In the ever-evolving world of technology, startups are constantly adapting and pivoting to stay ahead of the curve. One such company, Pig.dev, initially focused on developing AI agentic tech to control Microsoft Windows desktops. However, the founder decided to abandon this idea in favor of a new venture, Muscle Mem, a cache system for AI agents designed to offload repeatable tasks.

While early-stage pivots are not uncommon, Pig.dev's shift sparked a dynamic conversation on the Y Combinator podcast. The company was working on computer use, a critical area that needs to be addressed for AI agents to be truly useful in the workforce. Another YC alum, Browser Use, is tackling this challenge for web browsers.

Browser Use gained popularity when the Chinese agentic tool Manus relied on it and went viral. The platform scans website buttons and elements, turning them into a more digestible, text-like format for AI agents. This helps the AI understand how to navigate and use websites.

During the Y Combinator podcast, partner Tom Blomfield compared Pig.dev to Browser Use for Windows desktops. The discussion featured Amjad Masad, the founder and CEO of popular vibe-coding startup Replit. They discussed how long-term computer use, lasting hours instead of minutes, remains a stumbling block for AI agents. As the context window for reasoning grows, an agent's accuracy wavers, and costs increase.

Blomfield suggested that founders should explore Browser Use or Windows automation with Pig to apply these technologies in enterprise and vertical industries. Masad agreed, stating that when technology works, both companies would do exceptionally well.

However, Pig.dev founder Erik Dunteman has already given up on the idea. In a post in May, he explained that he initially wanted to run a cloud API product, a common way of delivering AI tech. But his customers didn't want that, so he tried selling it as a dev tool, which they also didn't want.

Dunteman said that users in the legacy app automation space wanted to hand him money and receive an automation, essentially hiring a consultant to make their desired Windows robotic process automations work. But Dunteman didn't want to do one-off projects; he wanted to build development tools. So he abandoned Pig and started working on an AI caching tool called Muscle Mem.

Dunteman's new tool was inspired by the computer use problem and addresses it from another angle. The idea is to allow the agent to offload repeated tasks to the Muscle Mem service, enabling the agent to focus on reasoning for new problems and edge cases.

Dunteman remains optimistic about computer use as "the last mile" and believes that his new tool is directly inspired by and applicable to computer use, just at the developer tooling layer.

While Pig.dev has shifted its focus, other companies continue to work on Windows automation. Microsoft is likely the farthest along in this area. In April, Microsoft added computer use tech to Copilot Studio for graphical user interfaces like Windows, released as a research preview. Additionally, Microsoft announced an agentic tool in Windows 11 that helps end users manage settings.