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Countless articles and posts on X have been covering the release of an AI agent that can do most of our computer-based work for us. One user posted that Cowork was able to knock out 2 months of work (most of it procrastination related) in 2 hours and he was questioning his purpose the next day.

This is how developers have felt the last few weeks with Claude Code which is what Cowork is based on and was built with….. in 1.5 weeks. Competitors like Google and OpenAI will undoubtedly come out with their versions. AI acceleration has kicked off in 2026.

Read more - CNET - Ars Technica - Fortune - Engadget - X

The AI industry is moving in droves at the moment covering similar expansions of territory. Torch will be added to ChatGPT’s upcoming Health variant that will focus on medical applications of AI.

This happened the same week as Google announcing MedGemma 1.5 and MedASR for medical image interpretation and Claude for Life Sciences.

Read more - TechCrunch

A win for Google and potentially Apple customers that have long been frustrated with Siri’s antics. Gemini models will be used to power Siri and future AI functionality that is yet to be disclosed.

This raises a lot of questions about Apple’s AI development internally and also begs the question about Apple’s plans for glasses. More on that below.

Read more - Reuters

Giants like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart codeveloped the new AI technology that will allow agents to operate on a customer’s behalf. This platform will enable new purchasing methods and allow us to chat with AI to directly buy things off the internet. 2026 is off to a futuristic start. “Hey Siri, buy me snacks for the movie tomorrow”

Read more - Google

They are using digital twin technology to power and monitor autonomous factory systems. This allows them to monitor and optimize the status of operations with real-time data supplied to them by onsite sensors.

Read more - Technology Magazine

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Now when you’re in a noisy environment your glasses can amplify the voice of the person you’re talking to. This is an accessibility functionality that can be quite useful if you’ve ever had a hard time hearing the person you’re talking to in a loud restaurant.

Read more - UploadVR

While the sentiment in the VR industry has its peaks and valleys, two of the most popular apps in the digital world have seen record breaking concurrent users early in 2026. Both Gorilla Tag and VRChat are mainstays at the top of the charts but this year is off to a hot start with increased user presence which could potentially be due to the holiday influx of headset sales.

Read more - UploadVR

After an internal memo from their CTO discussed how Meta will be reallocating budgets in Reality Labs the company laid off almost 10% of its workforce of 15,000. This investment will now be moved into AI infrastructure and their wearables like Ray-Ban AI and Display glasses.

Read more - CNBC

AI has cut the brake lines and is moving downhill with pace. The speed of innovation and product announcements is becoming too quick to believe. We are getting new models, specialized versions of the latest models while AI agents are autonomously building other autonomous agents at Claude (Code → Cowork) in a matter of weeks.

If there’s one takeaway for the week it would be to look into Claude Cowork because it it’s making people incredibly productive. So productive in fact people are questioning their value in the workflow of telling AI what to do.

Virtual Reality is seeing a boost in usage after holiday sales which is to be expected. Retention has long been the issue in the industry so we’ll have to see what the usage of popular apps like Gorilla Tag and VRChat are by the end of Q1 as some of the headsets begin to collect dust.

Layoffs are challenging for a company and its people (I work at Meta and made it through this round 🙏). With increased competition in the spatial computing space from the likes of Google, Samsung, Apple and now Steam in addition to a new hot topic of AI and the success of their wearables Meta is shuffling the cards again to restructure and prepare for their next phase of growth.

That strategy will supposedly come clear at an all hands meeting led by the CTO on Wednesday the 14th as reported by CNBC. With the company’s recent announcement of pausing Ray-Ban Display international expansion due to high demand in the US and the turmoil within their AI leadership ranks 2026 is off to a turbulent start.

And don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about writing a CES wrap up and will be providing more details about the top announcements from the first major tech conference of the year (that I wish I went to ☹ - we’ll be there next year to report from the heart of the action!)

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