包括 OpenAI 和 Cognition AI Inc. 在内的几家增长最快的科技公司的一些前员工，正在创办一家新公司，旨在开发能够协助企业运营的 AI 智能体，从而加入这个利用该技术简化工作流程的拥挤服务市场。Hone 计划于周四宣布，该公司已完成 6000 万美元的种子轮融资，用于开发能够充当专业员工的 AI 智能体，这些智能体可以持续处理耗时数周甚至数月的任务。据 Hone 称，Benchmark 和 Index Ventures 领投了此次融资，公司目前的估值已达 2.85 亿美元。
A group of former employees from some of the fastest-growing artificial intelligence firms, including OpenAI and Cognition AI Inc., are starting a new company to create AI agents that can help run a business, joining a crowded field of services using the technology to streamline work. Hone is set to announce Thursday that it has raised a $60 million seed round to develop AI agents that essentially serve as professional staffers, fielding long-running tasks over the course of weeks or even months. Benchmark and Index Ventures led the financing, and the company is now valued at $285 million, according to Hone.
Hone 的首席执行官 Moritz Stephan 表示：“我们正在构建能够自主实现结果的 AI。”Stephan 此前是 AI 编程初创公司 Cognition 的首席运营官。Hone 的技术旨在“分析团队的工作内容、目标与职责，并部署相应的引擎来自主承担这些任务”，同时根据需要与人类进行确认。
“What we are doing is building AI that owns outcomes,” said Moritz Stephan, chief executive officer of Hone and a former chief of staff at AI coding startup Cognition. Hone’s technology is meant to “look at what a team does, its goals and responsibilities, and deploy engines to own these,” while checking in with a human as needed.
越来越多的公司正在向企业销售 AI 软件，声称能够自动化复杂工作，包括编程和客户服务等领域。而 Hone 的雄心则是利用 AI 对生产力和企业运营产生更广泛的影响。例如，与其开发一款帮助销售团队评估潜在客户线索价值的软件，Hone 认为它可以直接创建一个所谓的“引擎”，以自主且主动的方式完成这项工作。这家初创公司成立至今仅五个月。
A growing number of companies are selling AI software to businesses that promise to automate complex work, including in coding and customer service. Hone’s ambition is to use AI to have a broader impact on productivity and business operations. For example, instead of building software that can help a sales team gauge the promise of potential leads, Hone believes it can create what it calls an “engine” to do that work autonomously and proactively. The startup is five months old.
Index Ventures 的合伙人 Shardul Shah 同时也是 Hone 董事会的新成员，他表示：“针对特定行业的专项解决方案将会出现，并创造巨大的价值。”
“There will be point solutions for particular industries and create a lot of value,” said Shardul Shah, a partner at Index who is also joining the board of Hone.
“Cognition 之于软件开发，Hone 则之于组织中的任何其他职能。”基准合作伙伴 Peter Fenton 表示，他也将加入 Hone 的董事会。他说，这家初创公司正在开发防护机制，以保护客户免受其智能体可能引发的任何网络安全事件的影响。近期一系列 AI 工具失控的安全漏洞事件，使这一问题尤为引人关注。他表示，随着技术的发展，这些技术需要“适当的免疫系统”。
“What Cognition is to software development, Hone can be to every other function in an organization.”Benchmark partner Peter Fenton, who is also joining Hone’s board, said the startup is working on guardrails to protect customers from any potential cybersecurity incidents involving its agents, a concern following a recent series of security breaches involving AI tools going rogue. As technologies evolve, he said, they need “appropriate immune systems.”
Hone 的早期客户包括 Cognition 和 AI 推理初创公司 Modal。与 Cognition 的合作将专注于构建智能体，以协助该公司进行市场拓展，而 Cognition 的业务也在迅速增长。Cognition 首席执行官 Scott Wu 同时也是 Hone 的个人投资者。
Early Hone customers include Cognition and AI inference startup Modal. The work with Cognition will focus on building agents that help the company with its go-to-market efforts, as Cognition rapidly grows its business. Cognition CEO Scott Wu is also a personal investor in Hone.