Manis AI Just Fixed the Biggest AI Agent ProblemManis AI has introduced Recommended Connectors, a major update that eliminates the setup friction usually associated with AI agents. By automatically identifying and enabling the apps needed for a task, Manis can now move seamlessly from planning to execution across tools like Gmail, Notion, and Calendar.00:00 - Intro: Manis AI Recommended Connectors01:13 - Real-World Workflow Examples02:02 - Manis Projects and Team Collaboration03:20 - Closing the Gap Between Thinking and Doing04:24 - Automation Use Case: Lead Follow-up05:36 - Automation Use Case: Meeting Prep06:42 - Limitations and the Learning Curve08:32 - How to Get Started with Manis AI
Full transcript
Manus AI just solved the biggest AI agent problem. Manus AI just got way smarter with connectors and this changes how you use AI agents at work. Here's what just happened. Manus rolled out a new update called Recommended Connectors.
Plain English, Manus now looks at the task you give it. Then it tells you which apps it needs to finish the job. And it asks you to switch them on with one click. That's the whole thing.
The impact is huge. Let me explain why. Up until now, AI agents had a big problem. You'd give them a task.
It'd start working. Then they'd get stuck because they couldn't open your Gmail. Or they couldn't read your Google Drive. They couldn't add events to your calendar.
So you'd have to stop. Go into settings. Find the right connector. Turn it on.
Log in. Then come back and start the task again. That's dead time. That's friction.
And for most people, that's the moment they give up and just do the task by hand. Manus just killed that problem. Now when you give Manus a task, it reads what you're asking. It figures out what apps it needs.
And it shows you those apps right there in the chat. You click approve. It connects them. The task keeps going.
No setup. No hunting through menus. The connectors it can pull in include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Notion, GitHub, your browser, and a bunch more. There's custom APIs if you have your own tools.
Now here's why this matters for real work. Say you want to plan your week. You open Manus. You type, look at my emails from this week, find the meetings I need to prep for, and put a 30 minute prep block before each one in my calendar.
Old way, Manus would say it can't do this without access. You'd go connect Gmail. Then connect calendar. Then come back and try again.
New way, Manus says I need Gmail and Google Calendar to do this. Click here to enable. Click. Runs.
That's the whole pitch. It sounds small, but if you've ever tried to use an AI agent for real work, you know setup is where most people quit. Let me give you another example that's actually useful. Say you run a small business.
You want Manus to read your last 50 client emails, pull out who hasn't replied in two weeks, draft a follow-up to each one, and save the drafts in your Gmail. The old way, you'd have to set up three or four tools before you even started. Now Manus just asks you to flip the switches it needs. You're going from set up the AI to use the AI.
Big difference. Now here's the part most people are missing. This is also rolling out inside Manus Projects. A project in Manus is like a saved workspace.
You can store your instructions, your reference files, your past chats, all in one place. So every time you start a new task in that project, Manus already knows your style, your tone, your rules. This update, projects can now have recommended connectors built right in. So if you set up a project for let's say your client outreach, you can lock in Gmail, Calendar, and Notion as the recommended tools.
By the time you or your team uses that project, those apps are ready to go. No setup. No questions. For teams, this is bigger.
The admin can recommend connectors for everyone. So when a new team member joins the project, they don't have to guess what tools to connect. Manus tells them. They click.
That's huge for keeping a team aligned. If you want to learn how to use tools like Manus to save time and run more of your business on autopilot, come check out the AI Profit Boardroom. We've got members in there right now using Manus for client work, content, and lead follow-ups. We do four coaching calls every week where you can ask questions about your exact setup.
It's daily tutorials walking you through how to set up Manus projects and connectors step-by-step. And there's a 30-day roadmap built around using AI agents like this in your business. Link in the description or go to AIProfitBoardroom.com. Okay, back to it.
Let me explain why this update is a bigger deal than it looks. Most AI agents fail at one thing. They can think. They can't act.
They can write you a great email. They can't send it. They can plan your week. They can't put it in your calendar.
Connectors fix that. Connectors are the bridge between thinking and doing. They let the AI actually touch your apps and move things around. Here's the catch.
Setting up connectors used to be the user's job. You had to know which ones you needed. You had to find them. You had to log in.
You had to test them. Most people don't want to do that. Most people just want to say, do this and have it work. That's what this update is about.
Manus is now closing the gap between what you say and what gets done. It's removing the setup work and putting it on the AI itself. Think of it like hiring a new assistant. The old way, you'd have to give them a list of every tool they need access to.
Then walk them through getting set up in each one. Then test it. The new way, the assistant looks at the task and says, I need access to your inbox and your calendar to do this. Can I have it?
You say yes. Kind of relationship with the AI. It feels less like a tool and more like a real worker. Now let me show you what's actually possible with this.
Here's a use case I think is going to blow up. Lead follow-up. You're running a small business. You've got people emailing you, asking questions, going quiet, never closing.
You don't have time to chase them all. You set up a Manus project. Recommended connectors, Gmail, Google Calendar, and a CRM like Notion. Your instructions in the project.
Read my inbox every morning. Find anyone who's gone quiet for more than seven days. Draft a friendly follow-up. Add a reminder in my calendar to send it.
Log everyone in Notion with a status. Now every morning Manus runs that. You get a list of drafts ready to review. Your calendar has reminders.
Your CRM is updated. You spend 10 minutes reviewing instead of two hours chasing. That's the kind of thing this update unlocks. Here's another one.
Attempt research. You're trying to grow on social media. You want to write a post every day. Finding ideas takes forever.
You set up a project. Connectors, your browser, Google Drive, and Notion. Instructions. Every morning find five trending topics in my niche.
Pull the top three quotes from each. Add a one-sentence summary in Notion. Manus does it. You wake up, open the doc, pick the angle that hits hardest, and write the post in 15 minutes.
My dear. Less time. More output. Here's a third one that's super practical.
Meeting prep. You've got a calendar full of calls. You never have time to prep for them properly. You walk in cold.
The call goes okay, but not great. You set up a project. Connectors, Gmail, Calendar, Drive. Instructions.
30 minutes before each meeting, find the most recent emails from the people on the call. Pull any documents we've shared. Write me a five-bullet brief on what we last talked about and what to bring up. Manus runs it on autopilot.
You get a brief 30 minutes before every meeting. You walk in sharp. People notice. These are the kinds of things that used to be impossible because the setup was too painful.
Now it's a few clicks. Let me hit you with something else worth knowing. This update is part of a bigger trend. Every major AI agent company is moving in the same direction.
They're trying to make the AI take care of its own setup. They're trying to make the agent feel less like software and more like a person you hired. Claude has been doing this with their connectors and skills. ChatGPT has been doing it with custom GPTs.
Manus is doing it with projects and recommended connectors. The companies that figure this out first are going to win because the gap between AI that's cool and AI that's useful is exactly this. Setup. It's friction.
It's how many steps it takes to get from idea to result. Manus just took out a few of those steps. Now let me be honest about the limits. You still have to approve each connector.
The AI doesn't connect things behind your back. That's a good thing for safety but it does mean you're still in the loop. Also this only works for the app's Manus supports. If you've got some weird custom tool you'd have to build a custom MCP connector to get it in.
That's doable but it's not zero work and there's a learning curve to setting up projects well. The first time you build one you're going to mess up the instructions. You're going to forget some context. Your first results won't be amazing.
That's normal. You get better at it the more you use it. But once you've got a project dialed in it runs forever. That's where the leverage shows up.
Here's the part I want you to think about. If you're sitting here thinking cool but I don't have time to learn another AI tool I get it. I really do. There's a new AI tool every week.
It's exhausting but this is different. This isn't a new tool. This is the same tools you already use talking to each other with an AI doing the boring parts in the middle. Your Gmail.
Your calendar. Your Drive. Your Notion. They all stay the same.
Manus just sits on top and moves things around for you. You don't have to learn a new system. You just have to tell Manus what you want in plain English and let it do the work. That's a skill.
And the people who learn that skill in the next six months are going to look at the people who didn't and think how are they still doing all this by hand. Here's where I think this is going. Right now Recommended Connectors is a quality of life upgrade. It makes Manus easier to use.
Cool. But the next step is obvious. The AI is going to start picking the connectors fully on its own and just running. You'll set the rules once.
Prove once. And then forget about it. That's already starting to happen. Manus has scheduled tasks.
So your AI agent can run on a timer hitting all your connectors, doing the work, and dropping the results in your inbox or your drive. You're moving from I use AI to help me work to AI does the work while I sleep. And the gap between people doing this and people not doing this is going to get really big really fast. Okay, let me wrap this up with what to do right now.
If you're new to Manus, go to Manus.im, sign up and play with one task. Just one. Pick something boring you do every week. Try to get Manus to do it.
Use the new recommended connectors to skip the setup pain. If you're already using Manus, the move is to set up your first project. Pick your most repeatable task. Write the instructions.
Lock in your connectors. Then run it twice a week and tweak the instructions until the output is exactly what you want. If you run a team, set up shared projects with recommended connectors so your people don't waste time figuring out which tools to connect. That alone will save hours every week.
And if you want help doing all of this with a community of business owners who are doing it right now, come join us in the AI Profit Boardroom. Inside, we've got step-by-step tutorials on setting up Manus projects, the exact connector setups our members use to save time on client work, weekly coaching calls where you can ask about your specific Manus build, a 30-day roadmap for using AI agents to handle your day-to-day work, a prompt library full of Manus prompts that have been tested, and a member map so you can find people near you who are using these tools too. Link in the description or go to AIProfitBoardroom.com. And if you want even more, join the iSuccess Lab.
It's our free community with over 67,000 members. You'll get the full notes from this video plus over 100 AI use cases like this one, all free. Link in the comments and description. Look, the way to think about this is simple.
AI agents are getting better at handling their own setup. The tools you use every day are starting to connect to each other. The boring parts of work are getting automated. The people who pay attention now are going to pull ahead.
The people who wait are going to spend the next year wondering how everyone else got so much faster. Manus just made the on-ramp shorter. Use it. That's the update.
That's why it matters. And that's what to do next.
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