June 2026: AI trends, news and tools with Andrew Davis

Welcome to the first edition of keeping you up-to-date with what’s going on in the world of AI. I’m Andrew Davis, and over the last 15 years I’ve been fortunate enough to train more than 16,000 people, virtually and face to face, in the world of digital marketing and emerging technology.

The aim of this Culturehive column is simple. To help you stay on top of what’s happening in AI, understand the trends that actually matter for work and creativity, and introduce you to genuinely useful tools worth checking out before the internet moves onto the next shiny thing five minutes later.

You can also check out my daily 10 minute podcast “In AI Nutshell” on Spotify, or join my WhatsApp Broadcast list for daily AI news, tools and updates without the tech waffle.

What's trending!!

GEO and AEO are quickly becoming some of the most important concepts on the internet right now, even though most people in the creative industries still have no idea what they mean. GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation, while AEO means Answer Engine Optimisation. In simple terms, it’s about making sure your content can actually be found, understood, and referenced by AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews.

The internet is slowly shifting away from people clicking ten blue links on Google and towards AI simply giving people answers directly. Which means the question is no longer just “Can people find your content?” but “Will AI choose your content when it generates an answer?”

For people in the arts, this matters massively. We are all competing for attention in a world where AI is becoming the middle layer between creator and audience. If your work is hard to understand, poorly structured, buried on social media, or missing context, AI systems may completely ignore it. But creators who clearly explain what they do, build authority around their niche, and create useful searchable content have a huge opportunity right now. In many ways, this is becoming the new SEO. Except instead of trying to rank on page one of Google, you’re trying to become the source AI trusts enough to mention in the first place.

5 most important stories in the news last month

1. Taylor Swift moves to protect voice, image from AI misuse
2. Oscars say AI actors and writing cannot win awards
3. Chinese court rules firms can’t lay off workers on AI grounds
4. AI used to fake evidence that ended Korean actor's career, say police
5. One in seven in UK prefer consulting AI chatbots to seeing doctor, study finds

3 cool tools to look out for

Claude Cowork

Claude Cowork is a collaborative AI workspace that lets you work alongside Claude more like a teammate than a chatbot. Instead of constantly starting from scratch, it helps organise conversations, ideas, documents and ongoing projects in one place.

For people in the arts, this is useful because creative work is rarely linear. Whether you’re developing scripts, campaigns, storyboards, podcast ideas or concepts for clients, Claude Cowork helps keep your thinking connected instead of scattered across fifty tabs and random notes apps that eventually become digital graveyards.

Wispr Flow

Wispr Flow is an AI voice tool designed to let you speak naturally and turn your thoughts into clean written text in real time. Think of it like advanced voice dictation mixed with AI assisted writing support.

This matters for creative people because ideas often arrive faster than fingers can type. Whether you’re brainstorming video concepts, outlining newsletters, scripting podcasts or writing social posts, Wispr Flow helps reduce friction between thinking and creating. Also useful if you deal with RSI, fatigue or simply hate typing long form content for hours.

Mindmaps in NotebookLM

NotebookLM’s mind mapping feature helps turn messy notes, research and uploaded documents into visual connected ideas. Instead of scrolling endlessly through text, you can actually see relationships between concepts, themes and information.

For artists, filmmakers, writers marketers and content creators, this is brilliant for planning projects, connecting story ideas, researching themes or organising large creative productions. It feels less like staring at a spreadsheet and more like watching your brain laid out visually in front of you, which is both useful and mildly terrifying.

Andrew Davis 

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