Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, February 9, 2026

🎥  New Youtube Video

I talked to Jim Dowling, co-founder and CEO of Hopsworks, discussed building production-ready AI systems. We discussed data, feature, and inference pipelines and the future of AI (or agentic AI). 

📌 Musings and Readings

“Goldman Sachs taps Anthropic’s Claude to automate accounting, compliance roles” (Link)

“Robot Orders Grow 6.6% in 2025 as General Industries Drive Broader Automation Adoption” (Link)

“Reddit looks to AI search as its next big opportunity” (Link)

“Bedrock, an A.I. Start-Up for Construction, Raises $270 Million” (Link)

“Infrastructure, trust, model development are key AI challenges” (Link)

“Anthropic launches Claude Opus 4.6 as AI moves toward a ‘vibe working’ era” (Link)

👏 Deals

Poetiq, a CA-based company building a meta-system that sits on top of language models to optimize their reasoning, enabling faster learning from fewer examples and more reliable solutions to complex problems, has raised $45.8m in seed funding.

BizTrip AI, a CA-based company that automates corporate travel planning, booking, and managing business trips, has raised $1.5m in pre-seed funding.

Branded Realities, a VA-based developer of immersive AR and digital experiences that enable fans to interact with athletes, brands, and institutions to drive engagement, loyalty, and revenue, has raised $1.6m in pre-seed funding.

Principle, a CA-based company offering a strategic foresight solution that simulates competitive, market, and regulatory scenarios, has raised $2m in pre-seed funding.

Enclaive, a Germany-based cybersecurity company delivering a multi-cloud computing platform that ensures data and applications remain secure, has raised €4.1m in seed funding.

TaxNova, a London, UK–based developer offering an AI-powered solution to automate and streamline R&D tax credit claims, has raised $1m in pre-seed funding.

Airrived, a CA-based enterprise AI startup that enables organizations to orchestrate and automate IT, cybersecurity, and business operations has raised $6.1m in seed funding.

Qureos, a Dubai, UAE-based company developing an AI-powered recruitment and career platform, has raised $5m in seed funding.

Boomband, a RI-based company offering an AI-powered talent discovery platform, has raised $4m in seed funding.

Expert Intelligence, a CA-based AI software company for regulated lab environments, has raised $4.7m in seed funding.

Senai, a Washington, DC-based company developing video intelligence platform that transforms publicly available online video into real-time, actionable intelligence for government and enterprise users, has raised $6.2m in seed funding.

Flockshop AI, a NYC-based company providing an AI-powered visual commerce platform for fashion and retail brands to boost engagement and sales, has raised $6m in seed funding.

Linkup, a CA-based company developing an AI-focused search and web-data platform that delivers real-time, structured internet information via API to enhance AI application accuracy and capabilities, has raised $10m in seed funding.

Nullify, a CA-based AI cybersecurity company that automates detection, triage, and remediation of software vulnerabilities, has raised $12.5m in seed funding.

Fintower, a Sweden-based software company developing an AI-powered FP&A platform that automates budgeting, forecasting, and reporting, has raised €1.5m in seed funding.

Revena, a São Paulo, Brazil–based healthtech company using AI to automate hospital billing and revenue cycle management, has raised $7.6m in seed funding.