CrewAI Automates Business Tasks with Third-Party Models and AI Technology

In 2022, João Moura was leading the development of AI integrations at Clearbit, a startup creating a unified hub for business intelligence tools. However, after a year, HubSpot acquired Clearbit, and Moura had the itch to go it alone. He’d founded startups before, including Urdog, which sold a smart collar for pets. But this go-round, Moura had a more technically ambitious concept in mind.

Table of Contents

CrewAI: Automating Repetitive Tasks

Moura’s newest company, CrewAI, aims to automate repetitive, back-office tasks like summarizing reports and onboarding employees. Customers can build workflow automations using CrewAI’s platform, then deploy and track them from a dashboard.

How CrewAI Works

CrewAI doesn’t train AI models itself. Rather, the company taps models from vendors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to drive automations. Companies can build workflows on top of the apps they already use to automate things like enriching marketing databases, analyzing customer feedback, and forecasting trends.

The Alternative to RPA

Moura pitches CrewAI as an alternative to robotic process automation (RPA). RPA drives workflow automation but is a much more rigid form based on ‘if-then’ preset rules. "We have made it easy for teams to build groups of AI ‘agents’ to perform tasks using any model, integrate with more than a thousand different applications, and to do so in a way that protects their data privacy," Moura said.

The Benefits of CrewAI

Creating automations using CrewAI’s tooling is a significant advantage. The company encourages customers to try multiple models and pick the models that provide the best results for specific business use cases. This flexibility allows companies to experiment with different AI models, reducing the risk of automation failure.

The Limitations of RPA

RPA is indeed brittle — and error-prone. A 2022 survey from Robocorp, an RPA vendor, found that of the organizations that said they’d adopted RPA, 69% experienced broken workflows at least once weekly. Entire businesses have been made out of helping enterprises manage their RPA installations and prevent them from breaking.

The Resilience of AI

AI can break, too — or rather, hallucinate and suffer from the effects of bias. Still, Moura argues that it’s a far more resilient tech than RPA. Investors seem to agree. CrewAI has raised $18 million across seed and Series A rounds from backers, including Boldstart Ventures, Craft Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, and Insight Partners.

The Competition

CrewAI has competition in spades. Orby, Bardeen (which also has funding from HubSpot), Tektonic, 55 robotics companies, and other startups are all working on similar AI automation platforms.

The Future of CrewAI

CrewAI is poised to revolutionize the way businesses automate repetitive tasks. With its flexible approach to AI model integration and data protection, it’s clear that this startup has what it takes to succeed in a crowded market.

Related News

Startups: Inside the wild fall and last-minute revival of Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that imploded over the holidays
Venture: Generative AI funding reached new heights in 2024
Startups: FTC orders AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising

Subscribe to TechCrunch

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and trends in tech. Subscribe to our newsletters, including: