The market for text-based AI assistants is seeing intense competition, with rivals such as Instinct, Wajo, Town, Ollie, and Meta’s recently launched Muse vying for user engagement. San Francisco-based Instinct, which has attracted significant investor interest and reportedly achieved a $10 billion valuation, has introduced a new calling feature designed to act as a digital concierge. Meta’s Muse has simultaneously added the ability to place calls to U.S. businesses, marking a key convergence in capabilities between the two leading platforms.
Instinct founder Noah Shinn announced via X that the new “Instinct Concierge” feature allows the AI to handle tasks such as booking restaurants that do not accept online reservations, joining cancellation lists for dentists, and resolving billing disputes with service providers. The feature is currently rolling out in early access to a limited group of users, with plans for a broader release in the future.
While Instinct has been shipping updates rapidly, Meta’s Muse is keeping pace. The tech giant confirmed that its new calling capability will initially be available to users who specifically request Muse to make a call. This approach serves as a feature request mechanism, with Meta stating that future features will similarly debut for users who ask about them first.
These updates arrive after several competitors had previously touted call-making as a distinct advantage over Instinct. With both Instinct and Muse now offering similar telephonic assistance, the landscape has shifted toward parity in this area. Instinct has also recently expanded its functionality by introducing dedicated email addresses for account management and enabling assistant-to-assistant communication within a trusted user network.
Both platforms have demonstrated strong growth metrics in recent weeks. Instinct raised $350 million last month at a $2.5 billion valuation and is reportedly in discussions to secure $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation, reflecting heavy investor interest in agents capable of navigating multiple digital surfaces. Meanwhile, analytics firm Sensor Tower reported that Muse surpassed the launch numbers of the Meta AI app, securing over 730,000 downloads in the U.S. compared to 707,000 for the existing AI app in its first five days. At one point, Muse reached the number two spot in the U.S. top charts.
It is wild that Muse already beat Meta AI’s launch downloads. Is the playing field really level now?
I am waiting to see how reliable these AI agents are before I trust them with my bills and reservations.
Finally, AI that can actually handle the phone calls I dread making. This is a game changer for daily tasks.