. Gemini analyzes Street View and aerial imagery to generate spatial awareness along the route.
4. Smarter Driving Guidance - Maps now provides broader route previews, conversational voice guidance, and clearer lane instructions. Drivers also see alternate routes with tradeoffs like tolls or traffic, plus destination previews and parking suggestions.
Maps is shifting from a navigation tool to a real-time AI travel assistant. By combining Gemini with Google’s global mapping data, the platform is turning exploration and driving into something closer to a continuous conversation.
Together with Viktor
Assistants respond. Viktor ships.
Viktor is an AI coworker with its own computer, running inside your Slack workspace.
It connects to 3,000+ tools and chains real workflows across them. Tell Viktor to pull your Meta Ads spend, cross-reference it against Stripe revenue by cohort, and deploy a live dashboard your team can check every morning. It writes the scripts, handles the auth, and ships a working result.
No prompt engineering. No copying data between tabs. One message in Slack. Done.
Most AI tools return text. Viktor returns something you can send to your board or push to production.
😲How to Set Up a Context File in Cowork for Zero-Brief Sessions
Stop re-explaining yourself every session. One file fixes that permanently.
Step 1: Create your context file: Open any text editor. Create a file called about-me.md and fill in these sections:
# Who I am
# My clients
# My content rules
# Current priorities
# Tone
Keep each section tight. This isn't a portfolio, it's a brief Claude reads before every task.
Step 2: Save it to your working folder : Drop the file into whichever folder you'll be working from in Cowork.
Step 3: Open that folder in Cowork: Launch Cowork and select the folder where your about-me.md lives.
Step 4: Set your global instruction: Go to Settings > Cowork > Global Instructions. Paste:
"Read about-me.md before every task. Don't ask clarifying questions that you could answer from it."
Step 5: Update weekly: The only section that needs refreshing is Current Priorities. Everything else stays until something changes.
Every session now starts with Claude already knowing your clients, rules, and voice. The only new information it needs is the brief you paste in. You can try Cowork here.
🏥 AI Is Rapidly Becoming Your Health Assistant
Tech companies are racing to turn AI into a personal health guide. Microsoft just launched Copilot Health, opening a waitlist for early users in the U.S. as it rolls out first to English-speaking adults before expanding to more languages and regions.
Amazon expanded its Health AI assistant to its main website and app, allowing users to ask health questions, interpret medical records, manage prescriptions, and book appointments directly.
The assistant can also connect users with One Medical providers, offering Prime members free direct-message consultations for common conditions while operating within a HIPAA-compliant, encrypted environment. You can sign up here.
Copilot Health creates a dedicated, secure space inside Copilot that analyzes personal health information and generates insights to help users better understand symptoms, habits, and medical results before seeing a doctor.
The system connects data from 50+ wearables and 50,000+ U.S. hospitals, grounding responses in trusted sources like Harvard Health. Microsoft says connected data isn’t used for training, and users can disconnect sources anytime. You can join the waitlist here.
AI is quickly becoming a first stop for health questions. Instead of replacing doctors, these tools aim to help people understand their health data earlier, ask better questions, and navigate care with more confidence.
Together with Taplio
How to Write a Week of LinkedIn Posts in 30 Minutes
Taplio's AI Assist analyzes your profile and generates post ideas tailored to your niche.
Pick one, refine it, schedule it.
Done.
Do this weekly and watch your content compound.
7-day free trial + $1 first month with code BEEHIIV1X1.
🔨AI Tools for the Shift
📊 Glindra - Instantly generate presentation outlines, slide content, and polished design templates to build impactful decks faster with AI.
📄 Booksmate - Automatically collect invoices and receipts from portals and email inboxes, ready to export directly into your accounting workflow.
🧠 Reka Edge - Ask questions about images or videos to generate captions, extract information, and analyze visual content with AI.
💻 Genie Code - An agentic AI coding assistant that analyzes data, builds applications, and maintains systems with deep context.
🏈 Oddsmyth - An AI fantasy sports advisor that analyzes your roster, opponents, and scoring rules to help you make smarter lineup, waiver, and trade decisions.
🚀Quick Shifts
🤖 Facebook Marketplace is introducing AI tools that auto-reply to “Is this still available?” messages, suggest prices from photos, auto-fill listings, and generate seller summaries to make buying and selling faster and easier.
📱 Google’s Gemini can now automate real tasks on your phone, using apps like Uber or Starbucks to complete actions from simple prompts, while you watch and approve steps before the final confirmation.
🎨 Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down after 18 years, highlighting AI-first products as Adobe’s next billion-dollar opportunity following his leadership through Creative Cloud expansion and the failed $20B Figma acquisition attempt.
😏 Amazon’s Alexa Plus now includes a “Sassy” personality mode featuring sarcastic, witty responses with occasional censored profanity, available only for adults with verification alongside other tones like Brief, Sweet, and Chill.
🐝 Bumble is testing “Bee,” an AI dating assistant that learns users’ values, goals, and communication style through chats, then recommends deeper matches and new date experiences beyond traditional swipe-based dating.
🧩 Prompt of the Day
Heatmap Data Review for User Behavior
Analyze heatmap insights to understand how visitors interact with a webpage and identify opportunities to improve usability and engagement.
Paste the prompt: Drop this into ChatGPT, then fill in your webpage and behavioral observations.
Prompt to paste
Conduct a heatmap behavior analysis for [Insert webpage or landing page URL]. Include:
Hot Zones: Identify the sections or elements receiving the most clicks or attention. Describe areas such as buttons, navigation links, images, product cards, or CTAs that attract the most interaction.
Scroll Depth: Provide the average scroll depth percentage and note where most users stop scrolling. Highlight key sections that receive strong engagement versus areas that are rarely seen.
Improvement Ideas: Suggest adjustments to improve usability and engagement. This may include repositioning CTAs, simplifying layouts, improving visual hierarchy, or relocating key content above the fold.
Use Case: Focus on how these insights help optimize the page experience, reduce friction, and improve engagement or conversions.
That’s all for today’s edition see you tomorrow as we track down and get you all that matters in the daily AI Shift!
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