Manus AI Agent: Viral Launch and Innovation Lessons
Manus AI Agent: Viral Launch and Innovation Lessons
Chinese startup Monica introduced on March 6, 2025, an AI agent called Manus that performs complex tasks autonomously without continuous guidance. The release quickly gathered massive media attention and was discussed as the next DeepSeek phenomenon. The hype has already subsided and doubts have emerged about Manus's reliability and data security, particularly due to its Chinese background.
However, Manus has highlighted three things:
1. Excellently executed viral launch: The launch effectively utilized influencers and restricted access to the service. Initially, only a select group of users could access the service, creating a sense of exclusivity and increasing interest. This strategy led to invitation codes being sold for thousands of dollars on resale sites. Impressive demo videos released during the launch spread rapidly on social media, further strengthening the positive visibility around the service.
2. Advancement in autonomous agents: Manus's autonomous agent functions appear more advanced than competitors and can perform complex, multi-step operations independently without continuous user guidance. Unlike many previous agents that required constant user interaction and instruction, Manus can deduce the next necessary actions and execute them without interruption. Manus can perform practical tasks such as analyzing stock trends, gathering information from the web, and even creating interactive websites. This broad applicability makes it a useful tool for many industries.
3. Innovation by combining ready technologies: Perhaps most interesting, however, is that Manus is built from existing components, such as Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Alibaba's Qwen models, as well as integrations with several third-party tools. This combination of components, their effective control, and a clear user interface from the user's perspective make the service an efficient AI agent. It's not so much about a technological breakthrough, but about functional and creative combination of ready components in an advanced way.
In the current stage of AI development, it seems that the most significant advances may not come from new algorithms or larger models, but from how existing elements are arranged into functional wholes.
From an organizational perspective, Manus shows how current AI resources can be combined to produce added value without needing to wait for the next breakthrough.
How could AI technologies in use in your organization be combined in a new, value-creating way?
#AIAgents #BusinessAutomation #AIInnovations
Marko Paananen
Strategic AI consultant and digital business development expert with 20+ years of experience. Helps companies turn AI potential into measurable business value.
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