All posts tagged: AI agents

What happens when companies become too AI-pilled?

What happens when companies become too AI-pilled?

Published by skeptic

The people deciding that AI can replace your job are also the ones least likely to understand what your job truly involves, according to Box founder Aaron Levie, who pointed to this as an example of “AI psychosis.” Indeed, ClickUp recently cut 22% of its workforce for AI agents, tech layoffs in 2026 are already nearly matching all of 2025, and DuckDuckGo installs are climbing from users who want Google to stop forcing AI into search and just give them links.  Watch as TechCrunch’s Equity podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into what happens when the AI-pilled and the AI-skeptical are both right at the same time, plus three deals worth knowing about and Waymo’s new robotaxi hitting the road.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Source link

Cognition’s Scott Wu says AI coding agents shouldn’t replace humans

Cognition’s Scott Wu says AI coding agents shouldn’t replace humans

Published by skeptic

Cognition CEO Scott Wu made headlines again this week when his two-year-old AI coding agent startup raised $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation. Cognition is the maker of Devin, one of the first and, arguably, most successful AI coding agents. Devin, the CEO says, “naturally owns tasks end to end.” In fact, in the blog post announcing that raise, Cognition laid out a vision where “we are shifting to a world of self-driving software development.” So, could Devin replace, say, a mid-level L4 programmer? Yes, and no, Wu told TechCrunch. “We’ve never thought about it as replacing humans. I know it’s like a scenario, folks have said these things. It has never been our view.” In this wild year of 2026 when every day another tech CEO announces layoffs in the name of supplanting workers with AI, Wu says he especially doesn’t want coders to lose their jobs. “We are all programmers ourselves,” he explained. “I started coding when I was nine.” In fact, Wu has been called one of the most accomplished child …

How to use Google’s new AI agents to go beyond your standard searches

How to use Google’s new AI agents to go beyond your standard searches

Published by skeptic

At the Google I/O 2026 keynote, the tech giant revealed new agentic capabilities in Search, where users can create, customize, and manage multiple AI agents to stay updated on topics of interest. The announcement is part of Google’s larger push toward agentic AI systems that can take initiative and assist with ongoing tasks instead of answering one question at a time. Unlike traditional search tools that respond only when prompted, Google’s information agents are designed to operate continuously in the background, 24/7, helping users stay informed about their interests without needing to repeatedly search for the same information every day. Instead of delivering a list of links, the agents can synthesize information from multiple sources, explain why something matters, compare perspectives, and provide actionable insights. In many ways, the agents represent the next evolution of Google Alerts, the notification service Google launched in 2003. However, these agents are designed to go beyond simple notifications. For instance, someone following the stock market could create an information agent focused on specific companies, share price, or economic trends. …

Notion just turned its workspace into a hub for AI agents

Notion just turned its workspace into a hub for AI agents

Published by skeptic

Productivity software maker Notion is stepping into the agentic era. In a live-streamed product announcement on Wednesday, the company, known best for its collaborative note-taking app, introduced a new developer platform that extends the capabilities of its custom AI agents, connects with external agents, and allows teams to build automated multi-step workflows that can pull in data from any database. By building an orchestration layer — a system that coordinates AI work across multiple tools and data sources — Notion is positioning itself as more than a note-taker with AI features and instead as a hub where people and agents can collaborate across tools and databases. In February, Notion first launched its Custom Agents — AI teammates that handle repetitive tasks, like answering frequently asked questions, compiling status updates, and automating workflows. Since then, Notion customers have built over one million agents, the company says. However, these agents had limitations. They couldn’t connect with external data or use custom logic. External agents that companies used also didn’t have a way to connect with the Notion …

CopilotKit raises M to help devs deploy app-native AI agents

CopilotKit raises $27M to help devs deploy app-native AI agents

Published by skeptic

Many companies today provide AI simply as a chatbot inside their apps: you type in (or dictate) what you want it to do, and the AI bot goes and tries to do it. Still, the experience tends to feel clunky. A text-based UI doesn’t always translate to a smooth experience, for example, if you want to use a travel app to book an entire itinerary but have to scan through reams of text. According to the founders of CopilotKit, that approach doesn’t make the most of what AI agents and LLMs can do. The company’s co-founders, Atai Barkai (pictured above, right) and Uli Barkai (pictured above, left), believe the way forward is to enable agents to live inside applications, understand what users are doing, take actions, and show useful interfaces instead of just returning long blocks of text. The company’s popular AG-UI protocol is aimed at the first part of that solution. The widely adopted, open-source protocol standardizes how AI agents connect to and communicate with user interfaces (like a web browser or an app), …

Sierra raises 0M as the race to own enterprise AI gets serious

Sierra raises $950M as the race to own enterprise AI gets serious

Published by skeptic

Bret Taylor’s AI startup Sierra has closed a $950 million funding round led by Tiger Global and GV, the company announced Monday, pushing its post-money valuation above $15 billion. The raise gives Sierra more than $1 billion to work with — capital the company says it will use to become the “global standard” for AI-powered customer experiences. Like a lot of AI companies, Sierra has, smartly, been very proactive in touting its own growth in a crowded market. The company says it started with just four design partners a couple of years ago. Today it claims to have more than 40% of the Fortune 50 as customers, and says the agents running on its platform are handling billions of interactions, from refinancing mortgages to processing insurance claims, managing returns, and powering nonprofit fundraising campaigns. Indeed, the funding news follows a stretch of breakneck revenue growth as shared by Sierra, which first said it hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue in late November, then published a post in early February, saying it had hit $150 …

AI research lab NeoCognition lands M seed to build agents that learn like humans

AI research lab NeoCognition lands $40M seed to build agents that learn like humans

Published by skeptic

Investors are aggressively courting AI researchers to build startups that can make AI more reliable and efficient. Yu Su, an Ohio State professor leading an AI agent lab, said he initially resisted the pressure from VCs to commercialize his work. He finally took the leap last year and spun out his work into a startup when he saw that foundational model advances could make agents truly personalized. NeoCognition, a startup Su describes as a research lab developing self-learning AI agents, has just emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from Vista Equity Partners and angels, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica. “Today’s agents are generalists,” Su (pictured left) told TechCrunch. “Every time you ask them to do a task, you take a leap of faith.” According to Su, the issue lies in a lack of consistency. Current agents, whether from Claude Code, OpenClaw or Perplexity’s computer tools, successfully complete tasks as intended only about 50% of …

Poke makes using AI agents as easy as sending a text

Poke makes using AI agents as easy as sending a text

Published by skeptic

Is Poke an OpenClaw for the rest of us? That’s the idea coming from a new startup offering an AI agent that you can access via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and, in some markets, WhatsApp. The AI agent Poke launched publicly in March, allowing consumers to access a personal assistant that can take action on their behalf through a familiar interface. Today, Poke can help with everyday needs, like daily planning, managing your calendar, tracking your health and fitness, controlling your smart home, editing your photos, and more, all via text message. Image Credits:Poke/The Interaction Company of California While you may still interact with a general-purpose AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude when you have questions or want to do research, you’d turn to Poke when you want to get something done quickly, or when you want to automate some task to save you time. For instance, you could ask Poke to alert you to specific emails (like those from your family or your boss), or remind you in the morning if you need to take …

Atlassian launches visual AI tools and third-party agents in Confluence

Atlassian launches visual AI tools and third-party agents in Confluence

Published by skeptic

Software giant Atlassian announced new AI tools and agents on Wednesday with a focus on turning data into visual assets and applications. This includes the rollout of the visual tool Remix in open beta. Remix allows enterprises to turn the data and information stored in Atlassian’s content collaboration software Confluence into assets including charts and graphics. Remix will recommend which visual format makes the most sense for the data or information at hand and create these visual assets without requiring the users to open another application or software. The company also announced three new third-party agents that run within Confluence using model context protocols (MCPs). One agent connects Confluence users to the vibe coding darling Lovable to turn product ideas and data into working prototypes. Another agent connects to app builder software Replit and allows users to convert technical documents into starter apps. The third agent works with AI presentation builder Gamma to build slides and other presentation materials. “With Remix and agents in Confluence, a single page becomes the starting point for whatever comes …

Nothing CEO Carl Pei says smartphone apps will disappear as AI agents take their place

Nothing CEO Carl Pei says smartphone apps will disappear as AI agents take their place

Published by skeptic

Carl Pei, co-founder and CEO of Nothing, is imagining a future beyond the iPhone — and it’s a device powered by AI agents, not running apps. “In terms of AI in software, I think people should understand that apps are going to disappear,” said Pei, whose consumer electronics brand makes unique smartphones and other accessories. “So, if you’re a founder or a startup and your app is like where the core value lies, that will be disrupted whether you like it or not.” Pei made these comments during an interview at the SXSW conference in Austin on Wednesday. The founder has talked about an AI-first device before, as this vision helped the company close its $200 million Series C funding round last year. At the time, Nothing was pitching the idea of a new kind of smartphone using AI and personalization technology that’s accurate enough for its users to not feel they had to go behind the AI and double-check its output. At SXSW, Pei expanded on his vision for the AI-first device and the …