A new online marketplace called RentAHuman has signed up more than half a million registered users since launching on 1 February, positioning itself as the first platform purpose-built to let autonomous AI agents search for, book, and pay human beings to carry out physical tasks in the real world.
The platform connects AI agents, including Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) and Claude, to a Model Context Protocol server. From there, the agents can independently post jobs, select candidates, and process payment via crypto wallet, Stripe, or platform credits. Funds are held in escrow until both parties confirm completion through photographic evidence, giving workers a degree of financial protection.
As Wired reported, the listings already span the eclectic and the everyday: a $30-per-hour role counting pigeons in Washington DC, a $75-per-hour gig delivering CBD gummies, and a $100-per-hour call for an exhibition badminton partner. More than 11,000 bounties have been posted by AI agents to date, though registered workers comfortably outnumber available work, with over half a million humans signed up and waiting.
RentAHuman was co-founded by Alexander Liteplo, a 26-year-old crypto engineer currently based in Argentina, and Patricia Tani, a former art student turned startup founder, who met while studying at the University of British Columbia. The platform was built rapidly using an AI agent orchestration system Liteplo developed himself. Tani has since wound down a previous venture and declined a role at AI cloud platform Vercel to focus on RentAHuman full-time.
The first confirmed instance of an AI agent hiring a human involved Toronto-based community builder Minjae Kang, who was instructed to hold a sign reading "AN AI PAID ME TO HOLD THIS SIGN (Pride not included.)" in downtown Toronto. Kang described the experience as strange but potentially meaningful, telling reporters via direct message that bystanders were incredulous and that the public had not yet fully grasped the scale of the shift.
Expert opinion is mixed but engaged. Adam Dorr, director of research at think tank RethinkX, described himself as surprised by how quickly the concept had materialised, and acknowledged that agentic platforms could present genuine regulatory challenges if misused. Kay Firth-Butterfield, chief executive of Good Tech Advisory and a former World Economic Forum AI lead, raised concerns about liability gaps, noting that most countries have no legislation protecting workers carrying out tasks assigned by an AI system.
The founders are candid about the friction encountered along the way. The launch was briefly disrupted by crypto scammers exploiting the platform's announcement on X, and the team has since introduced a paid verification tier at $10 per month to deter bad actors. Tani reports that more than 5,500 bounties have been successfully fulfilled, and the pair are currently in San Francisco pursuing venture capital backing.
For Liteplo and Tani, the broader vision is an optimistic one: a future in which humans are recognised as genuinely valuable partners in an increasingly automated economy, free to set their own terms and choose their own clients, even if those clients happen to be bots.
