Highlight AI
Always-on desktop AI assistant that watches the user's screen (across all apps) and answers questions / takes actions based on what's currently visible. Mac + Windows. Founded by Mac Bishop (ex-Mixpanel); raised $13M Series A from Aspect / Lightspeed (Oct 2024). Distinguishes itself from Rewind by being action-oriented (not just recall). As of 2026-10 the site repositions it as an AI multitasker for work: it captures meeting and work context and drafts follow-ups, daily briefs and end-of-day recaps in connected tools (Gmail, Slack, Linear, GitHub and others).
Active · Verified 2026-10-29 · fresh as of 2026-10-29 · 36 cited facts, 0 with a third-party source · 1 recorded change · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Tier
- T2
- Section
- Computer-use & desktop agents
- Created
- 2024 (launched publicly) vendor fix
- Latest release
- v2.0.20 (2026-10-20) vendor fix
- License
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- GitHub
- not applicable — no GitHub repo fix
- Pricing
- Free $0/mo (14-day Pro trial); Pro $35/mo; Max $200/mo vendor fix
- Funding
- $13M Series A Oct-2024 (Aspect Ventures / Lightspeed) vendor fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-29 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- commercial vendor fix
- Compliance
- soc2-type2 vendor fix
When to use
Optimised for: Desktop co-pilot that sees screen + acts on it
Anti-fit: Adjacent to Rewind / Limitless; privacy-sensitive for shared screens; not a developer API
Pros & cons
Pros
$13M Series A; cross-app screen-capture context; local-first option.
Cons
Closed-source; privacy posture sensitive; no developer API at launch tier.
Claims & capabilities
$13M Series A Oct-2024 (Aspect / Lightspeed); cross-app context capture; local model option (Llama)
Technical surface
- API surface
- Desktop app; HTTP API on roadmap
- Backend storage
- Local SQLite + optional cloud sync
- Deployment
- Desktop app (Mac + Windows); local + cloud hybrid
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- Per-device single-tenant
- MCP
- searched not found
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Alternatives to Highlight AI → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other computer-use & desktop agents in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Browser Use T1
Python library that turns any LLM into a browser agent — extracts DOM into a structured representation the LLM can act on (rather than pure screenshot). Browser Use Inc. raised $17M seed Q1 2025 (Felicis); cloud product at cloud.browser-use.com. Project is one of the most-starred browser-agent OSS repos.
- Stagehand T1
Open-source browser-automation framework by Browserbase (TypeScript core plus Python and Go SDKs). Mixes Playwright-style code with natural-language act/extract/observe; pairs with Browserbase Cloud.
- Hyperbrowser T2
Cloud-hosted headless browser API tuned for AI agents — captcha solving, stealth mode, session recordings. Y Combinator S24; pitched as a faster / cheaper Browserbase alternative. Used as substrate by agents that need browser execution but don't want to run their own Chromium fleet.
- UI-TARS T2
ByteDance Seed's open-source GUI-agent foundation model — released Jan 2025; trained end-to-end on screenshot → action pairs. Comes with UI-TARS-Desktop (Electron app) that runs the model against the user's screen. SOTA on OSWorld at release; weights on HuggingFace.
- Anthropic Computer Use T1
Anthropic's API-surface capability that lets Claude control a virtual desktop — see screenshots, type, click. Launched 2024-10 as a public beta. Not a finished IDE itself; it's the substrate that other harnesses (and Anthropic's own Claude apps) use to operate a computer.
- Skyvern T2
Open-source autonomous browser agent that uses computer vision + LLMs to navigate websites. Workflow-based: agents follow recorded plans that adapt to layout changes. Skyvern Inc. raised $4.5M seed (Sep-2024, Felicis lead). Self-hostable; cloud version on skyvern.com.
Sources (35 cited facts, 0 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is Desktop AI co-pilot (always-on context capture across apps) vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Always-on desktop AI assistant that watches the user's screen (across all apps) and answ… vendor
- Claims / benefits $13M Series A Oct-2024 (Aspect / Lightspeed); cross-app context capture; local model opt… vendor
- Modalities text + screen images + audio (meeting capture) vendor
- Created 2024 (launched publicly) vendor
- Latest release v2.0.20 (2026-10-20) vendor
- Mindshare Product Hunt / HN launch; growing prosumer following vendor
- Funding $13M Series A Oct-2024 (Aspect Ventures / Lightspeed) vendor
- Customers / scale Prosumer + SMB; reported 100k+ downloads vendor
- Pricing Free $0/mo (14-day Pro trial); Pro $35/mo; Max $200/mo vendor
- Data handling Local-first capture; cloud routing optional; opt-out from training vendor
- Deployment Desktop app (Mac + Windows); local + cloud hybrid vendor
- HQ US (San Francisco) vendor
- Founders / pedigree Mac Bishop (ex-Mixpanel) vendor
- API surface Desktop app; HTTP API on roadmap vendor
- Backend storage Local SQLite + optional cloud sync vendor
- Multi-tenancy Per-device single-tenant vendor
- Encryption At-rest encryption local DB; TLS for cloud vendor
- Tombstoning User can delete captures vendor
- Namespace primitives per-device user vendor
- Forgetting policy Configurable retention vendor
- Import / export User can export captures vendor
- Validated verticals knowledge worker desktop assistance vendor
- Time to running <10min (desktop install) vendor
- Anti-fit Adjacent to Rewind / Limitless; privacy-sensitive for shared screens; not a developer API vendor
- Optimised for Desktop co-pilot that sees screen + acts on it vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure Anthropic / OpenAI APIs; local Llama option vendor
- Pros $13M Series A; cross-app screen-capture context; local-first option. vendor
- Cons Closed-source; privacy posture sensitive; no developer API at launch tier. vendor
- Project & sources highlightai.com; highlightai.com/privacy vendor
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket commercial vendor
- positioning-platform-vs-product product vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- compliance-certifications soc2-type2 vendor
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
Related systems
References (3)
- Anthropic Claude (foundation models) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: Anthropic / OpenAI APIs; local Llama option
- Meta Llama 4 family depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: Anthropic / OpenAI APIs; local Llama option
- OpenAI GPT family (GPT-5 / GPT-4o / o3 / o4) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: Anthropic / OpenAI APIs; local Llama option