Aaron Levie
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
The liberals love the stock market.
The liberals love the stock market.
So first of all, I think you're giving a little too much credit to Manus. They didn't come up with the agents. But I do think that they have a very good demo. And it's hard to know exactly how real it is because not everyone's used it. And it's from China. It's from China. I'll get to that in a second. If you go to their website, you can see a bunch of their demos.
So first of all, I think you're giving a little too much credit to Manus. They didn't come up with the agents. But I do think that they have a very good demo. And it's hard to know exactly how real it is because not everyone's used it. And it's from China. It's from China. I'll get to that in a second. If you go to their website, you can see a bunch of their demos.
And I do think that what they deserve credit for is advancing the ball on the UI paradigm. And it's not that other people weren't doing this. I mean, I think notably Anthropic was doing this with its operator product. But the basic idea is is that you've got this two-pane view. And in one window, you've got the standard chatbot interface.
And I do think that what they deserve credit for is advancing the ball on the UI paradigm. And it's not that other people weren't doing this. I mean, I think notably Anthropic was doing this with its operator product. But the basic idea is is that you've got this two-pane view. And in one window, you've got the standard chatbot interface.
And then in the other view, you can see what the agent is doing. And that agent has the ability to toggle between currently four apps, their search, browser, code terminal, and document editor. And so when you give Manus a task, the first thing it does is create a to-do list in the document editor. You can kind of see it there.
And then in the other view, you can see what the agent is doing. And that agent has the ability to toggle between currently four apps, their search, browser, code terminal, and document editor. And so when you give Manus a task, the first thing it does is create a to-do list in the document editor. You can kind of see it there.
And then it works sequentially to achieve each of those tasks and then puts an X on them there. And you can kind of see it working. And I think what's cool about the demo is just the way that it seamlessly toggles between those four apps. And you can see what the AI agent is doing. And it's browsing the internet. It's searching for things. It's writing documents.
And then it works sequentially to achieve each of those tasks and then puts an X on them there. And you can kind of see it working. And I think what's cool about the demo is just the way that it seamlessly toggles between those four apps. And you can see what the AI agent is doing. And it's browsing the internet. It's searching for things. It's writing documents.
It's crossing things off its to-do list. Now, I think it's pretty easy to imagine where this goes, which is you'll be able to connect an agent to all of your SaaS apps. So it won't just be four applications. It'll now be connected to dozens of applications, including ones that already have your data. And it's going to know what actions it's possible to take in those apps.
It's crossing things off its to-do list. Now, I think it's pretty easy to imagine where this goes, which is you'll be able to connect an agent to all of your SaaS apps. So it won't just be four applications. It'll now be connected to dozens of applications, including ones that already have your data. And it's going to know what actions it's possible to take in those apps.
So when it creates its to-do list, there's a much wider range of things that it can accomplish. And in fact, there's a new standard called MCP, which is taking off like wildfire, which is built specifically to enable agents to connect with applications and understand the data and understand the actions that are possible in those SaaS applications.
So when it creates its to-do list, there's a much wider range of things that it can accomplish. And in fact, there's a new standard called MCP, which is taking off like wildfire, which is built specifically to enable agents to connect with applications and understand the data and understand the actions that are possible in those SaaS applications.
So look, Manus is just the tip of the iceberg here. I think this will become a very standard UI paradigm. That's the reason why I mentioned it, not because I am pre-declaring them to be the winner in the space, but just because I think there's a lot of talk about agents and I think it's hard to conceptualize what that means without just seeing it visually.
So look, Manus is just the tip of the iceberg here. I think this will become a very standard UI paradigm. That's the reason why I mentioned it, not because I am pre-declaring them to be the winner in the space, but just because I think there's a lot of talk about agents and I think it's hard to conceptualize what that means without just seeing it visually.
I don't know where this is coming from. I don't even think we're at the peak yet.
I don't know where this is coming from. I don't even think we're at the peak yet.
Look, I would separate change management issues, which are always going to be important and there's always going to be big ones whenever there's a big disruption, especially in enterprise and especially around compliance and legal and all that kind of stuff. I would separate that from the impact of the underlying technology trend.
Look, I would separate change management issues, which are always going to be important and there's always going to be big ones whenever there's a big disruption, especially in enterprise and especially around compliance and legal and all that kind of stuff. I would separate that from the impact of the underlying technology trend.