{
  "id": 12405562,
  "title": "Vinod Khosla believes ex-Deepmind engineer’s Wajo will win agent market on trust",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/vinod-khosla-believes-ex-deepmind-engineers-wajo-will-win-agent",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-06T15:15:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCrunch",
    "slug": "techcrunch",
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/06/vinod-khosla-believes-ex-deepmind-engineers-wajo-will-win-agent-market-on-trust/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The personal-agent space has become highly competitive, with Meta's Muse, OpenAI's Dot, and Instinct leading the pack. However, Vinod Khosla believes that former Google and DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar's Wajo stands out due to its strong focus on trust and safety. Khosla argues that trust is crucial for a personal agent, as users should feel secure in giving their data to the assistant rather than being used as the product itself. Wajo's Fo agent functions similarly to its competitors, handling tasks across messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and can even make phone calls on behalf of the user. Early tests revealed that Wajo successfully called an airline to check for upgrades, demonstrating its capabilities. However, there were instances where the agent's calls failed to go smoothly, raising concerns about clarity in disclosures. Wajo sets itself apart from competitors by offering the option to hire a human for tasks when needed, create a virtual credit card, and converse with people and businesses. The startup, which has raised undisclosed funding, claims to be used in 107 countries and has experienced a tenfold growth since its launch in late September. Wajo's co-founder and CEO, Shivani Poddar, previously worked at Meta, Google, and DeepMind, where she contributed to the development of the first Facebook assistant. Poddar emphasizes that building trust from the ground up is essential for Wajo's success and that the company is working on various aspects of trust and safety, such as applying for a patent for its virtual card system and providing a \"trusted contact\" list for users. Despite the challenges posed by privacy concerns, Wajo maintains that its architecture adheres to the terms of service of ecommerce platforms like Amazon.",
  "summary": "Wajo's Fo agent can hire humans to complete a task.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}