Instinct was the buzziest AI agent around — can it survive Muse?

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Instinct AI is an impressive assistant, but the pressure from OpenAI and Meta is officially on.

In August, the startup got its AI agent to market with an unusual playbook: invite-only, no marketing, and barely so much as a website. And yet, Instinct quickly became the buzziest thing in AI, garnering praise for its straightforward, text message-based interface and its ability to handle chores like booking DMV appointments and sending follow-up emails.

Then Muse arrived, followed not long after by Dots. The same products, more or less, from two far more powerful companies.

With Big Tech players suddenly in the mix, it was looking dubious that the startup’s buzzy launch could keep it ahead of the competition. But in my own testing, Instinct has held its own against the other two agents, handling online tasks about as well as a robot can. And Instinct’s founder, Noah Shinn, is unfazed by the rising competition.

“AI assistants are all we know,” Shinn tells me over email. While OpenAI and Meta build AI products for a range of customers, Shinn believes Instinct’s focus sets it apart. “We have been solely focused on building a personal assistant for everyday life that just gets it.”

Shinn was an early employee of Sierra — another highly valued startup with a serious Silicon Valley pedigree — before striking out on his own to start Instinct. The quiet release quickly picked up steam with praise from testers and a massive vote of confidence from investors. The company was valued at $10 billion in late September, even after the launch of Muse.

There’s no app and no monthly subscription fee (for now). You’ll either need an invitation from a current user or approval from a waitlist. I was approved after just a couple of hours.

Instinct’s AI assistant can do many of the same things I had Muse doing for me, and to some extent OpenAI’s Dots. The kind of life admin tasks like swim lesson sign-ups and appointment confirmations that pile up with alarming frequency in a house of one preschool-age kid and two adults with full-time jobs.

These are consumer-friendlier versions of the agents like Codex and OpenClaw that software developers have been using for the past year.

You chat with them much like a chatbot, but they also have access to a virtual machine and can plug into your personal email and calendar. And while Muse’s cuddly bear mascot and Dots’ anthropomorphized blobs feel like obvious attempts to capture a wider consumer audience, Instinct feels markedly different.

Conversations with Instinct’s agent happen over text — either through iMessage, WhatsApp, or email. There is no cute little guy.