Blink and you could miss the launch of the latest artificial intelligence initiative.
Manus, Latin for hand, is described as a general AI agent and has already demonstrated its ability to put together a complex travel itinerary as it created a seven-day trip from Seattle to Japan.
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The prompt for the China-based AI agent, which is in early preview, asks for a detailed itinerary as well as a handbook including maps, attraction descriptions, some essential Japanese phrases and travel tips.
The AI, built by Butterly Effect, then browses a number of travel sites including Tripadvisor, Cityunscripted and Japan-Guide to gather the information and surface the itinerary and handbook.
In a video on the Manus website, Yichao Ji, the company’s co-founder and chief scientist, said it has been a year in development and described it as “the next evolution in AI.”
“This isn’t just another chatbot or workflow. It’s a truly autonomous agent that bridges the gap between conception and execution. While other AI stops at generating ideas, Manus delivers results,” he said.
Discussing the launch on LinkedIn, Mario Gavira, vice president of growth and brand at Kiwi.com and an angel investor, said the potential for AI agents to upend the travel industry “might literally be around the corner.”
He also posed whether Manus would be able to get around bots as well as whether it would search and book for customers on any travel website.
Manus' launch last week attracted huge attention with an article in Forbes saying it changes everything and describing it as “the world’s first fully autonomous agent” for its ability to carry out tasks independently.
However, a Techcrunch article is less positive about the initiative pointing out some areas where it falls down.
The unveiling of Manus may have overshadowed the launch of Alibaba’s latest AI model which the company claims is better than OpenAI and DeepSeek.
The debut of OpenAI’s Operator in late January drew similar attention especially as it can search and complete transactions. The launch also piqued interest for the big travel brands named as partners including Booking.com, Hipcamp, Priceline, Tripadvisor and Uber.