How Acorn Labs is rethinking AI adoption with Obot

Sheng Liang on how AI can grow from millions to billions of users.

Sheng Liang, CEO and Co-founder of Acorn Labs, sat down with the All Things Open team to share why democratizing AI matters, what agentic AI could mean for the future, and how developers can get started today.

Sheng brings a unique perspective shaped by years as an engineer and open source leader. He shared how his journey led to co-founding Acorn Labs, where the focus is building tools to make AI more useful and accessible. For Sheng, democratizing AI means making sure more than just a few hundred million people benefit from the technology. He pointed out that true adoption happens when billions of people can use and apply it, just like the internet and mobile devices.

When asked what people can do to get started with AI, Sheng’s advice was simple, “Just try it.” He encouraged the community to experiment with ChatGPT or similar tools to see how they can help in both work and personal life. From content generation to problem solving, he highlighted that AI already has practical benefits for knowledge workers. The key, he said, is to begin using it and imagine how it can fit into everyday workflows.

Read more: Why AI agents are the future of web navigation

Sheng also explained agentic AI, which extends beyond conversation to action. While many know GitHub Copilot as an example of assistant-style AI, the future could include autonomous systems that take high-level instructions and act like digital coworkers. To support that vision, his team built Obot, an enhanced chatbot that connects directly to business tools and data. This allows organizations to not only query like ChatGPT but also get answers tailored to their roles and responsibilities, boosting productivity in meaningful ways.

Key takeaways

• Democratizing AI means scaling adoption from millions to billions of users, similar to past technology shifts like the internet and smartphones.
• The best way to start with AI is hands-on experimentation with tools like ChatGPT to discover how they can help in daily work and personal tasks.
• Agentic AI represents the next stage, where AI moves from being a conversational assistant to an autonomous collaborator, with tools like Obot paving the way.

Conclusion

Sheng encouraged developers in the ATO community to jump in and build. AI is one of the most user friendly and developer friendly technologies he’s worked with, and the opportunities to create impactful applications are wide open.

More from We Love Open Source

• Getting started with Ollama
• What is prompt engineering?
• Why AI won’t replace developers
• Why AI agents are the future of web navigation
• The secret skill every developer needs to succeed with AI today