{"id":8432,"date":"2026-10-09T14:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8432"},"modified":"2026-10-09T14:21:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:21:00","slug":"instinct-agent-ai-hands-on-muse-dots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8432","title":{"rendered":"Instinct was the buzziest AI agent around \u2014 can it survive Muse?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Before there were cute little guys<\/a>, there was Instinct.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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<\/a> for its straightforward, text message-based interface and its ability to handle chores like booking DMV appointments<\/a> and sending follow-up emails<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Then Muse arrived, followed not long after by Dots. The same products, more or less, from two far more powerful companies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With Big Tech players suddenly in the mix, it was looking dubious that the startup\u2019s 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\u2019s founder, Noah Shinn, is unfazed by the rising competition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAI assistants are all we know,\u201d Shinn tells me over email. While OpenAI and Meta build AI products for a range of customers, Shinn believes Instinct\u2019s focus sets it apart. \u201cWe have been solely focused on building a personal assistant for everyday life that just gets it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Shinn was an early employee of Sierra \u2014 another highly valued startup with a serious Silicon Valley pedigree<\/a> \u2014 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<\/a> in late September, even after the launch of Muse. There\u2019s no app and no monthly subscription fee (for now). You\u2019ll either need an invitation from a current user or approval from a waitlist. I was approved after just a couple of hours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instinct\u2019s AI assistant can do many of the same things I had Muse doing for me, and to some extent OpenAI\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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\u2019s cuddly bear mascot and Dots\u2019 anthropomorphized blobs feel like obvious attempts to capture a wider consumer audience, Instinct feels markedly different.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Conversations with Instinct\u2019s agent happen over text \u2014 either through iMessage, WhatsApp, or email. There is no cute little guy. No pretense that it\u2019s sitting at a laptop, typing away at a keyboard. Just brief responses, the occasional emoji reaction, and a lot more action than talk. It\u2019s as effective as I think we can reasonably expect an AI agent to be right now, but the limitations of a robot getting things done in a human world are just as real.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The limitations of a robot getting things done in a human world are just as real<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If you want Instinct to log in to a particular website, you\u2019ll get a link to enter details in a \u201csecure vault,\u201d and you can connect it to different services, including your Google Workspace, Slack, and Notion. But otherwise the interface is just your text messages. It\u2019s kind of genius, and it means Instinct is anywhere you can send and receive texts, like CarPlay or on your watch. It\u2019s just quietly nearby, which is either ideal or creepy, depending on how you feel about AI agents. I thought it was a little bit of both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Shinn says that the lack of a traditional app interface is a crucial part of what he thinks separates Instinct from the big players. \u201cWhile AI platforms excel at answering questions and prompts, Instinct seamlessly integrates into people\u2019s lives to turn conversation into action,\u201d he says. \u201cJust like you would text or email your personal assistant, you can do the same with Instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instinct didn\u2019t impress me at first. After a couple of introductory messages, it took my Cincinnati area code as an invitation to send me a link to the Enquirer<\/em>\u2019s website and a set of flight search results between CVG and SFO. Thanks? I told it I no longer live in Cincinnati. \u201cHa,\u201d it said. \u201cNoted \u2014 I\u2019ll keep that in mind from here on.\u201d But after giving it a steady diet of meaty tasks over the past couple of weeks, it has impressed me more often than not, although I don\u2019t think I\u2019m any closer to achieving some kind of productivity nirvana.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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