Just weeks after DeepSeek made headlines with its cost-effective reasoning capabilities, China quietly unveiled a general-purpose AI agent: Manus AI—and within 72 hours, it attracted over 180,000 users, including developers, researchers, and early-stage startups. Created by the emerging startup Monica, Manus AI is more than just a chatbot or a text generator. It is an autonomous agent built to execute complete tasks that traditionally require hours of human effort.
From generating investor reports and reviewing legal contracts to creating interactive dashboards and compiling research summaries, Manus AI executes entire workflows rather than isolated responses. In benchmark tests like GAIA, it outperformed its competitors on multi-step tasks, particularly excelling in complex reasoning and data analysis .
This blog examines what sets Manus AI apart from models like GPT-4 and Claude and explores what its rapid adoption indicates about China’s rising influence in the global AI arena.
What Is Manus AI? Manus AI was developed by the Chinese startup Monica, founded by Xiao Hong, also known as “Red.” Xiao Hong. Manus is a general AI agent designed to bridge the gap between intention and execution, transforming users’ ideas into tangible outcomes. Excelling in a variety of tasks across both professional and personal domains, Manus aims to handle your to-do list while you take a break.
The name “Manus” is derived from the Latin word for “hand,” symbolizing its role in extending human capability by acting as an autonomous assistant. The company emphasizes a philosophy of “less structure, more intelligence,” highlighting Manus’s ability to adapt and perform tasks without rigid framework.
Who Is Manus AI Built For? Manus AI is designed to serve a diverse range of users by autonomously executing tasks across various domains. Below is a structured overview of its target audiences:
1. Professionals and Businesses Business Analysts and Financial Professionals: Manus AI can perform in-depth stock analysis, market research, and data interpretation, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making. Content Creators and Marketers: The AI assists in generating content, developing marketing strategies, and automating routine tasks, thereby enhancing productivity and creativity. Software Developers: Manus AI aids in code generation, debugging, and automating repetitive programming tasks, streamlining the development process. 2. Students and Researchers Students: The AI supports learning by creating interactive courses, explaining complex concepts, and assisting with research projects, making education more accessible. Educators: Manus AI helps in designing curricula, preparing teaching materials, and developing innovative educational content to enhance the learning experience. Academic and Industry Researchers: The AI assists in conducting literature reviews, summarizing research papers, and managing data , facilitating efficient and comprehensive research activities. 3. Entrepreneurs and General Public: SMEs : Manus AI aids in supplier sourcing, market analysis, and business planning, providing support for strategic decision-making and operational efficiency. Individuals Seeking Personal Assistance: Manus AI can plan travel itineraries, manage schedules, and perform various personal tasks, acting as a virtual assistant to simplify daily life. Partner with Kanerika for Expert AI implementation Services
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Manus AI: Model Capabilities & Access Model Architecture and Parameters Manus operates as a multi-agent system , integrating several distinct models to perform a variety of tasks. The specific language models utilized by Manus have not been officially disclosed. However, some experts speculate that its development involved models such as Claude from Anthropic and Qwen, developed by Alibaba.
Performance and Benchmarks In evaluations using the GAIA benchmark, Manus AI has reportedly achieved state-of-the-art performance, surpassing leading AI models such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Microsoft’s AI systems. However, some users have reported errors, or the system freezes during intricate queries, indicating areas for improvement.
API Access and Commercial Use As of now, access to Manus AI requires an invitation, and there is a significant waiting list of 2 million users pending further rollout. Details regarding API access, open weights, and terms for commercial use have not been publicly disclosed.
How Manus AI Is Being Used Across Different Domains Manus AI is designed as a general-purpose AI agent capable of delivering actionable outputs across a wide range of domains. From academic research to productivity enhancement, its use cases show the system’s flexibility and reliability in real-world tasks.
1. Research Manus AI supports researchers by streamlining data collection, summarizing information, and generating structured reports. It simplifies complex tasks that typically require significant manual effort, turning open-ended queries into concise, usable outputs.
Use Case 1: Industry Research on AI Tools for Fashion
Manus was asked to research AI tools related to search functionality in the clothing industry. The AI delivered a detailed comparative analysis of tools with descriptions, strengths, and relevance to fashion e-commerce.
Use Case 2: Database Extraction from YC W25 Batch
A user requested a filtered list of B2B companies from Y Combinator’s W25 batch. Manus compiled a clean, structured table containing company names, descriptions, and relevant tags. Source: Manus AI
2. Life In the “Life” category, Manus assists users with planning, organization, and task management—transforming vague personal requests into detailed action plans.
Use Case 1: Personalized Travel Plan for Japan
A user asked for a full travel itinerary to Japan. Manus returned a custom, day-wise plan including destinations, travel tips, and even exported it into a downloadable handbook. Source: Manus AI
Use Case 2: Daily Schedule Planning
Manus helped a user plan out their day with structured task breakdowns. The result was an organized schedule, adapted to the user’s goals. 3. Data Analysis Manus AI is capable of turning raw data into insights, charts, and dashboards. It supports both financial and operational decision-making by extracting meaning from large datasets.
Use Case 1: Tesla Stock Analysis
A user prompted Manus to analyze Tesla’s stock data. Manus created an interactive dashboard featuring key trends, performance graphs, and analytical insights.
Use Case 2: Amazon Sales Report Breakdown
Manus generated a clean visual report showing sales trends, bestsellers, and strategic takeaways. Source: Manus AI
4. Education Manus supports educators and students by transforming topics into structured learning materials. It helps break down complex concepts into digestible content that is ready for presentation or instruction.
Use Case 1: Teaching Momentum Theorem
Manus was prompted to explain the Momentum Theorem to middle school students. It produced a clear explanation along with a script for a teaching video and diagrams for visualization. Source: Manus AI
Use Case 2: Learning Guide on Quantum Computing
A user asked for a learning plan on quantum computing. Manus responded with a detailed breakdown of topics, sequence, and recommended reading. 5. Productivity Manus AI is built not just to assist with minor tasks but to carry out full-scale business processes—quickly, accurately, and without constant supervision. Below are real productivity-focused use cases that showcase Manus acting like an intelligent operations assistant.
Use Case 1: Candidate Interview Schedule
A recruiter needed to organize interview slots for 40 candidates across multiple roles. Manus created a detailed interview schedule, allocating slots while avoiding overlaps, and optimizing for both candidate and interviewer availability. The result was a ready-to-use document, saving hours of manual planning. Source: Manus AI
Use Case 2: Website SEO Optimization
A user submitted a URL and asked Manus to conduct an SEO review. Manus responded with a comprehensive SEO audit, identifying issues with metadata , headings, content readability, mobile responsiveness, and more. It included improvement recommendations backed by current SEO best practices. How Users and Experts Are Responding to Manus AI Since its launch, Manus AI has sparked attention both inside China and globally. The response has been a mix of curiosity, praise, experimentation, and caution.
From casual users submitting open-ended tasks to critical reviews from leading AI publications, Manus is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the more versatile general AI agents to watch—despite growing pains along the way.
Real-World Submissions: The Range of What Users Are Asking Manus to Do Source: Manus AI
Users from around the world are sharing their task prompts on the Manus platform—ranging from academic research to writing assistance. This shows the broad interest and wide applicability of the system. Some examples include:
1. Academic Content Creation
Prompt : “Please help me create a table of the best books about media and linguistics published in France between 2019 and 2025, with summaries and Dewey categories.” Insight : Manus handled this task by compiling a categorized, structured output with summaries—demonstrating its ability to assist in educational and bibliographic research.
2. Industry Reports and Market Intelligence
Prompt : “Find the largest real estate brokerages in the top 10 metro areas, including agent count, transaction volume, revenue.” Insight : This showcases its use in business research and comparative industry analysis—generating reports like what analysts might produce. RAG vs LLM? Understanding the Unique Capabilities and Limitations of Each Approach Explore the key differences between RAG and LLM, understand how to choose AI models that best align with your specific needs.
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3. Historical and Technical Research
Prompt : “Do research on how fire control technologies helped the U.S. Pacific Fleet during WWII.” Insight : Manus navigated open sources to compile a historical narrative with technical elements—something that requires both web research and content synthesis.
4. Content Marketing
Prompt : “How to generate a blog that passes Google AI content tests and ranks well in SEO?” Insight : This reflects interest from marketers and creators who want Manus to act as a writing assistant with awareness of platform standards.
These publicly visible tasks highlight how Manus is being used beyond just general chat—it’s taking on structured, specific, and work-oriented tasks, often producing near-publishable results.
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Industry Insight : MIT Technology Review’s Manus AI The MIT Technology Review tested Manus across three assignments to assess its actual performance versus the hype. Here are the key takeaways from their March 2025 review:
Strengths Observed
High adaptability : Manus was able to revise and improve outputs based on feedback, like how a junior analyst or intern would iterate. Clear reasoning : It explained its logic when asked and showed transparency in decision-making. Autonomy : It could break down complex tasks into steps and execute research-driven goals without constant prompting.
Notable Limitations
Access issues : Manus frequently hit captchas and paywalls when trying to access news articles or academic content. System stability : Testers reported service outages, lag, and incomplete outputs under load. Time-consuming : Manus took significantly longer than tools like ChatGPT Deep Research to complete certain tasks, especially when handling large-scope queries.
MIT Tech Review described Manus as “a highly intuitive intern,” particularly strong for structured, open-web tasks—but not yet reliable enough for heavy workloads or large-scale academic research without supervision.
Marketing Impact: Why Everyone Is Talking About Manus Over 186,000 users joined Manus’s Discord channel within days of launch. Influential figures like Jack Dorsey and Hugging Face’s Victor Mustar publicly endorsed its potential. The platform’s design mimics successful UIs (like ChatGPT), making it familiar to new users. Its emphasis on open-sourcing models and agent-based actions makes it more than a chatbot—it’s a framework others can build on.
How Manus AI Stands Among Global AI Models China is rapidly expanding its role in the global AI ecosystem, not just in scale, but in capability. Manus AI is a standout example of this shift—positioned as a general-purpose agent capable of autonomous work execution.
This section looks at how Manus compares with other Chinese models like DeepSeek, as well as international leaders such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude.
Manus AI vs. DeepSeek vs. Qwen-2.5-1M Manus AI
It is generally focused on natural language processing and might be designed to process large amounts of data to understand, analyze, and respond to human language in a meaningful way. It may be optimized for specific industries like healthcare , finance, or customer service. However, information on Manus AI isn’t as widely known or discussed compared to some of the larger, more established models like GPT or others.
DeepSeek
DeepSeek appears to be an AI designed for specific types of knowledge discovery or data mining . It could be focused on deep learning and understanding complex patterns or insights from data, which would make it useful in areas like research, analytics, and decision-making. However, as with Manus AI, it’s not as common as some of the bigger models, so its performance might vary depending on the task and the specific implementation.
Qwen-2.5-1M
Qwen-2.5-1M seems to be a newer or less well-known AI model, but the “1M” tag suggests it may have been trained with a large number of parameters or data points (like a neural network with millions of connections). Depending on the version, it could be focused on various domains, from general language understanding to specific niche areas. The key strength of Qwen models, in general, might be their scalability and flexibility in handling different types of tasks.
Benchmark Results: Where Manus Leads in Task Execution The GAIA Benchmark offers a unique lens into how well AI models perform multi-step, autonomous tasks. It moves beyond chat interaction and tests how effectively a model completes structured objectives.
Source: Manus AI
Level Manus AI OpenAI Deep Research Previous SOTA Level 1 (Basic tasks) 86.5% 74.3% 67.9% Level 2 (Moderate tasks) 70.1% 69.1% 67.4% Level 3 (Complex workflows) 57.7% 47.6% 42.3%
Key Insight : Manus outperforms both OpenAI’s Deep Research and previous top-performing models across all levels, especially on Level 3, where complex reasoning and task chaining are required.
This positions Manus as a model not just for conversation, but for real-world, autonomous execution—an area where most traditional LLMs still require human steering.
Manus AI Vs. GPT-4 Vs. Claude GPT-4 (OpenAI)
Claude (Anthropic) Claude models prioritize safety and long-context understanding, with strengths in document analysis and coding support. While Claude is ideal for high-context tasks, it still depends on prompt-driven interaction, whereas Manus is built for agent-style task completion.
Aspect Manus AI GPT-4 Claude Primary Focus Autonomous task execution and workflow automation Versatile text generation and multimodal capabilities Long-context conversation with safe, ethical output Autonomy High – performs complete multi-step tasks independently Moderate – excels at creative tasks but relies on guided prompts Moderate – focused on detailed, ethical, and safe responses Accessibility Free beta via Discord; API access planned; model is open source Commercial API; premium pricing Commercial API; enterprise-focused Benchmark (GAIA) Excels in multi-step tasks (e.g., 86.5% on Level 1, 57.7% on Level 3) Not specifically optimized for structured, multi-step tasks Not designed for full autonomous workflows Key Use Cases Investor reports, legal reviews, scheduling, dashboards, research summaries Creative writing, summarization, and multimodal applications Document analysis, coding support, and long-form content generation Adoption Rapid uptake in China with growing global interest Widely adopted across industries Favored by enterprises for detailed analysis and safe outputs
Rather than trying to beat GPT-4 at language or Claude at context, Manus is carving out a different position—an AI that acts like an intern or analyst, completing workflows with minimal guidance. Its performance on structured benchmarks and real-world task outputs suggests that Manus is not just catching up—it’s offering something different.
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FAQs What is Manus AI? Manus AI is an autonomous language model developed by startup Monica. It is designed to execute multi-step tasks—such as generating reports, reviewing documents, and creating dashboards—without requiring continuous human input.
How do I access Manus AI? Manus AI is currently available through a free beta on Discord. The team is also planning to introduce API access soon, which will allow developers to integrate its capabilities into their own systems.
Is Manus AI free to use? Yes, during its beta phase, Manus AI is free for users to try out. Details on any future pricing models or premium features will be announced as the platform evolves.
Is Manus AI safe? Manus AI is built with safety and ethical guidelines in mind. The development team is continuously working to enhance its security and reliability. While no AI system is completely without risk, measures are in place to ensure responsible use.
What types of tasks can Manus AI perform? Manus AI is designed for tasks that typically require human effort. It can generate investor reports, review legal documents, schedule interviews, create interactive dashboards, and compile research summaries, among other functions.
How does Manus AI compare to models like GPT-4 and DeepSeek? Unlike GPT-4, which excels in creative text generation and conversation, Manus AI focuses on autonomous task execution and structured workflows. It builds on the efficiency shown by DeepSeek by handling multi-step processes with minimal human oversight.
Who is Manus AI designed for? Manus AI is built for a wide range of users, including developers, researchers, startups, and businesses. It is ideal for those looking to automate complex workflows and enhance productivity in various professional fields.
What industries can benefit from Manus AI? From finance and legal to research and content creation, Manus AI’s capabilities can streamline operations and improve efficiency across many industries. Its adaptability makes it a valuable tool for any organization aiming to leverage AI for better decision-making and task automation.
