FROM THE DESK OF
Clark Valberg
MANAGING PARTNER
Batman had Alfred. Now Gemini’s yours.
For two decades, Google’s suite of apps has quietly organized modern life—your inbox, your schedule, your photos, your search history. Now, Gemini’s new Personal Intelligence connects those silos into a single reasoning layer. It doesn’t just autocomplete your email or surface a calendar invite. It understands your context and acts accordingly. Need to find that one photo your mechanic sent? It can locate it from an email, compare it to a YouTube video, and explain the repair—all without switching tabs.
The move reframes what an assistant actually is. Not a chatbot waiting to be prompted, but an entity that knows where your information lives, how to access it, and how to act on it—without being told what’s relevant. Gemini isn’t trying to outsmart GPT. It’s turning deep integration into deep utility.
“The best interface isn’t one you speak to — it’s one that already knows what you meant.”
/ THE DEEP DIVE
Anthropic Launches Cowork, a Claude Desktop Agent That Works Directly Inside Your Files
Anthropic has released Cowork, a macOS desktop tool that lets Claude autonomously organize files, generate documents, and complete tasks inside a user-designated folder, with support for multiple simultaneous jobs and built-in integrations with tools like Asana and Notion. The product runs as a research preview, is limited to Max tier users, and is currently exclusive to macOS, positioning Cowork as a more accessible interface for Claude’s agentic capabilities beyond its developer-focused Claude Code environment.
SOURCE: VENTUREBEAT
BUSINESS IMPACT:
Productivity Software Vendors:
File-based AI agents embedded at the OS level raise competitive pressure on document, project management, and expense tools that rely on manual workflows.
AI Platform Competition:
Cowork expands Anthropic’s reach beyond developers, intensifying competition with AI assistants positioned as general-purpose workplace agents.
Enterprise Workflow Providers:
Delegation-style AI workflows could shift expectations around task automation, pushing vendors to design systems that operate asynchronously and autonomously rather than reactively.
/ INDUSTRY WATCH
MANUFACTURING
Siemens and NVIDIA Launch Industrial AI Operating System at CES 2026
Siemens and NVIDIA unveiled their Industrial AI Operating System, debuting at Siemens' Erlangen factory—set to become the world's first fully AI-driven, adaptive manufacturing site. The platform merges NVIDIA's AI infrastructure with Siemens' automation to enable real-time quality control, predictive maintenance, and autonomous production adjustments.
SRC: METROLOGY
REAL ESTATE
Caterpillar Pilots AI-Powered Excavators
Caterpillar showcased "Cat AI"—an assistant that answers operator questions, schedules services, and offers safety tips from the cab. The company is also piloting digital twins of construction sites to test scheduling and calculate material needs.
SRC: TECHCRUNCH
AGRICULTURE
China Launches Sinong, First Open-Source Agriculture AI Model
Nanjing Agricultural University released Sinong, trained on 9,000 books, 240,000 papers, and 20,000 policy documents covering animal science, crop breeding, and veterinary medicine. Designed to combat AI hallucinations, it's available on ModelScope and GitHub for global agricultural innovation.
SRC: XINHUA
TECH
Slack Transforms Slackbot into AI Agent
Salesforce launched an AI-powered Slackbot that finds information, drafts emails, schedules meetings, and connects to apps like Teams and Google Drive—without leaving Slack. Available for Business+ and Enterprise+ tiers, it is Salesforce's most adopted internal tool during testing.
SRC: TECHCRUNCH
HEALTHCARE
DrugCLIP AI Completes 10 Trillion Drug-Protein Scans in One Day
Tsinghua University's DrugCLIP scans 500 million drug molecules against 10,000 protein targets in one day—ten million times faster than traditional methods. The system identified a match for TRIP12, a cancer-linked protein that had stumped scientists, and is now freely available globally.
SRC: PHYS ORG
BANKING & FINANCE
Worldline Enables AI Agents to Access Global Payment Infrastructure
Worldline launched Model Context Protocol servers that bridge AI agents with its payment APIs, enabling agents to initiate payments, process refunds, and check transactions via natural language. The company supports Google's Agent Payments Protocol and Universal Commerce Protocol for agentic commerce.
SRC: FX NEWS
RETAIL
Microsoft Launches Copilot Checkout with PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe
Microsoft rolled out Copilot Checkout, letting shoppers complete purchases inside Copilot without leaving the chat. Launched in the U.S. with PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and Etsy, retailers include Urban Outfitters and Ashley Furniture.
SRC: GEEKWIRE
MEDIA
Google Pilots Direct Offers in AI Mode with Personalized Discounts
Google launched Direct Offers in AI Mode, letting retailers present exclusive discounts when shoppers signal purchase intent. Built on the Universal Commerce Protocol with Walmart, Target, and Shopify, it enables checkout in AI Mode and Gemini using Google Pay.
SRC: CNBC
/ NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
$10B
Anthropic Signs $10 Billion Term Sheet at $350 Billion Valuation
The Claude AI maker nearly doubled its valuation in three months with Coatue and Singapore's GIC leading the round, positioning it among the world's most valuable private tech companies.
VIA CNBC
$1B
OpenAI and SoftBank Pump $1 Billion Into Data Center Infrastructure
Each committed $500 million to SB Energy to build OpenAI's 1.2 gigawatt Texas data center and develop multi-gigawatt campus partnerships with integrated energy delivery.
VIA AI BUSINESS
$400M
Data Security Firm Cyera Triples to $9 Billion in Six Months
The AI-powered security platform raised $400 million in Series F led by Blackstone, securing 20% of Fortune 500 companies as customers amid explosive enterprise AI adoption.
VIA TECHCRUNCH
$200M
French Defense AI Startup Reaches $1.4 Billion Valuation
Harmattan raised $200 million in Series B led by Dassault Aviation to develop embedded AI for Rafale fighter jets and NATO drones, becoming a European defense unicorn.
VIA TECHCRUNCH
$130M
Voice AI Provider Deepgram Crosses Unicorn Threshold
The speech platform raised $130 million at $1.3 billion led by AVP while acquiring Y Combinator-backed OfOne to power AI ordering for quick-service restaurants.
VIA TECHCRUNCH
/ EMERGING TOOLS
01
Turns your company’s knowledge into a private, secure AI chatbot that answers questions using your internal docs.
02
Lets you build and launch AI chatbots for your site without coding—ideal for customer support and lead capture.
03
Automatically maps out your workflows and uncovers bottlenecks, helping you fix inefficiencies fast.
04
Brings powerful data automation to Google Sheets—send emails, fetch APIs, or run calculations without writing code.
05
Generates ready-to-post short-form videos from your long-form content to grow your brand across social platforms.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
TRANSFORMATIVE STUDIO
We partner with deeply embedded operators to discover, design, and spin out AI-native companies that transform industries.
"AI is proving that most ‘skilled’ work was just organized knowledge, and organized knowledge is now free."