Note
October 28, 2026
3 min read
Can Dots Pick Up Where We Left Off?
By Cristiano Pierry
Dots has become a useful assistant in my day, but moving a conversation from text to voice still leaves work behind.
I was sitting at my desk, giving Dots a series of instructions through text. Then I went for a walk, picked up my phone, and called Bob, my dots agent. In that call, Bob had no recollection of the conversation we had been having by text just a few minutes earlier.
I have been using Dots since its release at OpenAI Dev Days. Managing my coding tasks across several projects is one of the things that has worked well. I can ask it to check on running work and tell me where a decision needs my attention.
Email has been the clearest success. Dots is doing such a good job managing it that I have not opened Gmail in two weeks.
Research has also worked well. During my commute to and from San Francisco, Dots and I have long discussions about ideas and explore new research areas in AI and recommendations.
It has also helped with day-to-day requests. I asked it to help remove my information from data brokers, and it handled email follow-up and moved to a browser when a company replied with a form. However, I have not been able to get Dots to send a text message for me.
I use Dots at my desk and on the road. I want to be able to return to a discussion with Bob and see where we left it, but I don't have separate conversation threads with him that make that easy. I worry that either Dots or I have forgotten about a previous task or conversation.
On the phone, I want to continue the work I started at my desk. If I have to reconstruct the conversation when I switch to speech, the handoff has failed. When I asked Dots to create Codex tasks in voice mode, it was unable to do so.
In the task-creation workflow I used, the available controls also did not let Dots choose a Codex task’s local access level. A task can start and still leave me needing the computer if it later requires an approval or a change in local access. When I am away, that can stop the work.
Access to my headless Mac mini has been inconsistent too. It often reports that the Mac is locked when it is not.
Speed has also been a problem. I have encountered a lot of delay on requests that I expected to happen almost immediately. Those delays make it harder to use Dots as part of an ongoing conversation about work.
I want to leave my desk, call Dots on a walk, and continue the coding conversation we were already having, with the relevant context available and the next task able to continue while I am away.
This writing reflects my personal perspectives on product management, AI, and content discovery. It does not represent the official position of my employer or any affiliated organization.