While They Pivot, You Position
The Weekly Tea
5 Money Moves (+ The Meta Play) Hiding in This Week's AI Chaos
January 16, 2026
Good morning. ☕ Pull up a chair. I've got tea — and it comes with receipts.
If you've been scrolling past AI headlines thinking "this doesn't affect me" — friend, I need you to sit down. Because there's money and opportunity for you in every single one of these stories. And I'm about to show you exactly where.
"The drama tells you what's happening. The strategy tells you how to attract abundance."
Sage Insight
"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."
— Sun Tzu
This week? Apple crawled back to Google. OpenAI decided ads are the future. Someone is suing Elon over AI-generated nudes. And the healthcare AI gold rush officially started. I found five money moves hiding in their chaos — and they're yours for the taking.
Money Move #1
The AI Integration Strategist
The Drama: Apple announced it's using Google's Gemini as the foundation for next-gen Siri. The company that spent years telling us privacy was everything just handed the keys to Google. Not OpenAI. Not Anthropic. Google. The privacy queen just moved in with the data king.
🎬 Apple, in confessional:
"We don't comment on rumors." adjusts $3,500 headset while signing Google contract
— polishes invisible spec off sleeve
💰 YOUR BAG:
When the biggest company in the world can't build their own AI, that tells you something about complexity. The "which AI platform should we use?" question just got messier for every enterprise. Someone has to help companies navigate this chaos. AI platform strategy consulting is about to boom.
💼 THE OFFER:
AI Platform Strategy Assessment — half-day workshop helping companies choose between Gemini, Claude, GPT, and open-source options. $3K–$7K depending on company size. This is exactly how consulting firms package "maturity assessments" — and you can too.
Money Move #2
The AI Automation Consultant for SMBs
The Drama: OpenAI announced ads are coming to ChatGPT. Free and budget tier users will start seeing sponsored products and services in their conversations. The company that promised to save humanity is now figuring out how to monetize your prompts. The nonprofit era is officially over.
🎬 OpenAI, in confessional:
"Look, I'm not saying we're the main character, but..." gestures at billion-dollar compute bills
— schedules another all-hands about "alignment"
💰 YOUR BAG:
While the giants scramble over ads and monetization, you quietly automate small businesses. SMB owners don't care about OpenAI's drama — they care about getting their invoicing, customer service, and lead follow-up off their plate. They need someone to build "Ad-Safe AI Workflows" that don't put their sensitive business data in an ad-funded chatbox. That someone is you.
💼 THE OFFER:
AI Automation Builds for SMBs — white-label chatbots, workflow automations, and AI agents that businesses OWN (no OpenAI ad layer). Setup fee + monthly retainer. People are already pulling $5K–$20K/month doing this. Pick a niche (real estate, law firms, e-commerce), build one automation, show results, repeat.
Money Move #3
The AI Ethics & Policy Consultant
The Drama: Ashley St. Clair, a conservative political strategist and mother of one of Elon Musk's children, is suing xAI over nonconsensual deepfake images. The standalone Grok app reportedly continues producing "nudified" deepfakes of real people. This is heading straight to court. The AI ethics conversation just got very personal.
🎬 xAI, in confessional:
"Rules are just suggestions written by people who couldn't keep up."
— schedules deposition, tweets about free speech
💰 YOUR BAG:
AI image policy just became a legal specialty. Every company using generative AI is watching this lawsuit. They're all wondering: what are OUR guardrails? Who's auditing OUR outputs? The demand for AI ethics consultants and content moderation specialists just spiked. $150K+ salary for anyone who can bridge legal, technical, and ethical considerations.
💼 THE OFFER:
AI Policy + Risk Review Sprint — audit one product's AI outputs for compliance and liability exposure. Flat fee, one week, written recommendations. Perfect for companies who just realized they might be the next lawsuit. If you have compliance, HR, or legal background, this is your lane.
Money Move #4
The Healthcare AI Implementation Specialist
The Drama: The healthcare AI gold rush is officially ON. This week alone: OpenAI bought health startup Torch, Anthropic launched Claude for Health, and Sam Altman-backed Merge Labs closed a $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation. Everyone's racing to own the doctor's office.
🎬 Anthropic, in confessional:
"We're just trying to do AI responsibly. Unlike SOME companies." looks directly at camera while launching healthcare product
— adjusts Patagonia vest, checks stock price
💰 YOUR BAG:
Healthcare is the most regulated, most complex, highest-stakes industry for AI adoption. These companies are building tools, but someone has to help clinics actually use them. HIPAA compliance + AI understanding = extremely rare skill set. Healthcare AI implementation roles are paying $180K-$250K.
💼 THE OFFER:
Pick your niche: clinics, payers, or digital health startups. Design ONE workflow-implementation offer. "I help [niche] integrate AI scribing/triage/documentation tools without breaking HIPAA." Even non-clinical backgrounds work here — workflow design, change management, and training are in desperate demand.
Money Move #5
The Remote Collaboration Architect
The Drama: Meta is killing its VR Workrooms app on February 16. The product that was supposed to revolutionize remote work is being shut down as Meta continues its "wider cull." The metaverse-for-business dream is officially dead. Another billion-dollar pivot bites the dust.
🎬 Meta, in confessional:
"Pivot? I prefer 'strategic evolution.' Fifth one this year."
— refreshes LinkedIn, blocks three journalists
💰 YOUR BAG:
When the biggest VR company gives up on VR meetings, that's signal. Companies that invested in VR collaboration tools are about to need migration plans. The broader question — "how do we make remote work actually work?" — is still unsolved. The tools keep failing, but the need keeps growing.
💼 THE OFFER:
Sharper positioning: "AI-Powered Remote Ops Architect" — focus on async operations, AI-assisted documentation, and distributed team systems. Not generic "remote work consulting." Connect it to AI ops specifically. The companies hiring in this space are looking for someone who knows Notion AI, Slack workflows, and Claude — not just "can we all get along on Zoom."
📊 The Receipts
- Apple-Gemini partnership confirmed for next-gen Siri — Source
- OpenAI ads coming to ChatGPT free tier — Source
- xAI deepfake lawsuit filed by Ashley St. Clair — Source
- Healthcare AI gold rush — OpenAI, Anthropic, Merge Labs all moving — Source
- Meta VR Workrooms shutting down February 16 — Source
While they're fighting in courts and pivoting products, you're building capability they'll eventually need to hire.
🎯 The Meta Move
The Strategic AI Interpreter
Here's what Perplexity caught that I almost missed: there's a horizontal skill that cuts across ALL five money moves above.
The person who can take chaotic AI news and translate it into decision options for executives? That's the through-line. That's the skill that's actually exploding in demand right now.
You're already doing it by reading this newsletter. The question is: can you package it?
💼 THE OFFER:
"AI News → Strategic Options" Briefing — weekly or monthly retainer where you synthesize AI developments into actionable recommendations for a company or executive. You become their AI intelligence layer. This is exactly where consulting demand is exploding. $2K–$8K/month retainer depending on frequency and depth.
WORD: How to Talk About This Monday
Pick your lane. Use the script:
If you're in strategy meetings:
"Did you see Apple went with Gemini? I think we need to revisit our AI platform assumptions. The landscape is shifting faster than our last assessment."
If you're talking to clients:
"ChatGPT is adding ads for free users. If you're using it for client work, we should probably talk about how that changes the optics."
If you're networking:
"Healthcare AI is the gold rush right now. OpenAI, Anthropic, and a bunch of startups all made moves this week. Anyone working in that space?"
⚡ ACTION: Your 15-Minute Money Move
Pick ONE of the five opportunities above. Then run this prompt:
🛠️ The Prompt
I work in [your industry] as a [your role]. I want to position myself for [pick one]: - AI platform strategy consulting - Premium AI positioning for my services - AI ethics and policy advisory - Healthcare AI implementation - Remote collaboration architecture Based on this week's news (Apple-Gemini deal, ChatGPT ads, xAI deepfake lawsuit, healthcare AI gold rush, Meta VR shutdown), help me: 1. Identify ONE specific action I can take this week 2. Draft a 2-sentence positioning statement I could use on LinkedIn or in conversation 3. Name one skill I should start developing now Keep it actionable. I have 15 minutes.
Run this in Claude or ChatGPT. Copy what resonates. Move on it. Done is better than perfect.
Saturday Sprint 🏃🏾
Your career station. Your sprint. Pick one:
Legacy Builders
30 min: Draft an "AI Platform Strategy Assessment" service offering. What questions would you ask? What would you deliver? Price it at $5K for a half-day workshop.
The Operators
20 min: Audit your company's AI tools. Which ones have ads or might add them? Write a 3-sentence recommendation to your boss.
The Optimizers
15 min: Update your LinkedIn headline to include "AI" in a credible way. Add "governance" or "ethics" if it fits your background.
The Accelerators
10 min: Post ONE insight from this newsletter. Lead with the opportunity, not the drama. Test a talk track this weekend.
🚀 Launch Pad
For students, new grads, and career starters — this week's chaos is your opening.
When Big Tech is fighting about ethics, platform strategy, and trust? They need fresh perspectives — people who aren't carrying the baggage of "how we've always done it."
Your portfolio project this weekend:
Write a 500-word analysis of the Apple-Google AI deal. What does it mean for competition? For privacy? For smaller AI companies? Post it on LinkedIn with the hashtag #AIStrategy. You just became the person who's paying attention.
Know someone just starting out? Forward this their way. 👋🏾
Go find where the money's hiding.
P.S. Want to stop scrolling past AI news and start extracting opportunity from it every week? That's exactly what The Oracle Table teaches. Learn more about building your strategic intelligence.
📚 Sources & Further Reading
Money Move #1: Apple partners with Google Gemini for next-gen Siri — The Verge
Money Move #2: OpenAI is bringing ads to ChatGPT — Engadget
Money Move #3: Mother of Musk's child suing xAI over deepfakes — Engadget
Money Move #4: The AI healthcare gold rush is here — TechCrunch
Money Move #5: Meta is closing down its VR meeting rooms — Engadget
The Sip & Click
"Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Tools with the Tea"
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