Instinct Wants Its AI Agent in Your Group Chat — Even If Your Friends Never Signed Up

Instinct, the AI agent startup now valued at $10 billion after its latest funding round, is moving its agent out of one-on-one conversations and into the group chat. The company announced Monday that users can add the agent to chats with friends — where it can help with collective chores like planning trips, snagging event tickets, running fantasy leagues, organizing carpools, or sorting out who's bringing what to Thanksgiving, according to TechCrunch.

Friends don't need accounts

The notable twist: the group chats work even if a user's friends haven't joined Instinct. A new Instinct instance joins the conversation and works for the whole group, the company said. The feature is starting today for early access users and will expand to everyone "soon." Users who want in can ask their Instinct agent to put them on the list.

The agent wars go social

The launch moves Instinct ahead of one of its main rivals, Meta's Muse, in this particular race — Meta's flagship agent doesn't yet offer group-chat functionality, though the older Meta AI can be added to group chats across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook.

Instinct and Muse have been neck and neck recently, both adding phone-call capability in recent weeks as the agents compete for more of the consumer AI market. Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Dots — personal AI agents that also operate in ChatGPT Spaces, collaborative workspaces where agents and humans work together, the report notes.

Privacy plumbing

Group chats with an AI agent raise obvious privacy questions, and founder Noah Shinn addressed them on X. He said a user's personal Instinct agent will ask permission before connecting with the group's Instinct agent. Users can also choose which groups they trust and remove that trust at any time, according to the report.

Shinn said the group's Instinct is siloed from users' personal accounts, which it cannot access — the personal agent will always ask permission before sharing information or taking any action. If new members join a group chat, pending replies from a user's personal agent are held before being shared with the group.

The pitch, in Shinn's telling: planning with friends usually dissolves into frustrating back-and-forth over times and places, and an agent in the thread lets everyone explore options, agree on a plan, and execute it in one place.

Written by the BidAsk Newsroom. Based on reporting from the sources below.