OpenAI Dots Took Over Our Company

By Every

Categories: Startup, Product, AI

Summary

OpenAI's persistent Dots agents are reshaping workplace productivity by filtering noise and enabling hands-free work—but permission structures remain broken. Every built a company agent after discovering personal agents' value, now launching it to subscribers as the likely default way teams will interact with AI within a year.

Key Takeaways

  1. Dots excel at selective information filtering: one user monitored Slack responses to model testing without getting pulled into the full channel rabbit hole, keeping weekends clear while staying informed.
  2. Real-world use cases emerging: school email summaries, Slack access request notifications, and hands-free video editing direction prove agents handle interruptible async work across teams.
  3. Evolution trajectory: personal agents (8-9 months ago with ChatGPT plugins) evolved to company agents at Every, which proved so valuable they're now productizing it for external subscribers.
  4. Critical friction point: permission structures are 'completely a mystery' and require multiple approvals even after authorization granted—this UX debt must be solved before mainstream adoption.
  5. Cute character personalization is a short-term pattern: builder predicts persistent agents will become default UI within 1 year, but individual agent personas (like his 'Boo') will be discarded when better versions emerge.

Related topics

Transcript Excerpt

The hot thing right now is Dots. They're persistent agents from OpenAI. I was there at Dev Day when they launched them. I interviewed Sam about them and I've been using Dots since before they came out. And now we're into week two of DOTS. So, how's it going? If you read my vibe check, you know that I thought they were a little bit rough to begin with, but that the idea of a persistent proactive agent was obviously the future. Even before DOT's launch, they'd become my main way of interacting with CHPT and they're still that way after launch. I'm really excited about the little things they've been doing to make the experience less buggy and more complete and I think it'll get even better over the next couple weeks. What's been really interesting though is seeing the team at every we've got …

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