We’re one step closer to a desktop experience built for AI agents, and this is what it looks like

Generative AI is everywhere, whether it’s used as a cornerstone of a service, used to build apps, or employed to boost functionality within them. But with so many new products appearing all the time, which ones are worth checking out?

We’re here to help with a new regular series covering the best and freshest AI apps and services that you should know about.

Catch our previous edition of new AI apps and services here!

An “operating system” for AI agents

Google recently rolled out Googlebook OS for its new breed of Android-based laptops. Part of the OS’s selling point is its deep integration with Gemini. However, Googlebook OS remains a traditional desktop environment for the most part, with AI integration a mere addition rather than the throughline.

For those who want a glimpse into the possibilities of a desktop environment crafted first and foremost for AI agents, there’s Open Swarm.

This project is still in its pre-early access phase, but the concept is pretty intriguing. It bills itself as an “operating system built for AI” and supports multiple agents running simultaneously to accomplish various tasks in parallel.

“OpenSwarm is a desktop where many agents work at once,” the project explains on its home page. “Each one gets its own browser, apps, and tools, and you can watch the whole swarm on one canvas, step in when you want, and pick up the finished work.” The idea is a desktop environment that essentially runs itself while you tackle more important goals, like lazing on the couch and binging Bake Off.

I have an affinity for browsing the web and using my PC myself, but Open Swarm believes it can solve the various problems sales and marketing personnel, operations managers, and recruiters often face. These jobs often involve multiple small actions that may take substantial time, and using AI agents to accomplish them in the background does, in theory, have its merits.

It’s worth noting that at present, Open Swarm isn’t a true OS — it’s not running on bare metal. According to the company’s CTO, it’s a desktop app that requires macOS or Windows, which at least solves one of my many questions about how users might initiate their own non-AI-dependent tasks on a machine running it. Users are also required to use their own AI models and API keys, giving consumers more choice and flexibility.

Those interested in the project and its progress can join the waitlist at present, but the developers have not announced an official launch date. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see the end result whenever it arrives.

Other new AI apps and services you should know about this week

There are plenty of other great new AI apps and services out there, including:

Diagram Design

Like Open Swarm, Diagram Design is a tool that not every user will likely ever need, but the project is well worth a hat-tip.

It’s essentially an app that tasks AI assistants with creating clean, concise, and organized diagrams. I’m not talking images, I’m talking mind maps, organograms, flow charts, timelines, and similar info-delivering drawings. I counted over 40 diagram styles and use cases that this project supports.

Diagram Design isn’t a standalone app, but it’s deployable via Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and various other coding assistants. Users begin by issuing a prompt; the AI model then selects the best diagram style for the information and creates a file that can be used where required.

RAM Price Tracker

I do love a good vibe-coded utility that makes an otherwise laborious task so much simpler. RAM Tracker is one such project.

As its name suggests, the publicly available tool tracks the price of over 5,500 RAM products, kits, and single sticks, from the biggest retailers in the US.

The site offers a primary chart that highlights the price progression of RAM across the past few months, while users can also search for individual listings to see the price fluctuations.

Due to the sheer amount of information on display, I would’ve loved a simple filter tool to siphon off certain speeds, capacities, or price brackets, but there is a search bar to thin the crowd ever so slightly. There’s also a section highlighting products with the biggest price drops, appealing to bargain hunters.

It’s a useful vibecoded tool if you’re in the market for a stick or two of tech gold.

SwiftSlate

Lastly, here’s an app that almost every Android smartphone user can install and enjoy.

SwiftSlate is an open-source, souped-up text-replacement tool that uses AI to add a healthy dose of utility. Instead of traditional text replacement apps that merely swap out certain strings of text for others, SwiftSlate uses in-text bangs that can be issued in almost every text box.

For instance, if I’m typing a particularly long draft on Gmail, and I want to copy it to a note on Keep, I type “?copy,” and SwiftSlate will immediately send that text to my clipboard for pasting. This is a very surface-level example of its capabilities. Add your AI model of choice with the required API keys, and you can translate, shorten text, add emoji, expand text, or formalize it. You can even fix bad grammar by using the bang “?fix.”

Notably, the trigger character is completely customizable, while the app also lets you create custom commands. Given the wide breadth of possibilities for leveraging AI, SwiftSlate has the potential to be a massively powerful Android tool.

Notably, the app does use Android’s accessibility suite to enable its functionality.