After founding and leading unicorn cybersecurity startup JupiterOne, Erkang Zheng recognized that the organizational challenges that executives face in daily company life all boil down to people-related challenges. Zheng wanted all employees to have access to continuous mentorship, guidance, and coaching that could help them grow and mitigate roadblocks.
Realizing the logistical limitations of employing coaches assigned to each one of a company’s employees, Zheng set off on his newest startup venture, Ariso, using AI to assist full teams.
Ariso offers companies AI agents that support employees in both their day-to-day tasks (such as writing emails) and long-term career goals. Zheng said the startup is not just offering productivity assistants, but instead a true partner at work.
“When we describe [the product] as an AI partner for work, it’s almost like, quote, unquote, your work spouse, right,” Zheng said. “So… this is someone that can help you be the best version of yourself.”
Ari, the AI agent at the forefront of Ariso, offers teams the ability to draft emails, record meetings and manage calendars. It also serves as a coach by helping to navigate personal reflections, talking through challenges and practicing tough conversations.
Employees often feel overwhelmed at work as they essentially have to work two jobs, Zheng said: the technical job responsibilities, such as being a designer or a writer, and the organizational aspects including communication and attending meetings. Ariso is built to help employees relax more through the management of organizational responsibilities, enabling them to keep their primary focus on the core technical aspects of their jobs.
A partner at work
Zheng is emphasizing a key distinction between Ariso and other artificial intelligence products, such as Gemini or OpenAI: Ariso and its agent assistants are deeply personal beyond core functionality.
“The agent that we build is a true partner to you,” Zheng said. “So, [it will] understand you as a person, your needs, your priorities and… what’s happening every day in your work life.”
Ariso’s AI agents build on the context of the organization an employee is working for, the employee’s responsibilities, and past conversations—all allowing them to adapt to the needs of the specific employee using them. The more often a person uses Ariso, the better feedback and guidance they will receive from the AI assistant.
Proactivity is also a defining factor of Ariso’s AI agents. In contrast to standard AI chatbots, Ariso agents do not just wait for a command from the user. Rather, they actively think about and suggest things they can do to make the user’s life easier.
Through its implementation and capabilities, Ariso also aims to distinguish itself by building trust with users, Zheng said. The startup’s agents are meant to be implemented by companies across their teams but are building trust with individual users by ensuring encryption on an individual basis. Zheng said Ari is also facilitating increased trust between colleagues by helping users practice conversations and improve communication.
“We go far above and beyond any of the other systems that we’ve seen to ensure that your data is yours, your data is protected, and it’s not used for training, and it’s not used for anything else but to provide you this experience,” Zheng said.
Beyond its distinction from other AI tools, Ariso also stands out from human personal assistance because the responsibilities and roles the startup’s agents take on—coaching, mentoring, managing calendars, sending emails, practicing conversations and more—are beyond the capabilities of even the most dedicated human assistant.
“This is humanly impossible for actually anyone to be able to do this,” Zheng said. “The amount of information is too much.”
Applicable to any employee
Ariso is intended to help every worker manage the human aspect of their job, and the applicability of the startup’s AI agents across industries means there is a significant market to capture.
Companies and teams can access Ariso through a subscription. Ariso will offer a free tier to early-stage companies through referrals, venture capital endorsements and connections.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Ariso
Founder: Erkang Zheng
Founded: 2025
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Website: ariso.ai
Ariso started private beta access toward the end of 2025 and is using the feedback to continue polishing the software, expanding capabilities and improving user experience.
“We’re going to continue to focus on getting the word out there and getting users and customers to benefit from it, and just grow the community and grow the user base and grow the product,” Zheng said.
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