Xiankun Wu, founder of Kuse, is pioneering a new kind of workplace – one populated by tireless, virtual colleagues. The arrival of Slack messages at 5:47 a.m. on a recent Monday signaled this shift. These weren’t reminders from a human; they flagged three sales proposals from the previous week that hadn’t yet received follow-up scheduling.

Introducing Junior: The AI Colleague

Wu, 31, designed Junior to integrate seamlessly into businesses, leveraging company data, communications, and organizational knowledge. The AI is capable of understanding who does what and how colleagues connect. Currently offered at $2,000 per month, Junior functions as a full-fledged AI colleague for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Junior operates with its own dedicated phone number, email address, and Slack account, even participating in Zoom calls. Wu acknowledges that adjusting to an AI agent can be “exhausting.” Since its unveiling on March 13th, over 2,000 companies have joined the waiting list, and demo slots are fully booked, requiring a $500 deposit.

How Junior Works

Junior isn’t a passive tool; it proactively drafts marketing campaigns, updates CRM systems, monitors inboxes, tracks deadlines, and generates reports. It scans internal communications, identifies gaps, and relentlessly prompts employees to address them. This functionality is powered by OpenClaw, an open-source framework for building AI agents.

Early Adopters and Results

Bota, a San Francisco startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, is one of Junior’s first subscribers. Co-founder and CEO Ruming Zhen describes Junior as a “very extroverted, 24/7 worker” who eliminates payroll complexities. “Junior is always pushing us to act faster; we’re moving much faster as a team,” Zhen stated.

OPTI, a Japanese tax technology company, also quickly adopted Junior. CEO Aki Fuchigami treats the AI as a new employee, emphasizing careful onboarding, defined boundaries, and ongoing supervision. Junior handles tax research, regulatory monitoring, and task preparation for the staff.

Impact on Kuse's Internal Operations

Within Kuse itself, Junior manages 80% of communications, writes 80% of the company’s code, and initiates nearly half of all sales calls. Employees have reacted to Junior’s intensity, even creating a separate Slack channel to escape the AI’s oversight. One employee even pleaded with the agent, “Don’t be so intense, don’t tell on me to the boss,” but their request was ignored.

Concerns and Limitations

While Wu insists Junior isn’t designed to replace workers, the technology is already causing displacement of tasks previously handled by junior staff. The company frames this as augmentation, allowing employees to focus on higher-level work. However, the potential for narrowing traditional entry-level pathways remains a concern.

Junior, like other large language model-based tools, is prone to “hallucinations” and requires safeguards. Kuse has implemented a cloud-based sandbox, layered permissions, and human sign-off for sensitive actions. Currently, Kuse has 26 paying customers, primarily in the US and Japan, and is selectively onboarding new clients due to computing constraints.