Instinct and Meta’s Muse add phone calling to their AI assistants

In short: Instinct and Meta’s Muse now let their AI assistants place phone calls to businesses for you.

What happened

Instinct, a popular text-based AI assistant, has added a new feature called Instinct Concierge that can make phone calls on a user’s behalf. Instinct’s founder Noah Shinn said it can do tasks like booking restaurants that do not accept online reservations, asking to be put on a dentist’s cancellation list, and dealing with cable bill problems.

The calling feature is rolling out in early access to some Instinct users first. The company said it plans to expand it to all users over time.

Meta’s Muse, an AI assistant that launched last week, also added outbound calling to U.S. businesses. Meta said it will first roll out the feature to users who ask Muse to make a call, which doubles as a way to signal interest in the feature.

These updates matter in a crowded market for AI assistants, sometimes called “AI agents” (think of them like a digital helper that can carry out small errands). Other assistants had pointed to phone calling as something Instinct could not do, but now Instinct and Muse both offer it.

Why it matters

For many people, the hardest part of getting something done is not finding information, it is sitting on hold, repeating details, and negotiating with a business. If these assistants can reliably handle calls, they could save time on everyday chores like reservations and cancellations. It also raises practical questions for users, like when you want an AI to talk for you, and what information it should be allowed to share.

Source: TechCrunch AI