It's been a busy start to fall for AI (and for us). The frontier companies are releasing new models every two weeks, alongside ever-concerning news about how AI could one day end humanity.
But today, we want to tell you why we're going all in on personal assistants and bringing the Unprompted Assistant to market, built specifically for businesses that rely on front desk staff.
Quick plug before we get into it: you can ask us our thoughts on AI ending humanity at our Wine and Whine meetup this Wednesday in Brooklyn. For now, we'll spare you and skip straight to the fun stuff.
Let us buy you a drink. RSVP here.
Let’s get into it.
The Rise of the AI Personal Assistant
In February, an engineer named Peter Steinberger released an open source framework called OpenClaw. The breakthrough wasn't a new model, it was that he equipped the model the way you'd onboard a new teammate.
He gave his agent a computer, tools, and context, and the AI personal assistant was born.
The idea is simple: you text it from your phone, and it takes actions for you like answering emails, ordering food, and booking flights.
Since August, personal assistants have become the battleground for frontier labs and startups alike: ChatGPT, Claude, GrokBot, Muse from Meta (here's Alexandr Wang's essay on why he's building it), Eve from Vercel, SlackBot, Instinct (currently raising $1B at a $10B valuation), Hermes, OpenClaw itself, and the list keeps going (Towns, Lindy, HeyClicky, Polsia…)
Transforming Your Assistant From Intern to Employee
Here’s what no one is admitting: AI Assistants are still interns. Though they are exceptionally intelligent, without you constantly teaching them what to do and giving feedback on every action, they're useless. Sometimes it feels like it'd be faster to just do it yourself.
Our goal in focusing on building the Unprompted Assistant is to nurture that intern into a full-functioning employee. One that is proactive, anticipates your needs, takes work off your plate, and unlocks new revenue opportunities.
To be clear: we're not building our own agent to compete in the race with the heavy hitters. We're focusing on how a personal assistant can plug into very specific business roles with a clear job function (like front desk staff) to make operations more efficient and drive incremental revenue.
Think of it as cloning yourself to oversee your staff:
Syncs with your booking or scheduling system
Understands your customer list like a network of friends
Reminds and updates staff about important events throughout the day
Plans programming and initiates invitations to drive revenue
Tracks tasks to keep the team executing
The Unprompted Assistant also plugs into ChatGPT and Claude, where we provide custom setups and workflows.
Your Unprompted Assistant is extremely type A, matter of fact, and no-nonsense.
For those following closely, we've been piloting the Unprompted Assistant with multi-sport racket clubs across the country for the last three months. After working first-hand with these businesses, we see the personal assistant future.
A few asks for our loyal followers:
If you know someone who runs a club, gym, studio, or business with a front desk and needs help, let us know.
If you've personally had an underwhelming customer experience at a club or gym, reach out and tell us — these stories help us build better solutions.
Stay curious,
Julia & Russell
