AI that uses the apps on your computer

What can a bot do in my apps?

Anything you'd do with a mouse and keyboard in a window. Plenty of everyday work lives in apps that have no other way in: your accounting software, a supplier's web portal, a spreadsheet, a settings screen. Computer use lets a bot do that work where it already happens, instead of asking you to move it somewhere the AI can reach.

• Fill in forms. Copy an order from an email into your shop's admin page, field by field.
• Work in spreadsheets. Add this month's invoices to a sheet in Numbers or Excel and export it as a PDF.
• Use websites like you do. Sign in to a portal you already use in your browser, download the statement, file it in the right folder.
• Check your own app. Try the sign-up flow the way a user would and write down what broke (QA tester bot).

How does computer use work?

1. Turn on computer use for a bot in its settings, and give AppuBot the permissions your computer asks for (on a Mac: Accessibility and Screen Recording, in Settings › Permissions).
2. Ask for a task in plain words, in the app or from Telegram.
3. The bot opens the app and gets a picture of its window with every button and field named, so it can aim at "Export" rather than guess at pixels.
4. It plans several steps and does them in one go (click here, type this, press that), then looks once at the result to check it worked.
5. It tells you what it did and sends you anything it made: the PDF, the export, a screenshot.

Doing several steps between looks is what keeps it fast: each time the AI has to think costs a few seconds, so the bot thinks less often and acts more per turn.

Will it take over my mouse?

Mostly no. A bot sends its clicks and typing to the app's own window rather than moving your pointer, and you can see where it is working by a small pointer with the bot's face on it. A couple of things need the real pointer, like dragging and clicking some buttons on web pages; for those it borrows it briefly and puts it back.

By default the window it works in comes to the front so you can watch. If you'd rather keep working, turn on work in the background: the bot then acts behind your windows and waits for you to pause before anything that needs the screen.

Is it safe to let an AI use my computer?

You decide how much it may do. On "Approve for me", a bot asks before anything important and waits however long you take; you can answer from the app or from your phone. You can watch every step, take over, or stop it with one click. Read more in approvals and our guide to letting AI use your Mac safely.

It all happens on your computer, with the apps and accounts already on it. Nothing is uploaded to a remote machine; the pictures of the window go only to the bot's own AI provider, as when you use that AI yourself.

On your computer vs a cloud computer

Cloud agents are handier when your computer is off. For how specific products compare, see AppuBot vs Grok Bot, dots and Muse.

What does a bot see?

A picture of the one window it is working in, plus a list of the buttons, fields and text in it with their names. That's how it finds "Export" or the "Due date" field rather than clicking blindly. It does not see your other windows, and its own pointer never shows up in its pictures.