What we saw in the past three months. And what we see in the future.
Thursday, June 26
Product
Three months ago, we launched Manus with a clear mission: to create an autonomous AI agent that could handle any computer-based task. What followed exceeded our wildest expectations and kickstarted the agentic AI era.
What has amazed us isn’t just the adoption rate of Manus, but the creative ingenuity of our users. Teachers have built interactive lesson plans with custom graphics. Small business owners have automated their entire content creation pipelines. Researchers have synthesized literature across multiple languages and disciplines. Students have crafted portfolio websites that showcase their work in extraordinary ways.
We're witnessing a fundamental shift in how humans and AI collaborate, moving beyond simple chat interaction to true task delegation and outcome-focused partnership.
Growing Pains
Success brought clarity to our challenges.
Despite our capabilities, we discovered that many users didn't know what type of complex task they should assign to Manus. The paradox of infinite possibility created unexpected friction. When faced with a tool that can do anything, users can struggle to decide what to ask first.
Early implementation was also costly and slow. The computational resources required for truly autonomous task completion meant longer wait times and higher costs than users expected, creating barriers to regular usage and experimentation.
How We Approached and Solved These Challenges
We responded with three key innovations to improve the user experience.
First, we introduced Chat Mode for more efficient daily tasks. The conversational approach and familiar interface make it easier to clarify requirements, iterate on ideas, and build confidence in how best to use Manus.
Second, we developed comprehensive Playbooks for new users to get started. These curated collections of templates, examples, and best practices provide proven frameworks for common scenarios. Instead of facing a blank canvas, users now have structured pathways to success.
Third, we achieved dramatic performance improvements. Over the past three months, we’ve increased speeds 2x and brought costs down 5x through architectural enhancements and infrastructure optimization.
Real-World Applications
Clear patterns have emerged in how users integrate Manus into their workflows.
Research has become one of our strongest use cases, with users leveraging Manus for both deep research projects and systematic information gathering. Whether reviewing academic literature or conducting market analysis, users achieve comprehensive results in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take.
We’ve seen users deploy Manus to make step-changes in other ways, too.
•Website building has democratized digital presence creation. Users without technical backgrounds can now successfully create professional-quality sites with integrated functionality.
•Creating slides has moved from a time-consuming chore to an efficient - even enjoyable! - task.
•Image and video generation has opened new creative possibilities, enabling users to produce professional-quality content for business, education, and artistic purposes.
•Data visualization has become accessible to non-technical users, supporting better decision-making through clear, compelling charts and dashboards.
Trends Informing Where We Go Next
Three major trends inform our current roadmap.
First, information gathering is a universal need for knowledge workers. We're developing Scheduled Tasks for recurring research, Wide Research capabilities that span diverse sources, Omni Search that understands intent and context, and access to more specialized domain data sources.
Second, people deal with different file formats every day in their work. We're expanding our capabilities for Slides with advanced templates and interactivity, Image & Video & Audio generation for diverse creative needs, and Report creation that automates documentation while maintaining quality and consistency.
Third, people navigate between multiple apps all the time. We're integrating into more daily working apps to streamline workflows, including Email management and composition, Calendar preparation and follow-up, Drive organization and File management, and Task management coordination across projects and teams.
An AI-Powered Future
Manus is becoming better and more useful all the time. Our vision is for Manus to become an invaluable part of our users’ lives, augmenting their capabilities and amplifying the impact of their work. This will take shape in three important ways.
•Every time someone wants to figure something out or gather information to make a decision, they’ll turn to Manus. We're becoming the default starting point for any information need, combining speed, comprehensiveness, security, and reliability.
•Most daily working files and documents will be co-generated with Manus. This isn't about replacing human creativity. It's about amplifying our capabilities through intelligent collaboration. Users will maintain strategic control while benefiting from AI-driven efficiency across research, design, writing, and analysis.
•Ultimately, Manus becomes a third hand: a seamless extension of human capabilities that anticipates needs, understands context, and proactively supports goals.
We believe this is the future of human-AI collaboration: powerful, intuitive, and perfectly aligned with the way people actually work.
-- Written by Manus Team, June 26th 2025
Less structure, more intelligence.