After OpenClaw, a Wild, Weird Age of Consumer Agents Lies Ahead

Until recently, agentic AI, where AIs can take virtual actions and control computers, seemed like an esoteric technology that wasn’t close to going mainstream—at least for use at home on tasks like checking into flights, responding to emails and controlling smart devices. Then OpenClaw, an open-source personal AI assistant, went viral a week ago, showing how technically savvy people could construct powerful AI agents relatively quickly and cheaply.

All of a sudden, the age of AI agents truly seems to have arrived, and OpenClaw represents just one aspect of it: Much of Silicon Valley has spent the last week obsessing over everything and anything connected to personal and consumer agents. The level of exuberance has added a new dimension to the industry’s obsession with AI—and has birthed something like a mania within a mania.

OpenClaw’s success has lit a fire under competing companies developing personal AI agents. Jo, a two-year-old Bay Area startup, has been developing a product similar to OpenClaw that uses small open-source models on a user’s computer. “After OpenClaw launched, we were like, ‘OK, we need to accelerate our launch now,’” said Kevin Li, Jo’s chief marketing officer. The company recorded a launch video on Thursday and plans to release it in the next couple weeks.