Patrick Thompson: Always-on AI Agents from Town, Instinct, Dots and Clarify Demand New Product Design

Patrick Thompson argues that a new wave of persistent, proactive “always-on” AI agents — offered by startups like Town, Instinct, Dots, and soon Clarify — change user expectations by remembering context, observing activity over time, and proactively reaching out, which has important product design implications for availability, context needs, and how agents interact with software.