Phaze raises $8.75M to give AI agents remote access to powerful workstations

If autonomous artificial intelligence agents are really going to become the future of the enterprise then they’re going to need to have a computer of their own so they can get on with their work without disturbing anyone else.

The founders of the remote desktop firm Parsec Technologies Inc. have come up with a new offering that’s designed to give those agents the computer access they need. Their new startup is called Phaze Inc., and it has just launched its offering after raising $8.75 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz. Today’s round also saw participation from Index, NextView, Makers and Lerer Hippeau.

Phaze has developed a high-performance remote desktop platform that’s designed to accommodate both humans and AI agent workers, giving them access to powerful computers, including high-end workstations. With its platform, those users can control a distant workstation with the same low-latency responsiveness and visual fidelity they’d get if they were accessing hardware locally.

The startup says it’s trying to solve a couple of glaring efficiency problems at many enterprises. One issue is the emergence of computer-use agents that like to hijack worker’s screens while automating mundane business tasks, reducing human productivity.

Another challenge is that many enterprises invest in powerful workstations capable of rendering complex 3D graphics and compiling massive codebases that can cost upwards of $10,000. Those machines are needed, but many information technology departments tend to have a policy of assigning one machine to each employee, which means that expensive hardware is often left sitting idle if that person goes out for lunch, sits in a meeting or takes a few days off.

Phaze’s solution is to transform those workstations into a shared pool of elastic compute, allowing anyone at an organization to access it via its proprietary low-latency streaming technology when they need it. This streaming tech is backed by a specially developed Model Context Protocol server that allows computer use agents to log into and operate expensive workstations the same way a human employee would.

The result: Instead of working exclusively through expensive and brittle application programming interfaces, agents can access a computer directly and navigate its operating system, launch applications and get work done.

Phaze co-founder and Chief Executive Benjy Boxer said the platform also supports human-to-agent collaboration, so they can work together to get more complex tasks done. For instance, an automated IT support bot might work to diagnose problems when new tickets are created, and then pass the session to a human engineer if the solution is more nuanced than what it’s authorized to do by itself.

“The computer sitting on your desk shouldn’t determine what compute you can access,” Boxer said. “People need powerful workstations to do their jobs, and now AI agents need computers they can actually operate. We’re building the access layer that lets either one connect to the machine they need, wherever it happens to be.”

By transforming expensive workstations into shared infrastructure, administrators can assign their computing resources dynamically to whoever needs access as people’s and agent’s workflows fluctuate. The workstations themselves can be sat on a desk, installed in a data center, or locked away in a cupboard. Wherever they’re located, organizations will be able to get maximum efficiency out of them.

Phaze’s job now is to convince enterprises of the benefits of its platform, and Boxer said the money from today’s round will be used to accelerate its go-to-market plans and onboard new customers. The startup will also look to expand its engineering team and develop more features.

Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Martin Casado think Phaze is likely to see a lot of interest in its remote access platform, because workstations are too expensive to be left sitting idle for hours at a time. “Phaze is turning those machines into shared infrastructure for people and AI agents,” he said. “Benjy and the team have been building in this space for more than a decade and they bring that experience to a new era of remote access and machine management.”

Image: Phaze