Instinct's $10 Billion AI Agent Now Joins Group Chats With Friends

Instinct, the AI agent startup valued at $10 billion in its latest funding round, said Monday it is bringing its assistant into group chats, letting friends collaborate with the agent even if some of them have never signed up for the service, according to TechCrunch.

What is Instinct launching?

Starting Monday, early access users can add Instinct to a group chat, where a new instance of the agent joins and works on behalf of the whole group, TechCrunch reported. The company pitches the feature for tasks such as travel planning, snagging event tickets, running fantasy leagues, organizing carpools, or sorting out who brings what to Thanksgiving. Instinct founder Noah Shinn wrote on X that the back-and-forth of group planning — "a frustrating back-and-forth over times and places" — is the problem the feature targets, adding that groups can "explore options together, agree on a plan and get it done, all in one thread."

How does this work for friends without an Instinct account?

The group chat functionality works even if a user's friends haven't joined Instinct, the company told TechCrunch. That distinguishes the rollout from rival products that generally require every participant to have an account on the host platform before an AI agent can act for the group.

How does Instinct handle privacy inside shared chats?

Shinn said on X that a user's personal Instinct agent must ask permission before connecting with the group's Instinct agent, and that users can choose which groups they trust and revoke that trust at any time. The group's Instinct instance is siloed from individual users' personal accounts and cannot access them, Shinn said, and the personal agent will always ask permission before sharing information or taking action on a user's behalf. If new members join an existing group chat, any pending replies from a user's personal agent are held back until they are shared with the group, according to Shinn's explanation reported by TechCrunch.

How does Instinct compare to Meta's Muse and OpenAI's offerings?

Instinct and Meta's Muse have been competing closely in recent weeks, both adding phone-call capabilities to their agents, TechCrunch noted. Muse does not yet offer group chat functionality, though Meta's older Meta AI app can already be added to group chats on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook — part of the broader push toward AI-focused features detailed in HTT News' coverage of Meta's AI subscription plans. Separately, OpenAI last week launched ChatGPT Dots, personal AI agents that can operate inside ChatGPT Spaces, collaborative workspaces where the Dots and human users work together, according to TechCrunch.

When will the group chat feature reach all Instinct users?

The feature is rolling out first to Instinct's early access users and will expand to everyone "soon," the company told TechCrunch. Users hoping to try it early can ask their Instinct agent to add them to the waitlist for the feature or other recent additions, per the report.