AI Is Taking Over Your Inbox, Your Deliveries, and Your Operations

Pivot 5
June 06, 2025

Pivot 5 is the must-read daily AI briefing for 500,000+ CEOs and business leaders who need signal, not noise.

5 headlines. 5 minutes. 5 days a week.

Thrive Holdings Fuel AI IT Services Platform With $100 Million

Thrive Holdings, the permanent capital arm of Thrive Capital, and ZBS Partners committed $100 million to launch Shield Technology Partners, an AI-enabled managed IT services platform. Shield has already bought four MSPs: ClearFuze Networks, IronOrbit, Delval Technology Solutions and OneNet Global.
The company will embed software engineers inside each portfolio firm to build a unified AI system that automates tasks like computer restarts and password resets. Thrive Holdings is also nearing a $1 billion initial raise to bankroll further AI-driven acquisitions.
The move typifies a growing investor play to acquire traditional knowledge-work businesses and supercharge them with AI. Similar strategies are emerging in accounting, where Bessemer, General Catalyst and others have taken stakes or raised funds to replicate the approach.

Read more here.

Amazon is developing AI software that lets humanoid robots ride in Rivian electric vans and drop packages at customers’ homes. A new indoor "humanoid park" in its San Francisco office is nearly finished and will host the initial tests.
The obstacle course includes a Rivian van and will trial multiple robots, including Agility’s Digit and a $16,000 Unitree model. The project runs alongside a freshly formed agentic AI team tasked with turning warehouse machines into voice-directed, multi-skilled assistants.
Amazon already deploys autonomous robots in its logistics hubs, and this facility seeks to extend that automation to the last mile. The push comes as hundreds of thousands of human workers currently handle Amazon’s global deliveries.

Read more here.

Demis Hassabis told the SXSW London festival that DeepMind is building an AI-powered “next-generation email” system to auto-sort inboxes and reply in the user’s voice. He said he would happily pay “thousands of dollars per month” to offload that task.
The tool will identify routine “bread-and-butter” messages, draft answers, and even handle simple decisions on the user’s behalf. Hassabis presented it as a near-term project while noting AGI remains five to ten years away.
Hassabis said the swift commercial pull of such tools shows industry, not academia, now drives the AGI race sooner than he anticipated. He urged US-China cooperation on safety, stressing the technology will affect “the whole of humanity.”

Read more here.

Runway CEO Cris Valenzuela told The Verge’s Decoder audience that Hollywood should treat his AI video platform as a creative collaborator, not a wrecking ball. He said Runway already works with “many of the biggest movie studios” and has public deals with Lionsgate and AMC Networks.
Valenzuela said the company has about 100 employees, sells its software via subscriptions with a free tier, and is generating millions in revenue but is not yet profitable. Google and Nvidia back the firm, which runs on Google Cloud and is pouring resources into new model research rather than cost optimization.
The CEO acknowledged Runway is named in a class-action lawsuit over training data and sidestepped confirming reports it ingested copyrighted YouTube videos. He argued the system produces “net-new” pixels instead of storing source material, highlighting how unresolved copyright disputes still shadow AI video’s push into mainstream filmmaking.

Read more here.

China’s AI focus has pivoted from building large language models to creating consumer AI agents that autonomously execute tasks. Flagship agent Manus ignited the craze after its limited March launch, driving a wave of copycat startups and a scramble for invite codes.
Manus raised $75 million led by Benchmark, opened offices in San Francisco, Singapore, and Tokyo, and runs on Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet, which is blocked in mainland China without a VPN. Competitors Genspark and Flowith report benchmark parity or better, millions of users, and emphasize overseas markets where higher pricing and Western models are available.
Sources in the article say China’s interconnected super-apps, rapid product cycles, and digital-savvy users give local builders an edge in embedding agents into everyday life. ByteDance’s Coze Space, Tencent’s forthcoming WeChat agent, and Alibaba’s Quark DeepResearch illustrate how tech giants are moving to integrate similar automation directly into their vast platforms.

Read more here.