Digital briefing, November 4: AI in engineering, Shopify's quarterly results
Shopify's strong quarter, Supermetrics' campaign management with Claude, OpenAI's engineering boost, and Apple's Siri rollout lead today's highlights.
- AI
OpenAI says ChatGPT and Codex are speeding up engineering workflows #
OpenAI announced that ChatGPT and Codex are helping speed up physical-world engineering workflows like CAD, PCB design, and simulation. The announcement came as a short blog post, without a detailed feature list.
What it means for your business: For businesses working on manufacturing or hardware projects, AI support in design and simulation work could save time, but no specific tool names or pricing details have been shared yet.Source: OpenAI — Accelerating engineering for the physical world
- E-commerce
Shopify's Q3 revenue grew 32% to $3.7 billion #
Shopify reported that revenue for the third quarter, ended September 30, 2026, grew 32% year over year to $3.742 billion. The company said orders coming from AI search grew 3.3 times year over year, though it noted this is still a small base and didn't share an exact figure. Net income reached $462 million, while operating income rose 66% to $568 million.
What it means for your business: For businesses selling through Shopify, these results show that AI-powered search and shopping assistants are bringing in a growing share of customers; it's worth checking whether your store is optimized for these channels.Source: PPC Land — Shopify revenue gains 32% to $3.7bn as AI-referred orders rise 3.3x
- Advertising
Supermetrics now lets users build campaigns across six ad platforms through Claude #
Supermetrics announced on November 3, 2026, that it's extending its integration with Anthropic's Claude AI beyond reporting, now letting users create and edit campaigns through chat on Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Advertising, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. The company said more than 6,000 customers have used its Claude connector since February. New campaigns created this way stay automatically paused until a person approves them.
What it means for your business: For businesses managing ad campaigns, this means you can make quick campaign changes through chat; the fact that new campaigns don't go live automatically and require approval is an important safeguard against accidental spend.Source: PPC Land — Supermetrics lets Claude build ad campaigns on 6 platforms, paused by default
- AI
Apple starts letting Siri take action inside third-party apps #
Apple announced that with iOS 27.3, developers can integrate Siri's new features "across all apps." This will let Siri process natural language requests using the user's personal context, and understand on-screen content to complete requests. The update is being offered as part of a Developer Preview and also introduces "app skills," a feature that combines multiple tasks into a single action.
What it means for your business: For businesses with their own app, this could mean customers can take actions directly through Siri; however, the feature is currently in developer preview, so it's unclear when it will become generally available.Source: The Verge AI — Apple starts giving Siri AI access to third-party apps