It is a node manager yes, with a focus on supporting emerging technologies like cashu and taproot assets.

It's still a nascent protocol, but Taproot Assets is on mainnet and a lightning node running tapd today can have channels denominated in units other than sat. The Tether channel showcased provides a demonstration of such a node. To our knowledge, no prominent assets have yet been minted, but regardless we aim to fully support the extent of Bitcoins capabilities and let the node running the Orchard software decide their configuration. In this regard the taproot assets integration is optional.

The AI integration is a core component of the architecture and will be expanded in later releases to improve the user experience and augment the operator. Liquidity management, channel management, troubleshooting, and alerting / anomaly detection are all candidates here.

We do not have a public roadmap at this time. Improved documentation and a website update [https://orchard.space/] will likely precede a published roadmap.