imais Tencent's knowledge base-centered AI workbench, ima.copilot (ima for short).
Since its release in October 2024, ima has gained a large number of users on Windows, Mac, and the WeChat app platform.

Why is it so popular? Let's start with what IMA does.
To put it simply, ima is a knowledge base application, prior to this was powered by the Tencent Hybrid Grand Model.
It is able to upload documents such as PDFs and throw them to the model, allowing the AI model to answer and reason based on the content in the retrieved knowledge base.
You could interpret that as giving the AI a little tutorial and letting the AI answer based on your private information.A private secretary.
This stuff is not uncommon, and many locally deployed knowledge bases abound.
But not anymore.
In February 2025, Tencent IMA saw a key iteration - theFormal access to large third-party modelsDeepSeek-R1, forming a dual-engine drive with the self-developed Hybrid Grand Model.
This thing taps into Deepseek-R1.

And a full-blooded and internet-capable version of the R1.
So how does it work? Let's demo it and see.
Opening the ima reveals a clean dialog screen, and at the model you can choose either R1 or Hybrid.
It also supports uploading files and images andImage Recognition.

There's also a handy screenshot recognition feature

The other most important thing, I think, is this knowledge base feature

In addition to private use of personal knowledge bases, you can join or create shared knowledge bases.
Personal knowledge base uploaded here

Once uploaded we can call up the knowledge base directly below to have a conversation.

Ultimate unbeatable convenience!
And that's not all, the following shared knowledge base can be shared with company team members and whatnot!

And you can also directly select the content of the personal knowledge base, the right directly to the question ↓ ↓

You think it's over? Not yet!
Here's another very, very handy feature - theNotes!

Write a note on the fly, which can be anything, and support adding to your personal knowledge base with a single click ↓

Then comes the convenience. We can just check off the knowledge base we need when we're in a conversation!

In this way, copy and paste to notes as you go and add to your personal knowledge base.
A personal knowledge AI assistant, and a full-blooded version of Deepseek at that, was born!
Not only that. ima officially launched the Android App (iOS version coming soon), completing the"PC+Small Program+Mobile"The full scene coverage of the
Search for ima on WeChat and you'll be able to find it!

A personal knowledge base on your phone, that's not generally convenient anymore.And, the knowledge base can all be synchronized.

At the bottom, you likewise have the option to answer based on the knowledge base. There is also the option to search the entire web for answers

This is IMA, an efficiency godsend.
Say something you don't understand.
Haven't there been a lot of tutorials on Deepseek local knowledge base deployment lately.
Something like a lot of these enterprise-level knowledge base engines.

This one shouldn't be used by most people.
Moreover, ima's cloud storage space has been expanded to 2G, which is sufficient for general usage scenarios.

So I think.
Experiences like ima that make the "search, read, write" all-in-one process easier are truly universal.
It truly realizes the concept of "letting knowledge flow".
At the same time, shared knowledge bases in many pendant fields are flowing and shared among users, further facilitating knowledge exchange and innovation.
From this, it is easy to see a pattern.
The AI scene is evolving
AI tools are evolving from "function execution" to "scenario adaptation".
In terms of technical details, the introduction of DeepSeek-R1 addresses two major pain points of traditional AI tools:
- The information is real-time and the latest data is captured through networking;
- Knowledge depth, combining the user's personal knowledge base with vertical content from the WeChat ecosystem to form a customized knowledge graph.
For example, when writing an industry analysis report, users can call DeepSeek-R1 to capture the latest views of public numbers in real time, while matching the locally stored data from previous years to generate content with both breadth and depth.
So, it's not hard to realize.
ima's core competence lies in transforming "fragmented knowledge" into "structured assets"..
Its RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) technology framework supports local parsing of multimodal documents (text, images, tables) and automatically extracts keywords, generates summaries, and even annotates knowledge correlations.
this kind of"Seamlessness."Workflows are redefining the temporal and spatial boundaries of "productivity".
Compared with international products such as Google NotebookLM, ima's differentiation lies in "ecological coupling".
It not only deeply integrates the WeChat content ecosystem, but also reduces the cost of dissemination through small programs.
The deeper value lies in the fact that ima is building a three-tiered knowledge network of "individual-team-industry".
For example, a desensitized casebook of legal practitioners can be a standardized resource for newcomer training in law firms
--This "knowledge assetization" model may become the next breaking point of AI popularization.
The tool revolution is driving "cognitive evolution."
Tencentima's iterative path reveals a trend:
The value of AI tools is no longer limited to replacing human labor, but rather driving the upgrading of human cognitive patterns.
When knowledge management shifts from "storage" to "flow", and when creativity changes from "linear output" to "mesh association", individual creativity will break through the shackles of traditional efficiency tools. When creativity changes from "linear output" to "net-like association", individual creativity will break through the shackles of traditional efficiency tools.
For example, lawyers can use ima to quickly search laws, regulations and cases to provide strong support for their cases; teachers can use it to organize teaching materials and design courses; students can use ima to assist in their studies and write essays; and self-media practitioners can use it to get inspiration and create high-quality content. ......
Combine that with the opening, "A magic tool that redefines efficiency."
I want to.
Perhaps in the future, the criterion for evaluating an AI workbench will no longer be "what it can do".
Instead--
"What it makes the user think about."