Carly vs szn: Which AI Assistant Should Run Your Day?
szn is the iMessage agent from an ex-Siri engineer, launching in October. Each customer gets an assistant with its own name, email address and phone number that calls, emails and browses on their behalf. Carly is an AI assistant and agent builder that works inside your email, calendar and the apps your business runs on.
They sound similar. They are built for different days.
The quick answer: szn for life, Carly for work. szn books the table and phones the contractor as your representative. Carly answers the client from your address, moves the meeting on both calendars and runs the follow-up on its own when a lead comes in. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Carly vs szn at a glance
| Carly | szn | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Work email, calendar, CRM, tasks, workflows | Personal errands: bookings, calls, purchases |
| Identity | Acts as you, from your accounts | A separate assistant with its own name, email and number |
| Sends email as | You, from your Gmail or Outlook | Itself |
| Starts a task | On an event, a schedule, or your request | When you text |
| Phone calls | Carly Phone for businesses, set up by the Carly team | Built in, from the assistant’s own number |
| Team use | Shared agents and workflows | One assistant per person |
| Connects to | Thousands of apps through official connections | Apple Notes, Find My, iCloud files, the web, phone |
| Availability | Now | Early preview now, launch in October |
| Pricing | Free workflows; agents from $35/mo | Free during preview; no prices published |
What szn is built for
szn’s own list says it: plan the trip and then book it, make the call without making the call, get plans out of the group chat, send the email without sending the email. You send a text, a voice note, a photo or a forwarded email into one iMessage thread. The assistant browses, calls and writes as a digital representative of you, and you step back in for decisions.
In independent testing it placed a real restaurant call and reported back seating, room and minimum spend, and it remembered a saved seat preference on a new flight request. On the email test it could not reach the inbox, so it drafted the reply and held it for approval. That is the shape of the product: excellent at reaching the outside world, working from beside your accounts rather than inside them.
What Carly is built for
Carly’s day starts in your inbox. Connect Google or Microsoft and it triages, drafts replies in your voice and sends them from your address. It finds times, sends invites and reschedules on your real calendar, with booking pages for people who need to grab a slot. Every request carries through to the rest of the stack: the deal moves in HubSpot, the task lands in Linear, the note files in Notion. Carly connects to thousands of apps.
Then there are workflows. A form submission, an email from a particular sender, a meeting ending, a Monday at 8am: each can start a sequence of steps with an AI decision in the middle, and it runs without anyone texting a task. The agents you build carry those workflows for a whole team.
The identity question
This is the sharpest difference, and both sides chose it on purpose.
szn is a separate person. That is what makes the restaurant call and the contractor email work: the assistant has a name and a number the other side can call back. It is also why the reply to a client would come from an address the client has never seen.
Carly is you. The client sees your name, your signature and the thread history, and the sent mail sits in your Sent folder. Connect your inbox here.
Texting a task vs work that starts itself
szn is at its best when you hand it something. Michael forwards the venue’s email, szn calls the venue, confirms the room for eight and reports back. Nothing happens until Michael texts.
Carly is at its best when nobody is around. When a prospect fills in Michael’s website form at 11pm, Carly enriches the lead, creates the HubSpot record, drafts the intro email from Michael’s address and books the discovery call from his calendar. He reads the summary in the morning.
Both are useful. They solve different failures.
Pricing
szn is free during early preview, with no plans or prices published and no funding disclosed.
Carly runs Zapier-style workflows free. AI agents start at $35 a month. Get started here.
Which should you choose?
- You want the table booked and the contractor called by someone with their own number: szn, once it launches
- You want your inbox, calendar and CRM handled from your own accounts, today: Carly
- You want work to start on its own when something happens: Carly workflows
- You want one agent for a whole team: Carly agents
- You want a business phone line answered and dialed for you: Carly Phone, book a call to scope it
The wider field, including Wajo’s Fo, Meta Muse, Instinct and Catch, is in szn alternatives, and the launch itself is in szn explained.
FAQ
Can Carly do the errands szn does?
Carly’s strength is work: email, calendar, scheduling, CRM and the workflows that connect them. If the errand runs through an app with an API, from ordering to travel tools, Carly can act on it through its integrations. For phone-heavy personal errands, szn and Wajo’s Fo are the specialists.
Does szn work with Outlook?
The launch coverage lists Apple Notes, Find My, iCloud files and the web, and the privacy policy covers Google data. Carly connects Google and Microsoft accounts side by side.
Is szn available now?
Early access is open and free during the preview. The wider launch is planned for October 2026, with a dedicated app after that. Carly is available today.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
