A new AI-powered productivity tool is taking workplace monitoring to an uncomfortably personal level. Fomi, an app that tracks your screen activity and scolds you when your attention drifts, represents the latest frontier in algorithmic productivity enforcement. While the tool promises to boost focus, it's sparking fresh debates about surveillance, consent, and whether AI should play hall monitor for knowledge workers.
The productivity app wars just got uncomfortably intimate. Fomi, a new AI-powered monitoring tool, doesn't just block distracting websites or gamify your to-do list. It actively watches what you're doing on your screen, analyzes whether you're staying on task, and intervenes when it decides you've wandered off course.
The concept sounds like something out of a dystopian workplace satire, but it's very real and represents a significant escalation in how AI is being deployed to shape human behavior. According to Wired's hands-on coverage, Fomi continuously monitors your computer activity, using machine learning to distinguish between productive work and digital procrastination. When the algorithm detects slacking, users receive nudges ranging from gentle reminders to more aggressive prompts to get back on task.
The tool arrives as remote and hybrid work arrangements have become permanent fixtures of the professional landscape. Companies have spent the past few years scrambling to replicate the oversight they once had when everyone sat in the same office. Now that surveillance is being outsourced to AI, often with workers installing these tools voluntarily in a bid to optimize their own performance.
But the privacy implications are hard to ignore. Fomi requires extensive permissions to monitor screen content, which means the app potentially has access to everything from confidential work documents to personal messages that happen to appear during work hours. The company hasn't publicly detailed what data it collects, how long that information is retained, or whether it's used to train future AI models. These are the kinds of questions that have plagued other AI productivity tools, from Microsoft's controversial Productivity Score feature to various employee monitoring platforms.
