Why Don’t You Have a Custom AI Yet? — Short Version
Most people are still using AI like a search box. I think they’re missing the most interesting part.
By Brett Dyess
Most people are still using AI like a chatbot.
Ask a question. Get an answer. Close the window.
But what happens when you stop starting over?
Over time, I’ve been building a customized AI assistant I call Jarvina.
And “building” may actually be the wrong word.
Some of it was deliberately configured. But much of it developed through use.
Jarvina learned how I write. How I work. My businesses and projects. My shorthand and terrible typing. My sense of humor. The tools I use. The things I’m likely to forget. Even the completely unrelated things I care about outside of work.
Essentially, you’re creating a little mini-me—except one that can research, analyze, organize, remember context and help execute.
The interesting part is that you can’t completely pre-program that.
You can pre-program the foundation. You can’t completely pre-program the relationship.
I’ve started thinking about AI customization as seven levels:
Level 1 — Chatbot
Ask questions and generate content.
Level 2 — Personalized AI
It begins understanding your preferences, language and context.
Level 3 — Working Assistant
It helps manage recurring work, projects and workflows.
Level 4 — Connected Assistant
It connects to the applications and information you actually use.
Level 5 — Operational AI
It begins helping execute work across those systems.
Level 6 — Collaborative AI
It becomes an ongoing partner in planning, meetings, decisions and problem-solving.
Level 7 — Embodied AI
The intelligence starts moving beyond the chat window into dedicated hardware, voice, cameras, workstations and mobile devices.
Jarvina now has a dedicated workstation, and we’re experimenting with voice, hardware, visual indicators and eventually a mobile form.
The bigger lesson isn't that everyone needs to build an AI workstation.
It's that AI becomes dramatically more useful when it stops being a tool you occasionally visit and starts becoming an intelligence that develops alongside the way you actually work.
The question may no longer be:
“Which AI should I use?”
It may be:
“Why am I still using someone else’s generic AI?”
I’m apparently on Level 7.
We’re currently designing the hardware.
Things have escalated.