I tried OpenClaw

I hated it heaps. I think it’s because I like being in control of everything happening on my laptop and at my company. If you don’t like doing work on a computer, and don’t get rage baited by prose that is clearly AI-generated, I think you’ll like OpenClaw.

I got it doing a bunch of tasks: drafting emails to clients, importing bank feeds to Xero, unsubscribing from a few campaigns I hadn’t signed up for and drafting messages to group chats. I told it to use my communication style when drafting messages and let me know if it found anything slightly untoward during other tasks. It did a decent job of the latter, and got horribly lost attempting the former (thanking clients for their email - please don’t do this, it’s unnecessary filler text and you’re perceived as desperate to provide value. Emails should be as short and concise as possible).

OpenClaw also only works when you’re not working. It’s installed as an application package on your PC, and uses your PC to work. Obviously, you can install it on a different PC and provide access to all your stuff so it can work uninhibited, but that means getting another PC and providing it access to all your stuff. It functions as an actual employee, a personal assistant, instead of an ‘automation’. Don’t think of OpenClaw as automation. It simply does tasks that you tell it to do, step-by-step, generally much faster than a human. Automation is writing a program or connecting background middleware to make those tasks happen instantly and automatically. Good automation is inherently more robust and impactful than poking a stick at a bot and telling it to do things and stuff.

If you don’t like computer work and don’t care about being in granular control of everything happening in your work life, OpenClaw is probably really helpful. Install it and give it a go. But it’s not for those of us that like to send good messages and have a handle on everything.

As a side note, I haven’t tried it on Windows. I use a Chromebook which uses the Linux environment for non-play store installed apps. In saying that, it worked exactly as expected and I had no issues with access or limitations.

-Fred