👋Good morning! AI isn’t slowing down, it’s shifting gears. From freight trucks that think for themselves to video editors with digital actors built in, and hospitals where AI triages patients before doctors step in, this week’s edition explores how intelligence is leaving the lab and entering the real world. Buckle up, the machines aren’t just learning, they’re working.
🛻Augment’s AI “Augie” is rewriting freight’s playbook
Augment, the logistics AI company founded by Harish Abbott, has made waves with its $85 million Series A funding round led by Redpoint. Abbott has long believed that many of the manual, repetitive tasks in freight logistics emails, calls, document chores are ripe for automation.
At its core is Augie, a freight-native AI teammate designed to operate across the entire order-to-cash cycle. Unlike piecemeal tools, Augie doesn’t just generate a quote or parse a document in isolation. It intervenes proactively responding to bids, coordinating dispatch, tracking shipments, and tackling billing and collections all across emails, voice, messaging, TMS portals and more.
Early adopters are seeing measurable gains: one operator has already reduced invoice delays by 40%.
Augment is betting that the next wave of disruption in heavy industries won’t come from isolated AI tools, but from agents that truly understand domain workflows, and can act across the full stack of freight operations.
⚙️In Focus: AI Tools & Products
In late August 2025, Google revealed that its “Vids” video-editing tool is gaining serious footing in generative AI: the platform now includes AI-avatar integration that allows users to create and animate avatars inside their video projects. The announcement surfaced alongside the launch of a free consumer version of Vids.
What makes this feature exciting is the way it bridges content creation and synthetic media: for the first time in a mainstream edit-tool from a tech giant, creators can build videos where an AI avatar speaks, gestures or interacts, all inside the familiar editing workflow. With the consumer release, Google is signalling that this capability may be accessible to non-professional creators, lowering the barrier to expressive, AI-powered video production.
The key takeaway? We’re moving into a phase where video creation is no longer just “cut this clip, add that effect”, it becomes interactive media-design, with avatars and AI acting as creative collaborators. That means fresh opportunities (and fresh caution) for brands, creators and educators exploring scalable video workflows powered by AI.
🤖AI in Action: Virtual care platform delivers scalable 24/7 healthcare triage
In the healthcare realm, Cedars‑Sinai in Los Angeles teamed up with K Health to roll out “CS Connect”, a virtual-care platform powered by AI. Launched in 2023, the system automates patient intake, symptom assessment and preliminary triage so that physicians can spend less time on paperwork and more time on treatment. Over 42 000 patients had used the platform by 2025.
According to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, 77 % of the AI-generated treatment recommendations were rated optimal (versus 67 % for physicians in the same sample) particularly for common recurring conditions such as urinary-tract infections.
The key takeaway? AI here is not replacing doctors, but augmenting the workflow: enhancing throughput, reducing administrative burden, and freeing professionals to focus on higher-level care. Cedars-Sinai plans to pilot further use of AI for remote monitoring of chronic diseases and urgent-care triage. This is a real-world example of AI scaling in a high-stakes sector, one where the value is both human (better access, more time for doctors) and operational (24/7 availability, process automation).
📈 Trendlines: Agentic AI - The New Digital Co-Worker
Agentic AI, the smart cousin of generative AI is stepping into enterprises, not as a fancy assistant but as an autonomous digital workforce. While 65% of organizations have embraced generative AI, only 19% have deployed agentic AI that can reason, decide, and act independently, but that’s about to change. Almost 70% plan to invest in agentic AI within two years, signaling a rapid transformation underway.
These AI agents aren’t just executing commands; they’re optimizing workflows, making operational decisions, and accelerating outcomes. Gartner ranks agentic AI as a top technology trend, predicting that by 2028, 40% of business professionals in Europe will rely on AI agents as collaborative partners.
But beware, the leap from tool to teammate demands new mindsets. Building trust, governance, and cultural acceptance is essential. Adoption challenges like risk management and ethical oversight are as crucial as technical prowess in unleashing agentic AI’s promise. In other words, the future digital coworker needs HR policies as much as code.
💡Quick Hits & Numbers
- 52% of enterprises use AI agents in production, with ROI ramping up fast.
- Adobe Firefly Foundry offers brands customizable generative AI models for on-brand multimedia content.
- Microsoft Azure AI Foundry’s new multimodal AI models power integrated workflows blending text, audio, and video.
🧩Closing Thought
AI is no longer just a tool on a leash; it’s an apprentice, a co-worker, and sometimes a wild card. Whether detecting deception, mastering worlds, or navigating ethics, its trajectory asks us to rethink control, trust, and teamwork—not only what AI can do, but what it should do. The future won’t replace humans; it will replace human excuses.