Instinct raises $1 billion as Meta challenges its AI agent

An agent with its own phone

Instinct uses its own phone number and computer to carry out tasks. Its recently added concierge feature can call on a user’s behalf, including to book an appointment somewhere without online reservations. A network of trusted people lets one user’s agent coordinate plans with their friends’ agents.

The service is part of a broader push toward consumer agents that can take work off users’ hands. They can book travel and restaurant tables, shop, pay bills, cancel subscriptions, conduct tedious research and order groceries.

That reach comes with a tradeoff: users must share personal information with the agent. Instinct’s initial privacy policy drew particular concern for its broad requirements, and the company later updated the document.

Meta changes the competitive picture

Instinct now faces Muse, Meta’s AI assistant, which offers many similar capabilities and can draw on Meta’s social services. Muse can handle much of the work Instinct does, while also tracking and summarizing Instagram direct messages, following Facebook groups and monitoring Marketplace listings.

Muse has climbed to the top of U.S. app stores and amassed millions of downloads. Instinct, by contrast, has no mobile app; it communicates with users through SMS and text messages. The startup has not disclosed its user count or growth metrics, leaving the $1 billion round as its clearest public signal of investor confidence.

Instinct declined to arrange an interview with founder Noah Shinn about the funding, but published a statement from him. Shinn said the company is building a personal agent that can account for the nuances of everyday life, and that the new capital will help make Instinct more accessible and continue development.

The missing measure

The round is striking, but the public evidence for Instinct’s traction is thin: no user numbers, no growth figures and no mobile app. I think the more important test is whether people will trust an agent with enough personal data to make its convenience worthwhile—especially when a rival can pair similar task-taking abilities with an existing social platform.

Shinn said the company is only getting started. That ambition now has a $10 billion valuation attached to it, while the unanswered question is whether Instinct can build a durable relationship with users before Meta’s distribution becomes the easier choice.