FROM THE DESK OF
Clark Valberg
MANAGING PARTNER
Happy New Year! Every January, health turns into a ritual. Gym spikes, fresh notebooks, new wearables. This year, something structural shifted.
OpenAI has rolled out ChatGPT Health, a dedicated healthcare experience inside ChatGPT, developed with leading medical institutions. It is not a new app or a consumer launch moment. It quietly reframes how 230 million weekly users may ask about symptoms, medications, or conditions. Not through fragmented searches, but through a single conversational system trained to handle medical context with more discipline.
What matters is the pattern, not the feature. The world’s most used AI interface is becoming the first stop for personal health questions, at a scale no clinic, hotline, or hospital system can replicate. Healthcare has spent decades optimizing the last mile of care. This moves intelligence to the first mile, where uncertainty begins and decisions start forming.
"The most trusted source of first contact in healthcare may no longer be a doctor. It might be a prompt."
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
Top Story: Utah Approves First Autonomous AI to Prescribe Medications
Industry Watch: PepsiCo Taps Siemens and NVIDIA for AI-Powered Digital Twin Factories
Notable Transactions: Musk’s xAI Raises $20B to Scale Grok Development
Emerging Tools: Slidewhisper converts your speech into ready-to-use slides
/ THE DEEP DIVE
Utah Greelights First Autonomous AI to Prescribe Medications Without Doctor Oversight
Utah's Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy partnered with startup Doctronic to launch the nation's first fully autonomous AI prescription system—no physician involvement required. The AI pulls patient history, conducts clinical assessments, and sends refills directly to pharmacies for $4 per renewal. Doctronic secured malpractice insurance holding the AI to physician-level accountability and reported 99.2% treatment alignment with doctors across 500 urgent care cases. The system excludes controlled substances, ADHD medications, pain management drugs, and injectables, while requiring physician review of the first 250 prescriptions per drug class before full automation. Doctronic confirmed discussions with Texas, Arizona, and Missouri, projecting a dozen states will approve similar programs in 2026.
SRC: Politico
BUSINESS IMPACT:
Pharmacy Chains & Telemedicine Platforms:
Automated renewals threaten traditional consultation models and force telehealth providers to integrate competing AI or surrender routine refill revenue.
State Regulatory Competition:
Utah's "regulatory sandbox" creates a blueprint for AI-friendly jurisdictions, triggering a state-level race to attract health-tech investment through permissive frameworks.
Healthcare Systems & Medical Associations:
Autonomous prescription systems bypass the physician bottleneck entirely, forcing traditional providers to define AI's clinical boundaries before market momentum decides for them.
/ INDUSTRY WATCH
MANUFACTURING
PepsiCo Partners with Siemens and NVIDIA in Industry-First AI and Digital Twin Collaboration
PepsiCo is using AI and digital twins to simulate facility upgrades before breaking ground. Early U.S. pilots delivered 20% throughput gains, 10-15% capital savings, and caught 90% of design issues virtually—slashing costly physical rework.
SRC: PR NEWSWIRE
REAL ESTATE
HomeSageAI Launches AI Platform to Accelerate Deal Processing for Hard Money Lenders
Washington, D.C.-based HomeSageAI's new platform lets hard money lenders process 15-250% more deals by automating property analysis, risk scoring, and underwriting—cutting review time from hours to seconds without sacrificing accuracy.
SRC: Complete AI Training
AGRICULTURE
AI Carbon Credit Platform Connects Indian Farmers to Global Markets
A new AI-powered platform uses satellite data and farm analytics to quantify carbon impact and enable Indian farmers to generate revenue through carbon credits.
SRC: Devdiscourse
TECH
Chinese Researchers Develop Brain-Monitoring System to Enhance Autonomous Vehicle Safety
Researchers have built an AI system that reads passengers' brain signals to detect stress. When passengers feel uneasy, the autonomous vehicle automatically shifts to more cautious driving—outperforming traditional methods in safety tests.
SRC: TechXplore
HEALTHCARE
Researchers Combine Cardiac Imaging with AI to Identify New Heart Disease Treatments
MRC Laboratory scientists created CardioKG, merging cardiac imaging from 9,500+ patients with AI knowledge graphs to fast-track drug discovery. The system identified repurposing candidates including methotrexate for heart failure and diabetes drugs for atrial fibrillation.
BANKING & FINANCE
Fiserv Partners with Visa and Mastercard to Enable AI-Driven Agentic Commerce
Fiserv is deploying Visa and Mastercard's agentic commerce frameworks, letting AI agents autonomously shop and purchase for consumers. McKinsey projects this market could hit $1 trillion in the U.S. alone by 2030, with $3-5 trillion globally.
SRC: IBS Intelligence
RETAIL
Fabrique and Gensmo Deploy AI Styling to Lift E-Commerce Engagement
Fabrique has partnered with Gensmo to launch AI-powered styling tools for online retailers. The solution delivers personalized outfit recommendations, helping brands drive engagement and conversions during peak shopping periods.
SRC: PR Newswire
MEDIA
YouTube Launches AI Tool That Lets Creators Build Games
YouTube has rolled out an AI-powered Playables Builder that allows creators to develop simple games directly on the platform. The move lowers the barrier to game creation and expands interactive formats available to creators.
SRC: PocketGamer
/ NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
$20B
Musk's xAI Closes $20 Billion Funding Round
The AI startup secured backing from Nvidia, Cisco, Fidelity, and Qatar Investment Authority to accelerate infrastructure and product development for its Grok models.
VIA YAHOO FINANCE
$5B
Nvidia Takes $5 Billion Stake in Intel
The AI chip leader purchased 214.7 million shares at $23.28 each, securing 4% ownership in the struggling chipmaker as part of a partnership to jointly develop datacenter and PC chips.
VIA CNBC
$2B
Meta Acquires Manus for Over $2 Billion
The social media giant bought the Singapore AI agent startup to scale its services across Meta's platforms in its push to compete with OpenAI and Google.
VIA PYMNTS
$900M
Mobileye to Acquire Mentee Robotics in $900M Deal
The autonomous driving company is buying the humanoid robotics developer to accelerate physical AI across vehicles and robotics.
VIA AI BUSINESS
$500M
China's Moonshot AI Raises $500M
The Kimi AI developer secured funding led by IDG Capital with participation from Alibaba and Tencent, pushing its valuation to $4.3 billion.
VIA YAHOO FINANCE
/ EMERGING TOOLS
01
Automatically turns your spoken words into polished presentation slides, saving time and effort during content creation.
02
Helps fashion retailers boost sales by generating product descriptions, styling tips, and personalized recommendations using AI.
03
Finds verified email addresses instantly so you can reach the right people without wasting time.
04
Automates repetitive HR tasks like onboarding and feedback collection to free up your team’s time.
05
Converts complex research papers into simple, digestible summaries tailored to your knowledge level.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
TRANSFORMATIVE STUDIO
We partner with deeply embedded operators to discover, design, and spin out AI-native companies that transform industries.
"We’re heading toward a world where the speed from idea to execution is so fast that hesitation becomes the biggest risk."