Narada AI's Enterprise Agent Automates Workplace Tasks Using Familiar Tools

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Table of Contents

Introduction

In recent years, there has been a surge of startups attempting to create enterprise AI assistants. However, what’s less common is an AI assistant that can execute tasks across several work apps at once. This is where Narada AI comes in – a startup building an AI assistant based on new research out of UC Berkeley.

The Promise of Narada AI

Narada has been operating in stealth mode for two years and made its public debut onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield 20 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Two of its co-founders, Kurt Keutzer and Amir Gholami, co-authored a paper earlier this year on ‘LLM Compilers,’ which are AI systems that perform multiple functions simultaneously.

The Secret Sauce: LLM Compiler and Web Redemption

The startup’s co-founder and CEO, Dave Park, says his team used this as a basis to build a custom AI model that can use productivity tools. Park, a Stanford computer science PhD who spent 24 years working in enterprise sales, believes the LLM Compiler and Narada’s ability to use websites without APIs is the company’s ‘secret sauce’ to winning the enterprise agent race.

How Narada AI Works

In practice, I found the assistant was successfully able to execute a few different tasks using generative AI through various work apps, ultimately saving me time and effort. The tool at times felt like using a shortcut for mundane tasks, which is more than I can say for a lot of AI tools today.

Concerns Over Data Access

One thing that made me slightly uncomfortable was how much access I had to give this AI assistant. Narada can read all of my emails, it can see my entire calendar, and it knows my full contact lists. Like any ‘smart assistant’ or helper app like this, you have to trust not just the tech, but the company itself – that Narada won’t abuse your data, or your company’s data.

Funding and Future Plans

Narada says it’s raised a few million dollars from a few advisers it has brought on, but the CEO says they’re now looking to raise more from traditional VCs. Demo of Narada AI.

Conclusion

AI agents could birth the first one-person unicorn – but at what societal cost? As we move forward in this rapidly changing landscape, it’s essential to consider the potential risks and benefits of such technology.

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