Can Instinct, the hottest AI agent, withstand the challenge from Muse?

Before the adorable little avatars took the stage, there was Instinct.

In August, this startup launched its AI assistant with a unique strategy: invite-only access, no marketing blitz, and a minimal online presence. Despite this, Instinct quickly became a hot topic in the AI world, celebrated for its user-friendly, text message-based interface and its knack for handling everyday tasks like booking DMV appointments and sending follow-up emails.

Then came Muse, followed closely by Dots—similar offerings from much larger tech giants. With these heavyweights entering the arena, it seemed uncertain whether Instinct could maintain its momentum. However, in my experience, Instinct has held its ground against these competitors, managing online tasks as effectively as one might expect from an AI. Founder Noah Shinn remains unfazed by the competition.

“AI assistants are our specialty,” Shinn shared via email. While larger companies like OpenAI and Meta create AI tools for a broad audience, Shinn believes Instinct’s singular focus on personal assistance sets it apart. “We are dedicated to building a personal assistant for daily life that truly understands users.”

Shinn previously worked at Sierra, another well-regarded startup with strong Silicon Valley roots, before launching Instinct. The quiet debut quickly gained traction, receiving accolades from users and significant backing from investors, leading to a valuation of $10 billion by late September, even after Muse’s launch. Currently, there’s no app or subscription fee; access is limited to invites from existing users or approval from a waitlist, which I managed to get on in just a couple of hours.

Instinct’s AI assistant can tackle many of the same tasks I had Muse handling, as well as some that Dots managed. It’s perfect for life’s administrative chores, like signing up for swim lessons or confirming appointments—tasks that can pile up quickly in a household with a preschooler and two full-time working adults. These are more consumer-friendly versions of the AI agents like Codex and OpenClaw that developers have been utilizing for the past year.

You interact with Instinct much like a chatbot, but it also connects to your personal email and calendar through a virtual machine. While Muse’s cuddly mascot and Dots’ playful blobs seem designed to appeal to a broader audience, Instinct takes a different approach.

Conversations with Instinct occur via text—through iMessage, WhatsApp, or email. There’s no cute character or pretense of it typing away at a computer. Instead, you get concise responses, the occasional emoji, and a lot more action than chatter. It performs as well as one might reasonably expect from an AI assistant today, though the limitations of a robot navigating a human-centric world are evident.

If you want Instinct to log into a specific website, it will direct you to enter your details in a “secure vault,” and it can connect to various services like Google Workspace, Slack, and Notion. Otherwise, the interface is simply your text messages. This simplicity is brilliant, allowing Instinct to be accessible wherever you can send and receive texts, whether through CarPlay or on your smartwatch. It’s always there, which can feel either convenient or unsettling, depending on your perspective. Personally, I found it to be a mix of both.

Shinn emphasizes that the absence of a traditional app is a key differentiator for Instinct. “While AI platforms excel at answering questions, Instinct integrates seamlessly into people’s lives to turn conversation into action,” he explains. “Just like you would text or email your personal assistant, you can do the same with Instinct.”

Initially, I wasn’t impressed. After a few introductory messages, it mistakenly took my Cincinnati area code as a cue to send me a link to a local news site and flight search results between CVG and SFO. I informed it that I no longer lived in Cincinnati, to which it replied, “Ha, noted—I’ll keep that in mind.” However, after giving it a series of more substantial tasks over the past couple of weeks, it has impressed me more often than not, though I’m still not achieving any sort of productivity utopia.

I tasked Instinct with finding swimming lessons for my son—something I’ve been meaning to do for ages but always procrastinate. I asked it to locate age-appropriate lessons, and it returned a list of viable options. I suggested the local community center, and it adjusted its focus accordingly. I opened a browser to verify its suggestions, and the times and dates it provided were accurate—one hurdle cleared. However, it overlooked a crucial detail: the center requires a prerequisite class for preschool-age lessons. I caught this oversight, highlighting a challenge AI agents face: they excel with clean data, but the internet is often messy, and vital information can be buried in pop-ups.

Instinct performed well on other tasks, like emailing my eye doctor’s office to schedule an appointment and handling the digital paperwork for an Ikea return. Beyond just filling out forms, it demonstrated a surprising ability to interpret vague instructions. When I asked it to search my past Ikea purchases, it correctly identified the product I meant by describing it as “vertical and white with branches.” (That would be Tjusig, for those keeping score.)

A few times, it surprised me by providing relevant information I hadn’t explicitly requested. When I initiated a request to email the eye doctor, I mentioned I couldn’t recall the exact name of the office. Instinct narrowed it down based on my description and later noted that I had a confirmation email from 2024 from the doctor, reassuring me I was contacting the right place. Additionally, it flagged a potential calendar conflict while handling another task. While filling out forms like an advanced autofill tool is one thing, proactively identifying and presenting relevant information feels like a significant step toward genuine assistance.

Expect to pay for these features in the future. When asked if Instinct would remain free, Shinn indicated that “Instinct is free for invite-only users. Our goal is to keep it as affordable as possible.” An analyst noted that a venture-backed startup like Instinct is primarily focused on growth. “The business model is to grow as quickly as possible to create something worth paying for,” he explained, suggesting that Instinct might be looking at revenue from its user base or a potential acquisition by a larger company.

Currently, OpenAI’s Dots are only available to paid subscribers, while Meta’s Muse is free. “If you’re not paying for it, then the goods and services you’re seeking may be making deals to access your agent,” the analyst theorized. He acknowledged that the current economics are a bit skewed, as agents are mainly used by early adopters, but he believes the old saying holds true: “If you’re not paying for it directly, then you’re paying for it indirectly.”

This could lead to more advertising in the future, according to another industry expert. “The fact that these agents are so transaction-heavy makes it a natural fit for advertising,” he noted. In fact, Instinct has already experimented with suggesting “recommended products” to its users. Companies have strong incentives to make such advertising appealing, but it’s believed that ads will play a role in one way or another. “All roads in the consumer market eventually lead to advertising,” he concluded.