Why sleep-time compute is the next big leap in AI

For much of the AI era, intelligence has been on-demand: a user issues a prompt, and the model responds after reasoning through the request. But as AI systems grow more autonomous and expectations rise for real-time reasoning, low latency, and cost-efficiency, the definition of intelligence is shifting. We’re entering a new phase where AI is expected to stay ready for the next request—even during downtime.

The key to unlocking this proactive AI future may lie in an unexpected moment...