Sky Extends AI Integration and Automation to Your Entire Mac - MacStories

Sky hasn't launched yet and their website just has a teaser video showing the application doing some pretty amazing things powered by AI. I signed up on the waiting list and even filled their survey out. There is a lot of enthusiasm about this app because it is from the authors of Workflow, which Apple acquired and renamed Shortcuts, and which I use every single day and is the primary tool I use to build the Weekly Thing.

Viticci's writeup here is based on using the beta version of their product and he is glowing of it. Viticci is notably also an extraordinary power-user of Shortcuts. His admiration for the past success may give some positive bias, but he is also a shrewd user of automation technology.

What sets Sky apart from anything I’ve tried or seen on macOS to date is that it uses LLMs to understand which windows are open on your Mac, what’s inside them, and what actions you can perform based on those apps’ contents. It’s a lofty goal and, at a high level, it’s predicated upon two core concepts. First, Sky comes with a collection of built-in “tools” for Calendar, Messages, Notes, web browsing, Finder, email, and screenshots, which allow anyone to get started and ask questions that perform actions with those apps. If you want to turn a webpage shown in Safari into an event in your calendar, or perhaps a document in Apple Notes, you can just ask in natural language out of the box.

From that description I would describe Sky as an Agent platform that runs on your Mac to accomplish many different tasks. The agent part is a huge deal and follows the structure of more advanced AI solutions.

I think many Apple users may wonder if Sky is the app that Apple will buy to replace the woefully challenged Siri.

I think there is, and after using Sky for two weeks, I'll be honest: I wouldn't be surprised to hear that OpenAI or Apple would be interested in acquiring this company. Apple could use this team (again) to get an LLM-infused tool that works with apps before the two years it'll likely take them to ship a Siri LLM with comparable features -- and I'm sure Sky would work even better if it had access to more private APIs on macOS.

I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this.