GoKawiil
Tech News
Instinct, a startup founded by former Sierra employee Noah Shinn, launched an invite-only AI agent in August that handles tasks like booking DMV appointments and sending emails via text message. Despite the later arrival of competing agents Muse and Dots from larger tech companies, Instinct was valued at $10 billion in late September and continues to perform comparably in hands-on testing.
AI startup Instinct rolled out a new feature called Instinct Selections that pushes personalized product recommendations for dining, travel, and shopping, curated with input from unnamed human partners like chefs and designers. Founder Noah Shinn announced the feature on X, saying it aims to blend AI suggestions with human taste to differentiate from typical chatbot output. Some users, including investor Shruti Gandhi, publicly criticized the rollout as unwanted and comparable to generic e-commerce recommendation spam.
Instinct founder Noah Shinn said in a podcast interview with investor Patrick O'Shaughnessy that more than half of all transactions on the invite-only AI agent platform are travel-related. He added that Instinct is nearing a billion dollars in annualized transaction volume and is growing about 10% day-over-day, though he did not detail how these figures were calculated.
Instinct, the San Francisco startup valued near $10 billion, has begun rolling out 'Instinct Concierge,' letting its AI agent place calls to handle tasks like booking restaurants without online reservations or resolving billing issues. Meta's Muse assistant has simultaneously added a similar capability, letting users ask it to call U.S. businesses on their behalf, with early access going first to those who request the feature.
Instinct, the AI assistant startup valued at $2.5 billion, announced it is issuing dedicated email addresses to its agent so it can independently sign up for services, contact businesses, and handle bookings without flooding users' personal inboxes. Founder Noah Shinn said this is the first step toward letting Instinct fully own and operate accounts on a user's behalf, building on a recent partnership with 1Password for credential handling.
Instinct, founded last year by 23-year-old Noah Shinn under parent company Spear Street Technology, has closed a $250 million Series B round led by Index Ventures and Benchmark. The deal pushes the young startup's total funding to $350 million and its valuation to $2.5 billion, driven by buzz around its AI assistant that manages users' schedules, purchases and subscriptions through texts and calls.
Instinct, a private-access AI assistant built by Spear Street Technology and led by former Sierra researcher Noah Shinn, connects to users' email, messaging, calendar, location, and device audio to handle tasks like booking appointments and managing inboxes. While testers praise its capabilities, others have flagged its terms of service, which grant the company a perpetual, irrevocable license to store, reproduce, and use user data, including for AI training.