The first time Claire Vaux tried OpenClaw, her family’s calendar was ruined.
The AI startup’s founders currently operate nine AI “employees” on dozens of computers, automating parts of their business and daily life.
Vo said on Sunday’s episode of Lenny’s Podcast that he went from being a skeptic to an Open Crow believer.
“I get into the anti-hype cycle sometimes,” she said. “I never thought I would be able to say this in January. My life has changed.”
“I am now a die-hard OpenClaw fellow,” she added.
Vo said he initially used OpenClaw as a kind of executive assistant to handle scheduling, email and day-to-day coordination.
She has since expanded to a team of nine OpenClaw agents. Some people are dedicated to her business, such as a salesperson or business operations manager, while others are dedicated to her personal life, such as a family assistant who takes care of the household chores or a child education agent.
“It’s not just a tool that does the work for me. It’s a team that helps me look better to my customers and helps me look more authentic to my family,” she said.
Vo said last year he was paying someone about 10 hours a week to manage the customer relationship management system and draft customer emails. That task is currently being handled by one of the AI agents.
“This has real economic value to me and it cuts back in real time,” she added.
Still, the startup’s founder said she is aware of the risks, such as an agent deleting files from her computer or knowing where her children attend school.
Vo said they manage this through a “progressive trust process,” gradually granting OpenClaw agents access over time. It starts with accessing your calendar, then email visibility, then drafting and sending emails, and finally taking on more autonomous tasks.
OpenClaw Hype
Technology leaders are fully committed to autonomous agents like OpenClaw.
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI in February to work on what Sam Altman calls “the next generation” of personal AI agents.
Altman said in a February X post that OpenAI expects personal AI agents to “soon become a core part of our product offering.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last month that every company needs to have its own “OpenClaw strategy.”
“OpenClaw allows us to create personal agents,” he said. “The meaning is incredible.”
To address security concerns, Huang said in March that Nvidia created a version of OpenClaw called NemoClaw that allows users to “add privacy and security controls” to their AI agents.
Still, some technology leaders are speaking out about the risks posed by OpenClaw.
Summer Yue, Meta’s AI alignment director, said in a February post to X that her OpenClaw had gotten out of control and she deleted the email despite multiple attempts to stop it.
“I couldn’t stop it from my phone,” Yue wrote in the post. “I had to run towards the Mac mini like I was defusing a bomb.”