Monday, 12 January 2026
Welcome to today's roundup of the most interesting developments in AI and technology.
Research & Products
Anthropic Advances Claude in Healthcare and Life Sciences
Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare, a HIPAA-ready suite enabling medical use of Claude. New connectors include CMS Coverage Database, ICD-10 coding lookup, PubMed access (35M+ articles), and integration with Apple Health/Android Health Connect. Claude can now assist with prior authorisation reviews, claims appeals, and clinical trial protocol drafting.
Google Announces Protocol for AI Agent Commerce
Google has announced a new protocol designed to facilitate commerce using AI agents. This represents a significant step toward enabling AI systems to conduct transactions on behalf of users, building on the agentic AI trend that dominated CES 2026.
Shopify Brings Agentic AI to Enterprise Commerce
Shopify is rolling out agentic AI capabilities to its enterprise commerce platform. This puts AI agents directly into the e-commerce stack, enabling automated purchasing, inventory management, and customer service workflows.
Industry
Retailers Test AI Agents Without Ceding Control to Google
Major retailers including Kroger and Lowe's are testing AI agents while deliberately avoiding dependence on Google's infrastructure. This signals a strategic push for enterprise AI independence and suggests tension between Google's agent commerce ambitions and retailer autonomy.
Motional Reboots Robotaxi with AI Focus
Motional is putting AI at the centre of its robotaxi reboot, targeting 2026 for driverless service. This comes as the autonomous vehicle industry enters a new phase with Waymo tripling rides and Tesla launching robotaxi services in Austin and San Francisco.
Policy & Ethics
Google Removes AI Overviews for Medical Queries
Google has removed AI Overviews from certain medical queries following concerns about accuracy and safety. This represents a notable pullback on AI-generated search results in sensitive domains - a sign that even Google is proceeding cautiously with AI in healthcare.
Indonesia and Malaysia Block Grok Over Deepfakes
Indonesia and Malaysia have blocked xAI's Grok following concerns about non-consensual sexualised deepfakes. This represents significant regulatory action against a major AI platform over harmful content generation capabilities.