Jason Clark, founder of Wake Forest-based Craine Technology Labs, envisions a future of agentic AI systems that are more human—one specifically in which AI systems take the form of avatars.
To that end, Craine Technology Labs is pioneering an “Avatar-as-a-Service” (AvaaS) model, bringing about what the startup refers to as a more natural interface for agentic AI. All while making sure to stay open sourced, transparent, and community driven.
“Craine is pioneering Avatars as a Service (AvaaS) as a means to enhance the presentation of AI systems to humans,” Clark said.
Clark has long been passionate about automation in his engineering work, most notably during his time at Duke Health, where he built systems designed to streamline workflows and operational efficiency.
In the early 2000s, he was also part of an IBM initiative interacting within virtual environments like Second Life, wherein employees used avatars in training simulations, internal meetings, and virtual campuses. Those experiences didn’t involve AI agents as we know them today, but they seeded in Clark a deep intuitive sense of digital presence and immersive interfaces.
Agentic AI as the future
Today, Clark now sees the future of AI as one revolving heavily around agentic AI, meaning systems that don’t just respond, but perceive, reason, plan, and act toward defined goals. Within this model, AI systems coordinate across tools and environments to undertake multi‑step workflows independently, researching information, making decisions, executing tasks, and even learning and adapting over time.
Beyond tapping into the raw capability of agentic AI, Clark aims for Craine Technology Labs to revolve around a core philosophy of bringing human and AI systems together in authentic, intuitive interactions through avatars. Rather than forcing people to learn dashboards or commands—which Clark indicated he views as outdated already—agentic AI agents embodied as avatars make complex systems approachable.
Avatars become the atomic interface, deployable as teammates, assistants, concierges, or domain‑specific agents that present themselves in familiar, human‑centered ways—all while preserving privacy and ease of interaction. People will naturally speak to these agentic systems as if they were humans, which will in turn improve the speed at which problems are solved and goals are met.
What Craine Technology Labs is building
Craine Technology Labs is developing a human-centric framework for AI collaboration, inspired by the biological organism model.
This model envisions AI systems as specialized agents—akin to organs in a body—each with distinct roles, yet all working together harmoniously. Craine’s approach emphasizes transparency, trust, and natural interaction, aiming to make AI systems feel like intuitive, collaborative teammates rather than complex machinery.
At the core of Craine’s infrastructure is openribcage, an open-source Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol client designed to facilitate seamless communication between diverse AI agents. Serving as the “nervous system” of the digital organism, openribcage enables agents built on various frameworks to discover each other, exchange information, and coordinate tasks securely and efficiently.
By implementing the A2A protocol, openribcage ensures that these agents can work together cohesively regardless of their underlying technologies, providing a unified and transparent interface for human oversight and interaction.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Craine Technology Labs
Founder: Jason Clark
Founded: 2025
Team size: 1
Location: Wake Forest
Website: www.craine.io
Funding: Bootstrapped
Complementing openribcage is Avatar Agency Management Interface (AAMI), Craine’s forthcoming conversational interface layer. AAMI transforms the coordination of AI agents from technical complexity into natural, human-like interactions.
Instead of navigating through dashboards or command-line interfaces, users can engage with personified avatars that understand context, recognize urgency, and respond proactively. This approach enables business experts to manage sophisticated AI workflows through intuitive conversations, making advanced AI systems accessible and manageable without requiring deep technical expertise.
The future
Craine is focused on developing a Minimum Viable Product in the near future for its AvaaS product. The startup is also staying headstrong on the open-sourced nature of its product, which is to say it is welcoming collaboration.
In time, Craine hopes to craft avatars that can even display feelings and emotions—furthering the idea of the agents being team-members that are there to help the company thrive.
