Hark Startup Introduces Hark Handoff, an Agent That Performs Tasks in the Browser

Hark, a startup that raised $700 million in investment in May, has announced Hark Handoff, an agent capable of automating various tasks on the internet. According to ixbt.com, this new technology can efficiently navigate web pages and independently execute user commands, potentially intensifying competition in the artificial intelligence market. TechCrunch.com reports this.

Hark representatives say that the Handoff agent can easily navigate complex web resources such as Target, Walmart, OpenTable, and LinkedIn, even when they lack official API interfaces. By analyzing website structures and visual information, the software determines for itself when to click a button or where to enter data.

Capabilities and Operating Principle

The core idea behind this solution resembles that of many existing browser agents. The user gives a simple command, and the system handles the rest. In particular:

• Ordering food or coffee
• Booking travel tickets
• Submitting product return requests
• Shopping for everyday essentials
• Reserving a table at a restaurant
• Gathering information from various sources

A video published by Hark CEO Brett Adcock shows the assistant creating a bouquet of specific flowers at the user’s request. It even accounts for ambiguous conditions that depend on the florist’s discretion. However, the video shows only part of the process, making it impossible to fully assess the system’s effectiveness.

Technical Approach and Competition

Hark said it uses a post-trained model for the current version and plans to move to full pre-training by the end of this year. This approach enables faster improvements to the data pipeline, infrastructure, and methods. The company also says that, unlike traditional large language models (LLMs) that predict the next token, its model can anticipate subsequent actions such as mouse or keyboard movements.

Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, along with venture-backed startups such as Browser Use, Polar, Strawberry, and Aside, are currently working actively on computer-use agents that perform tasks. Hark claims that its Handoff agent works faster than competitors and costs less than other models.

The startup has opened a waiting list for its platform and plans to make it available to the general public by the end of summer.