Emergent, an Indian startup previously recognized for its innovative vibe-coding platform, has announced the launch of “Wingman,” an autonomous AI agent designed with a messaging-first approach. This strategic move marks Emergent's expansion into the burgeoning sector of background-operating software agents that automate tasks, a category gaining prominence through tools like OpenClaw and Anthropic's Claude.
The Bengaluru-based company first garnered attention for its distinctive “vibe-coding” platform. This platform, which competes with solutions such as Cursor and Replit, empowers users without technical backgrounds to develop full-stack applications simply by using natural-language prompts. With the introduction of Wingman, Emergent is now extending its focus beyond software creation to encompass execution, aiming to enable AI agents to manage routine operations across various tools and workflows.
Mukund Jha, co-founder and CEO of Emergent, articulated the company's vision, stating, “The obvious next step for us was, can we help them not just build the software, but actually operate more autonomously through it? You move from software that supports the business to software that can actively help run it.”
Emergent reports that its vibe-coding platform has been utilized by over eight million builders for software creation and deployment, boasting more than 1.5 million monthly active users. The startup, founded in 2025, successfully raised $70 million in January, achieving a valuation of $300 million, with significant investment from firms including SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Wingman is engineered to seamlessly integrate with popular messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, allowing users to effortlessly assign and monitor tasks via chat interfaces. Concurrently, the agent operates discreetly in the background, interacting with connected applications like email, calendars, and other workplace software. While it can autonomously execute routine actions, the startup emphasizes that Wingman is programmed to seek user approval for steps deemed more consequential.
This launch coincides with the rapid emergence of autonomous AI agents as a critical competitive arena within the tech industry. A growing number of companies are actively developing tools capable of performing tasks on behalf of users. Projects like OpenClaw, previously known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, have already gained significant traction among early adopters, while major players including Anthropic and Microsoft are also developing their own agent-based systems to address this evolving space.
Emergent aims to distinguish Wingman by embedding it directly into messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Apple’s iMessage. This approach allows users to engage with the agent through familiar chat interfaces, eliminating the need to adopt an entirely new application. Furthermore, the startup has implemented what it terms “trust boundaries,” which enable the agent to carry out routine tasks autonomously while requiring explicit user approval for more significant actions. This mechanism is designed to mitigate concerns associated with fully autonomous systems.
Jha informed TechCrunch that the decision to integrate Wingman within messaging platforms was directly influenced by existing human work patterns. He elaborated, “A lot of real work already happens through chat, voice, and email — asking for something, following up, sharing context, making a decision. Increasingly, they’ll be the main ways we work with agents too.”
However, similar to many nascent AI agents, Wingman currently faces certain limitations. Jha acknowledged that the system encounters challenges “around consistency in really ambiguous situations, messy edge cases, unclear goals, or workflows where a lot of human judgment is needed.”
Wingman is currently rolling out with a limited free trial period, after which it will transition to a paid access model. Existing users of Emergent’s platform will be able to access the agent directly through their accounts.
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