Cortex: Putting AI into Everyone’s Workflow
Cortex isn’t another chatbot — it’s a private assistant that schedules, tracks spending and manages your habits. A look at the trade-offs.
import { Note } from ’../../components/Callout.astro’
Stop building another chat box
In 2024’s AI assistant market, chat boxes are in surplus. Users don’t lack a window to talk to — they lack an assistant that actually does the work.
So Cortex’s starting point was clear: talk less, do more.
Three capabilities, one assistant
Cortex splits AI capability into three classes, orchestrated together into your personal workflow:
- Memory: long-term recall of your preferences, schedule and expenses — no need to re-explain
- Action: directly operating your calendar, ledger and habit tracker, not just “suggesting”
- Judgment: proactively clarifying ambiguous requests instead of guessing
A typical interaction
User: “Block two hours next Wednesday afternoon for a quarterly review.”
Cortex does far more than create a calendar event:
- Reviews your work logs from the past three months and drafts a review outline
- Creates the doc in your note app of choice
- Protects those two hours on your calendar, declining other meetings
- Gives a light nudge the next morning: “your outline is ready”
All with zero back-and-forth in a chat box.
The pitfall we hit
The biggest pitfall was AI overconfidence. Early versions silently completed lots of tasks, leaving users feeling out of control. We later introduced “action preview” — the AI shows what it’s about to do, and you confirm with one tap.
That single change lifted satisfaction by 31%.
What’s next
Cortex is still moving fast. We believe a truly useful AI assistant should feel like running water — you don’t notice it, yet life flows more smoothly because of it.