Earlier this summer, co-founders Lukas Nel and Nate Shantz could have gone just about anywhere to launch their early-stage startup Just Persons AI. The two met at Yale, so the Northeast was a natural contender. Or they could have gone the tried-and-true route through Silicon Valley. But they started looking at places away from the coasts, driving down to Austin to check out its tech scene.
Four weeks ago, they packed up their things and headed for Atlanta. Now in the city, the two are ready to reshape how people work with AI on a day-to-day basis.
About Just Persons AI
As the name suggests, Just Persons AI looks to humanize how we interact with artificial intelligence. With a Zoom-like interface that connects to an Expert Avatar, users talk to an LLM (large-language model). That Avatar listens to the user and assists with writing memos, emails, blog posts, or slide decks in real time.
Instead of typing out cumbersome prompts, which is necessary for the publicly-available ChatGPT and most other generative AI platforms, users chat with the AI in a conversational, stream-of-consciousness way about what they are looking to write or create. As the user speaks, Just Persons AI is listening, formulating thoughts, and creating content on the page. That content is updated in real-time as the user gives more guidance into what they want to see on the page.
The voice layer provides a similar workflow to one a person would use collaborating with an assistant or colleague on a document.
It all comes down to leveraging the power of voice, Nel told Hypepotamus.
“Why do you call a meeting with someone instead of just texting with them? The reason is density. The speed of communication is much greater with voice, because you can explain a lot more and provide more context with a vocal interface,” Nel said.
Early users might be content creators or corporate employees who have to “express their ideas in a professional manner” and want to “increase their productivity,” added Shantz. “As somebody that’s been in the MBA program, a lot of my friends who work at McKinsey or JP Morgan spend most of their time writing memos and putting together slide decks. A lot of that work can be very repetitive and tedious. But we believe the human imagination excels on strategy and ideas…the AI can help produce the actual final product, and that partnership can be very powerful.”
Meet The Team
Nel and Shantz bring two very different perspectives to the world of AI.
Shantz previously co-founded Franchise Global Health, a wellness company that went public in 2022 and then acquired later that year. He went back to pursue his MBA at Yale where he focused on entrepreneurship and startup ventures.
He met Nel on Yale’s campus, when Nel was working on his undergraduate degree in computer science and electrical engineering. Originally from South Africa, Nel had been working on different projects in the AI space, most recently working the Yale AVLSI Lab.
Where AI Goes Next
Nel said that he ultimately sees the product becoming a “workplace productivity multiplier.”
That “multiplier” is linked to rise of autonomous AI agents, a concept gaining interest and momentum in the tech world.
The Just Persons AI team said it is best to think of LLMs, like ChatGPT, as the first version of AI. Version Two, they explained, will be all about semi-autonomous agents executing on multiple steps while relying on a few prompts. That means AI Avatars, like the one Just Persons AI is building, could one day execute all the steps around launching a digital marketing campaign – from building the landing page to creating the draft copy to running ads.
Just Persons AI is still in its infancy and is currently taking on beta users. The team, which got a $75k investment from someone associated with Stanford University early this summer to launch, is currently talking to more investors from across the country for its next round of funding.
Moving to Atlanta was strategic for the young company. While the city isn’t specifically known for AI startups the way it is known for fintech and SaaS success stories, the Just Persons AI team says that the city has the resources they need to build their company in a “healthy, happy and productive” way.
Nel and Shantz said they are looking to connect with “like-minded” people working in the AI and AI agent space across the city.
