Manus debuts Manus 2.0, its latest AI agent, and Cue, a new standalone app for personal agents, each with its own email, phone number, wallet, and computer
Manus, an artificial intelligence startup founded in China, is expanding its AI agent offerings, aiming to gain further ground in one of the tech industry's hottest areas.
Context & Ripple Effects
Manus had already been extending its agent beyond a browser-style service: My Computer connected the agent to local files, tools and applications in March, while August's Wide Research feature split high-volume work across dozens of agents for Pro users. Cue packages that trajectory into a separate personal-agent product with persistent communications, payment and computing endpoints.
The move also broadens Manus’s addressable use case beyond task execution toward an agent that can maintain its own operational presence. That matters in a market where distribution is increasingly tied to the interface through which users delegate work.
First-order effects
- Manus users gain Cue as a standalone personal-agent app, with a distinct email address, phone number, wallet and computer for the agent rather than only the core Manus service.
- Manus expands its product surface from agent-assisted work on a user’s local machine to a separately provisioned agent identity and workspace.
Second-order effects
- Meta’s Muse, identified in coverage as a competing personal-agent offering, faces a more explicit Manus pitch around giving agents dedicated tools and contact channels.
- Manus’s existing subscription packaging, including its $39 Starter and $199 Pro tiers, will need to explain how access to a standalone personal agent relates to its broader agent and research products.
Third-order effects
- If users adopt agents with persistent contact, payment and computing identities, competition shifts from discrete task completion toward control of the agentic work surface where delegation begins and is managed.
- Dedicated agent identities would make distribution and trust controls central competitive assets, as platforms seek to become the default interface between users and autonomous software.
The trend: AI-agent products are moving from single-session assistants toward persistent, separately provisioned work identities that can act across users’ tools and channels.