Wabi is a AI startup that initially allowed anyone to build applications using prompts. With the growing demand for AI intelligents such as Muse and Instinct from Meta, the company is undergoing a minor shift in its approach.
The company announced this week that Wabi is now transforming into some kind of AI messaging app, but it is still capable of creating applications to help users complete tasks.
The founder of this startup, Eugenia Kuyda, has previously founded a companion-based startup called Replika. She refers to this new experience as Wabi 2.0 and describes it as a “personal intelligence agent that will do things for you and build the interfaces you need in the present moment.”
This is similar to the value proposition provided by the initial version of Wabi, but users interact with it in a different way. Wabi 2.0 no longer competes mainly with other vibe-coding tools, but rather competes more directly with those AI intelligents that combine dialogue and productivity tasks into a single interface.
This also occurred at a time when companies such as OpenAI began to consider how applications could function within more general chatbot interfaces. For example, OpenAI announced today on Dev Day an update to the ChatGPT plugin functionality, allowing applications to provide an interactive experience within ChatGPT, and making the application names more prominently visible in the ChatGPT sidebar.
In a post on X, Kuyda explained that the new experience offered by Wabi would be more reasonable for consumers, as what users want to do is not just type at intelligent agents.
"The more you use chat-only intelligent agents, the worse the experience becomes. Your history and ongoing tasks will eventually be buried in an endless scroll. People don't just want to type, type, type; they also want to click, swipe, and look around. They like what intelligent agents can do, but they also like software," she wrote. "The most powerful intelligent agent will be the one that combines both."
The idea is that when a user requests an agent to perform a certain task, it can create a user interface as needed to assist in completing that request. For example, Kuyda suggests that users could build a calorie tracker, a weightlifting recorder, and a weight tracking tool, all of which could be accessed within her series of posts on health-related topics.
In another series of topics focused on families, users can create child activity calendars, language learning apps, follow applications for local children's activities, as well as other tools related to parenting, household management, or children's interests.
"So far, personal agents have always been a single person, a single chat window, and a series of one-time tasks. We believe that in the future, your agent, your applications, and your interpersonal relationships will all be in one place, jointly playing a crucial role in your life," writes Kuyda.
Currently, the new Wabi 2.0 application can only be used with invitation codes, which will also be distributed on X.
