AI agent Instinct is opening up to group chats after reaching a $10 billion valuation in its latest funding round. Users will be able to add the agent to conversations with their friends; the feature will work even if those friends do not have Instinct accounts. Use cases include:
- Planning trips
- Buying event tickets
- Running fantasy leagues
- Organizing carpooling
- Determining who will bring what for Thanksgiving
This move gives Instinct an edge in its competition with Meta’s Muse. While Muse does not yet offer a group chat feature, Meta AI can be added to group chats on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook. Instinct and Muse have also added the ability to make phone calls in recent weeks. OpenAI, meanwhile, introduced ChatGPT Dots last week, personal AI agents that can be used in ChatGPT Spaces.
According to Instinct founder Noah Shinn, the personal agent will ask the user for permission before connecting to the group’s agent. Users will be able to choose which groups to trust and revoke that permission at any time. The group agent will operate in isolation from personal accounts, while the personal agent will ask for approval before sharing information or taking action. When new members join, pending responses will be held back rather than shared.
The feature is initially being made available to early-access users and will roll out to all users shortly. Those who want to try it will be able to ask their personal agents to add them to the list.
Why it matters
This development means that AI agents are no longer merely tools that handle a single user’s tasks, but are being brought into the joint decisions of multiple people. Allowing friends without accounts to participate in the process prevents usage from being limited by the number of people in the group or by technical preparation; for this reason, the feature is directly relevant to chats that require planning and coordination. Separating them from personal accounts, requesting permission, and offering the option to revoke access make control over private information a central issue in shared conversations. While Instinct’s entry into this area ahead of its competitors is shifting the focus of competition from individual assistants to the management of authority and trust within groups, how pending responses will be handled when new members join remains an open question from a user experience perspective.
Background
Instinct is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 6 news stories mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 3, 2026.
Term: agent
An AI agent is software that calls tools and carries out multi-step tasks to achieve a goal, rather than producing a single response.