Instinct and Meta’s Muse Both Add AI Calling Features
Instinct and Meta’s Muse have each added calling features, putting the rival AI assistants on par with competitors that had touted phone calls as a differentiator.
Instinct founder Noah Shinn announced on X that the startup’s new feature, Instinct Concierge, can book restaurants that do not take online reservations, get on a dentist’s cancellation list or sort out problems with a cable bill. The feature is rolling out in early access to some users, with plans to expand to all users over time, Shinn said. Instinct is one of the most popular text-based AI assistants and has attracted huge investor interest at what is reportedly a $10 billion valuation, according to TechCrunch.
Meta’s Muse, which launched the previous week, also gained the ability to place calls to U.S. businesses. Meta said the feature will first roll out to users who ask Muse to make a call. The company described the approach as a feature request mechanism; Meta said that whenever Muse launches new features, they will be available first to people who ask Muse about them.
The calling capabilities arrive after a number of rivals had been touting their ability to make calls as an advantage over Instinct. With Instinct’s Concierge rollout, those competitors are now at parity on this front, TechCrunch reported.
Instinct has also added email addresses to let the assistant handle account sign-up and management. The company now allows users’ assistants to contact other people’s assistants to manage certain tasks by adding those users to a trusted network.
Both Instinct and Muse have seen strong traction in recent weeks. Instinct raised $350 million at a $2.5 billion valuation last month, and it is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation, with investors showing heavy interest in text-based assistants that can navigate different surfaces for users.
Meta’s Muse, meanwhile, outgrew the launch of the Meta AI app in its first few days, according to the analytics firm Sensor Tower. Muse garnered more than 730,000 downloads in the U.S., compared with 707,000 downloads for the Meta AI app in the first five days after its launch. Muse even reached the No. 2 position in the top charts at one point.