We track Product so you don't have to. Top Podcasts summarised, the latest AI tools, plus research and news in a 5 min digest.

Hey Product Fans!

Welcome to this week’s 🌮 Product Tapas!

If you’ve been forwarded this or just stumbled upon it, you’re in for a treat. For the best reading experience, check out the web version and sign up for future editions here.

What’s on the menu this week? 🧑‍🍳

📰 Not Boring – Apple just dropped a “Liquid Glass Design” that’s got everyone talking, and iPadOS is finally catching up with Mac-like windowing. ChatGPT is opening memory features to all users, Google’s testing conversational search, and a new personal audio companion from ex-NotebookLM founders might just change your mornings. Plus, Amazon’s robot couriers are gearing up, and Snap is betting big on smaller AR glasses for 2026.

⌚️ Productivity Tapas - This week: a tool that supercharges your SEO with internal linking magic, a LinkedIn inbox manager that actually makes sense, an AI rank tracker for the post-SEO world (perfect timing after last week's "SEO is dead, long live GEO" revelation), and meeting-to-requirements converter that'll save you hours of documentation pain. Don’t forget—our full 400+ tool database is waiting for you on the web version! 🔥

🍔 Blog Bites -What does “product taste” really mean? Sarah Guo breaks it down, Builder.io’s CEO shares how AI is reshaping design-to-code, and Atlassian’s Sherif Mansour reveals how Jira Work Management grew like a startup inside a giant.

🎙️ Pod Shots - Google CEO Sundar Pichai shares his vision post-I/O: the AI revolution’s “second phase” is here, AR glasses are about to go mainstream, and the web is evolving into an “agent-first” experience where AI talks directly to databases.

Plenty to get stuck into - off we go! 🚀

📰 Not boring

Apple's WWDC 2025 Bonanza

• Apple WWDC 2025 was on Monday with a stack of announcements; here’s some highlights:

  • OS Updates: Apple's going all-in on year-based naming (iOS 26, macOS 26) – simplicity wins!

  • "Liquid Glass Design" brings a fresh, transparent look across all platforms. The internet does not overly love it mind

  • iPad Multitasking: iPadOS 26 finally gets serious about multitasking with Mac-like windowing

  • Smarter Apps: Core apps get major upgrades, with Apple Intelligence enabling on-screen search and live translations

  • AirPods level up with photo controls, better vocal recording, and sleep tracking

  • Developers get access to Apple's AI models – expect an explosion of AI-powered apps

AI AI AI AI

• ChatGPT now offers a lightweight memory function for non-subscribers

  • ...and adds connectors for Google Drive, Box, and more

• Google starts testing ‘Search Live’ in AI Mode letting you have real time conversations with Google

• Google Drive also launches “Catch me up” AI summaries about recent changes to your stored files [nice!]

• New startup Genspark debuts an AI Secretary with slick G-Suite and Notion integrations (their email scheduling looks particularly clever, CV sorting less so)

• Perplexity labs now lets you convert your research into complex apps - check out the pretty neat examples here

• Canva to job candidates: Thou shalt use AI during interviews

• The Browser Company launches its AI-first browser, Dia, in beta

• My absolute favourite note-taking app Granola is now available for Windows

Hardware & Commerce Moves

• Somewhat unsurprisingly, Temu's daily US users nearly 1/2 post Trump Tariffs

• Amazon ‘testing humanoid robots to deliver packages’ (robot-couriers are coming!)

• Huxe emerges from ex-NotebookLM founders – a "personal audio companion" bringing together emails, calendar, and news (iOS only for now, invite-only, but passcodes floating around on Twitter/X)

• Snap’s planning smaller, lighter AR Specs smartglasses for 2026 (AR glasses everywhere next year!)

• Nintendo’s Switch 2 is the fastest-selling game console of all time

Other interesting isht

• Shopify partners with Coinbase and Stripe in landmark stablecoin deal. Stablecoins are going to be (and frankly already are) massive

• Instagram will finally let you rearrange your grid, and is testing a way for users to quietly post to their profile without having the content appear in users’ feeds

• Bluesky backlash misses the point - Bluesky is missing an opportunity to explain to people that its network is more than just its own Bluesky social app

• Google Cloud outage brings down a whoooole lot of the internet

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⌚️ Productivity Tapas: Time-Saving Tools & GPTs

• SEOJuice: find all the contextual internal linking opportunities as well as on-page optimise saving hours of work and grow your search rankings

• Narrow: LinkedIn inbox for founders, GTM teams and anyone looking to better manage their LinkedIn mail

• Promptmonitor: after last week’s SEO is dead long live GEO, this tool let’s you see how your product ranks in AI tools

• RequirementsAI: Quickly convert your meeting transcripts into structured requirements

Remember, as a Product Tapas Pro subscriber you can access the full time saving tools database for fast approaching 400 time-saving tools relevant for product managers and founders 🔥.

Check the link here to access.

🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams

Product: So WTF is Product Taste Anyway?

Product Taste…people know it when they see it, well some do, but it’s hard to pin down. Sarah Gou recently wrote a pice exploring how taste—the relentless ability to know what should exist and what shouldn't—creates compounding advantages for products and companies that prioritise it. Read the full article here.

💡 "This is taste. The relentless, almost painful ability to know what should exist, what shouldn't, and where quality matters. It's the difference between shipping a product and shipping a point of view."

AI Using AI to turn designs into clean code

Steve Sewell, CEO of Builder.io, did a great presentation about how AI can transform the design-to-development workflow by enabling non-developers to make changes to production codebases through a visual interface. Watch the full talk from Config 2025.

Strategy: Building a Startup Inside Atlassian - Lessons from Jira Work Management

Sherif Mansour shares his experience leading Jira Work Management, a startup-like venture within Atlassian that grew to serve over 100,000 customers while navigating the complexities of operating within an established company. Read the full article here.

💡 "The biggest mistake I see companies make is treating internal startups like any other product team. They're not. They need different processes, different metrics, different incentives, and different leadership."

🎙️ Pod Shots - Bitesized Podcast Summaries

Remember, Product Tapas Pro subscribers get access to an ever growing database of all the top Podcast summaries we’ve ever created. 

Check it out here

🔮 Google's CEO on the Future: AI Agents, Search Evolution, and Why Chrome Matters

Google CEO Sundar Pichai sat down with The Verge's Nilay Patel for their annual post-I/O tradition, and this year's conversation revealed a company at an inflection point. Fresh off announcing AI mode for search, Android XR partnerships, and a suite of new AI tools, Pichai painted a picture of Google that's both confident in its AI leadership and navigating unprecedented challenges from regulators, publishers, and competitors.

It’s a great insight into where Google—and the broader tech industry—is heading.

 🎥Watch the full episode here

📆 Published: May 27th, 2025

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins. Time saved: 38 mins🔥

🚀 The Second Phase of the AI Platform Shift

Pichai believes we're entering the second phase of the AI revolution, moving beyond raw capabilities to actual products that people use. He draws parallels to previous platform shifts, comparing the current moment to the early days of the internet when blogging emerged, or mobile when cameras enabled YouTube's explosion.

"We are now in that phase where people are going to be able to create AI applications," Pichai explained. "That power is yet to be unleashed. You're barely scratching the surface."

Key Takeaways:

• The first phase was about building AI capabilities and models

• The second phase is about democratising creation—letting more people build products than ever before

• AI will "turbocharge" product development in ways we haven't seen before

• The platform enables self-improvement and creation at every layer of the stack

👓 Android XR: The Next Computing Platform

Google announced Android XR recently, partnering with Samsung on goggles and companies like Gentle Monster and Warby Parker on glasses. Pichai sees this as the eventual realisation of the full platform shift—always-on AI assistants that can see and interact with the world around you.

When asked if AR glasses will be as mainstream as smartphones, Pichai was measured but optimistic: "Would millions of people be trying it? I think so. I'd be shocked if you and I were sitting next year and I wasn't wearing one."

Key Takeaways:

• Developer products shipping this year will be "pretty close" to final consumer products

• The bar is higher for face-worn devices—they need to be seamless enough to justify wearing

• Millions will try AR glasses next year, but mainstream adoption will take longer

• Computing will become available everywhere when you need it, not requiring hard choices between devices

🔍 The Search Wars: Traffic, Publishers, and AI Mode

The conversation's most contentious section focused on Google's relationship with web publishers. The News Media Alliance called Google's AI mode "theft," arguing it takes content without providing economic return. Pichai pushed back, emphasising Google's commitment to sending traffic to the web.

"We are the only ones which make it a high priority," Pichai said, contrasting Google with newer companies that "openly talk about" not sending traffic to publishers.

Key Takeaways:

• Google claims web pages available for crawling increased 45% in the last two years

• AI overviews and AI mode are designed to send traffic to a "wider range of sources"

• Quality of referral traffic is improving, with users spending more time on destination sites

• The company maintains it will be sending "a lot of traffic out to the web" five years from now

🤖 The Agent-First Web: Databases, Not Webpages

Perhaps the most fascinating exchange came when discussing Demis Hassabis's comment that an "agent-first web" might not look like today's web at all. Pichai agreed that the web is essentially "a series of databases" with UI built on top for human consumption.

For agents, that UI layer becomes unnecessary. Instead of rendering webpages, agents could interact directly with structured data. This raises fundamental questions about business models—why would Uber or DoorDash want to be abstracted away by agents?

Key Takeaways:

• The web is already a series of databases with human-friendly interfaces on top

• Agent interactions will likely happen faster in enterprise settings where CIOs can mandate interoperability

• Consumer adoption will depend on whether businesses see value in participating

• Multiple business models could emerge, from subscription agents to revenue sharing

⚖️ Regulatory Pressures: Chrome, Rankings, and Political Influence

Patel pressed Pichai on the DOJ's demand that Google sell Chrome and whether the company could execute its AI strategy without its browser. Pichai deflected, emphasising Chrome's contributions to web standards and security, but wouldn't directly address the hypothetical.

More pointedly, when asked if Google would adjust search rankings or AI mode responses due to political pressure—including from Trump—Pichai was unequivocal: "No person at Google can influence the ranking algorithm."

Key Takeaways:

• Google views itself as a "deeply foundational technology company" that can adapt to various scenarios

• The company maintains strict separation between editorial decisions and ranking algorithms

• Political pressure won't change how search results or AI responses are generated

• Google doesn't individually evaluate page authoritativeness—it relies on signals like linking patterns

🔬 The Third Phase: When AI Meets the Physical World

Looking ahead, Pichai sees robotics as the marker for the next major platform shift. While today's AI operates primarily in digital spaces, the integration with physical robotics will create another transformative moment.

"When AI creates that magical moment with robotics, I think that'll be a big platform shift as well," he said, noting that Waymo already represents Google's first major robotics deployment.

Key Takeaways:

• Self-improving technology is AI's most profound characteristic

• Creative democratisation will let anyone who can think of something create it

• Physical world integration through robotics represents the next major shift

• General-purpose robots will create new challenges and opportunities beyond today's digital AI

💡 The Bigger Picture: Confidence Amid Uncertainty

Throughout the conversation, Pichai projected confidence about Google's position in the AI race while acknowledging the uncertainties ahead. The company is betting heavily on multimodal AI, cross-platform experiences, and maintaining its role as the primary gateway to web information.

But the challenges are real: regulatory pressure, publisher backlash, and competition from companies building AI-first experiences without legacy constraints. Google's response seems to be doubling down on what it does best—organising information and making it accessible—while expanding that mission into new formats and interfaces.

Key Takeaways:

• Google sees AI as impacting every part of its business, from search to cloud to autonomous vehicles

• The company believes current investments will pay off over 3-5 years, similar to Gmail's evolution

• Cross-format content creation will become frictionless with AI translation between mediums

• The platform shift is still in early stages, with most transformative applications yet to be built

A wise man once told me don’t bet against Google, so let’s see how that pans out. Pichai himself remains confident in both Google’s technical capabilities and navigating complex challenges around content, competition, and regulation. Whether Pichai's vision of an AI-augmented web that benefits everyone proves accurate will likely determine not just Google's future, but the shape of digital information for the next decade.

🎥Watch the full episode here

📅Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction

• 00:18 Key announcements from Google I/O

• 01:56 The AI platform shift

• 04:13 The next phase of AI

• 15:23 Search and web platforms

• 20:29 The future of web development

• 21:46 AI Mode and publisher concerns

• 28:06 The role of agents in the future web

• 34:08 Antitrust pressures

• 39:04 Future of AI and robotics

That’s a wrap.

As always, the journey doesn't end here!

Please share and let us know what you would like to see more or less of so we can continue to improve your Product Tapas. 🚀👋

Alastair 🍽️.