First came the buttholes. Then the sparkles and gradients. Now, the next Big Tech AI branding trend has arrived. As the biggest artificial intelligence players introduce new agent capabilities, they’re all converging around the same visual shorthand: cute little guys. On August 11, SpaceXAI (Elon Musk’s AI-focused mashup company) launched GrokBot, a series of AI agents designed to work on tasks autonomously, even when the user’s computer is closed. They’re represented by shapes with giant, orb-like eyes. On September 8, Meta came out with its own agent, called Muse, which looks like a fluffy monster toy (it has also been integrated into a Tamagotchi-style keychain). Then on September 29, OpenAI joined the party with a suite of AI agents called dots, which look like customizable Pixar characters and were described by the company as “remarkably capable” and “remarkably cute.” We are firmly in the era of the anthropomorphic AI mascot, and according to multiple researchers and designers I spoke with, the trend makes perfect sense. In moments when tech companies want to encourage mass market adoption of an unfamiliar service, they’ve historically turned to friendly, approachable design. Meta’s Muse mascot “Jolly” [Photo: Minh Connors/Bloomberg/Getty Images] In a recent interview with Fast Company, Anthony Cappetta, partner and creative director at the creative studio Super Okay, explained that these emerging trends help companies “signal compliance” with established digital norms. “There’s a shared advantage in looking familiar and ‘safe’ within the ecosystem, especially for massive platforms where aesthetic shifts are scrutinized heavily,” he said. “It’s less about being original and more about being instantly legible and trustworthy at scale.” But this visual shorthand comes with its own drawbacks. As AI makes its biggest consumer play in a moment of unprecedented doomerism around the technology, cutewashing a new and largely untested technology can spark its own ba

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