We’re Building a Machine Learning Model that can Interact with Everything on Your Computer: David Luan of Adept

Adept is an AI company empowering knowledge workers with an AI teammate that can execute complex software workflows via a natural language interface. 

Adept’s goal for developing capable AI systems is to unlock human potential and creativity at scale. In today’s generative AI landscape, the main focus has been on tools to create and manipulate text and images. Meanwhile, many industry participants are developing general-purpose foundation model capabilities with a focus that is primarily research-driven. Adept believes in developing responsible, human-centered AI systems to create a future in which people drive collaboration with machines.

Adept’s long-term ambition is to build an AI teammate, trained to use every software tool and API — for every knowledge worker. Adept’s flagship foundation model, ACT-1, is differentiated from existing generative AI tools because it is able to interpret high-level, natural language user requests on software tools, and perform tasks for them directly. As such, Adept is building products that work hand-in-hand with the user, interfacing with the same tools they use. This ability fosters a collaborative, empowering, and user-centered experience and propels the generative AI frontier forward.

Adept is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Funding & Partnerships

In March last year, Adept raised $350 million in new capital as part of its Series B financing led by General Catalyst and co-led by Spark Capital. This funding, which follows Adept’s $65M Series A in early 2022, will support Adept’s productization, model training, and headcount growth. The capital will further Adept’s vision of a computing future defined by natural language interfaces that enable humans to work more efficiently and productively.

“Giant foundation models for language and for images have shown astounding capabilities in the last few years. Adept is building on this momentum via a new kind of foundation model that can perform actions on any software tool using natural language,” said co-founder and CEO David Luan. “We are pleased to partner with General Catalyst, Spark Capital, and our other investors, and believe this investment validates our human-centered approach to general intelligence. With this funding, Adept will work toward building the most useful AI teammate that enables end users to do anything they can put into words — improving productivity and letting anyone do what formerly only experts can do.”

“Adept’s human-centered approach to building AI products aligns with GC’s Responsible Innovation ethos,” said Deep Nishar, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “Its founding team possesses a depth of expertise to deliver a commercial product that pushes the generative AI frontier beyond text and image modalities into the practical realm of knowledge worker actions. Excitingly, ACT-1 has the potential to lower the barrier to entry within the enterprise workforce and thus may yield greater inclusive prosperity. We look forward to seeing Adept work toward its mission to define a generative AI category that empowers knowledge workers and shapes the future of responsible AI.”

“Adept’s goal to enable people to interact with their computers via a natural language interface aligns perfectly with Spark’s vision to support companies that will transform the way that people use technology,” said Nabeel Hyatt, General Partner at Spark Capital. “We see enormous potential for Adept’s tools to help everyone, and especially knowledge workers, immediately improve their capabilities on the software tools they use every day. We’ve seen tremendous progress in the text and image generation spaces in the past year, but we believe that Adept’s action generation capabilities will push AI’s frontier even further. We look forward to continuing to support Adept as it launches its initial products and delivers a new way of using computers.”

“Workday’s vision to use AI and ML to elevate human capabilities and make finance and HR more intelligent is well aligned with Adept’s endeavor to empower knowledge workers through responsible AI,” said Michael Magaro, senior vice president of corporate growth, Workday Ventures. “Workday Ventures is focused on investing in innovative software companies that drive the AI evolution forward, and we are excited to see Adept progress in their mission to build human-centered AI that has the potential to improve employee experiences.”