Manus

What it does

Manus takes a broad brief — research these suppliers, build a comparison, hand me a file — and breaks it into steps it runs in a cloud environment. You can watch each step and download the artefact at the end.

It is impressive on messy, multi-source tasks and uneven on narrow ones a spreadsheet would solve in two minutes. Paid plans are metered by task credits, so scope the brief before you press go.

Standout features

• Breaks a brief into visible steps
• Cloud sandbox with browser and files
• Produces documents and spreadsheets
• Resumable tasks after a failure

Main job: execute a multi-step research brief and return a finished file, not just an answer.

Best for

Use it for a one-off research or reporting job that would otherwise take a person half a day across several sites and a spreadsheet.

Getting started

Write the brief with the output format and the sources you want, start the task, then review the step log while it runs. Download the result and spot-check the numbers before sending it to anyone.

Watch out for

Watch out: a vague brief burns credits on the wrong work. Never give it credentials for a live ordering or payment system, and verify every figure it puts in a deliverable.