TRO | Disney launching new tools for the ‘AI native generation’.

Plus, PubMatic launches AgenticOS, OpenAI announces ChatGPT Health and iHeartMedia signs Google partnership.

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Meliora Company
January 12, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Subscribe | 12th January, 2026

In this fast-moving GenAI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. Disney launching new tools for the ‘AI native generation’.

At last week’s CES 2026, Disney announced a raft of new features coming to the streaming platform including a vertical video product that will integrate short-form Disney content, with sports and news coming over time, as well as Agentic AI ad-planning tools and a Gen AI video generation tool to allow advertisers to create and publish CTV ads.

Here’s why this matters: This matters because Disney is redefining what streaming actually is. By introducing vertical video into a CTV environment and pairing it with agentic AI ad-planning and GenAI ad creation tools, Disney is collapsing the divide between lean-back television and lean-in digital behaviour. It signals a shift from CTV as a premium broadcast channel to CTV as a programmable platform. Just as importantly, Disney is positioning itself not only as a distributor of content, but as the operating system for attention, creativity and monetisation.

2. PubMatic launches AgenticOS for programmatic

PubMatic has this week launched a full-stack operating system to enable ad campaign execution using intelligent agents instead of manual workflows.

AgenticOS, the result of PubMatic’s multi-year investment in agentic AI was announced at CES and runs on Nvidia-accelerated infrastructure. The system allows advertisers to set objectives, creative parameters and guardrails in natural language via an LLM interface, and then uses Agentic AI to manage the bulk of the manual workload- including campaign setup, executing media buys and real-time, adaptive optimisation.

Here’s why this matters: This is the kind of infrastructure that lets teams spend more time on strategy and less time on manual, repeatable workflows. In early testing, PubMatic reports campaign setup time has been reduced by 87% and issue resolution by 70%.

3. OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health

This week, OpenAI has announced they will be launching ChatGPT Health – a dedicated experience inside ChatGPT designed for health and wellness, which will integrate with users standard health and wellness tracking products like Apple Health and MyFitnessPal, as well as personal medical records.

OpenAI states that over 230 million people ask health and wellness questions on the platform each week. The idea behind ChatGPT Health is that these conversations will remain entirely separate to a user’s medical records.

Here’s why this matters: This is another move for OpenAI into the application space- where the company is starting to build out a suite of vertical AI style products in response to specific needs and use cases. With the recent launch of the OpenAI App Store, we’re seeing increasing signals from OpenAI that they realise the value of AI lies in the application layer and they’re starting to extrapolate individual use cases that sit outside their core general model.

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Spangle, an AI e-commerce startup founded by former Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla, has raised US$15m in a new funding round, valuing the company at US$100m after the investment.

Data security startup Cyera continues on a massive growth trajectory. On Thursday, it announced a US$400m Series F funding round at a US$9b valuation. This funding comes just six months after the previous $540 million round at a US$6b valuation, meaning the New York-based startup has now raised over US$1.7b.

Rumours are swirling that Discord Inc. has filed confidentially for an IPO, and is likely to go public in March 2026. If it is to go ahead, Discord’s IPO could be one of the biggest of the year. Discord was last valued at $14.7 billion in a 2021 funding round in which it raised $500 million. 

Our Top 3 AI predictions for 2026

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

In case you missed it, we’ve landed on our top 3 AI predictions for this year. From innovation to governance and attention, here’s what the Meliora team believe is on the cards for 2026.

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