Instinct, the AI agent company recently valued at $10 billion following its Series C funding round, has unveiled a new feature that allows its AI assistant to be added to group chats. This addition enables friends to collaborate with the AI on activities like planning trips, organizing carpools, coordinating events, and managing group tasks, all within one conversation thread. Impressively, the AI works even if some group members do not have an Instinct account, broadening its accessibility and usability.

This move places Instinct in closer competition with Meta’s Muse, which, while integrated across Meta's communication platforms, currently lacks group chat functionality specifically for its AI agents. Both Instinct and Muse have recently introduced phone call features, intensifying the race to capture more users in the growing consumer AI market. Additionally, OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Dots, a similar concept of personal AI agents designed for collaborative workspaces, showing a broader trend of AI integration into social and workgroup environments.

Instinct’s founder, Noah Shinn, highlighted the company’s commitment to privacy and user control in the group chat context. Personal Instinct agents require explicit user permission before interacting with the group agent or sharing any personal information. Users can selectively trust certain groups and revoke that trust at any time, ensuring a clear separation between individual and group AI interactions. Furthermore, any pending replies from a personal agent are withheld until appropriate to share, maintaining a secure and respectful communication rhythm.

The group chat AI feature is currently available to early access users with plans for a wider release soon. Users interested in trying out this functionality or other recent Instinct innovations can request access through their AI agent. This rollout marks another step in Instinct’s strategy to embed AI seamlessly into everyday social interactions while maintaining user privacy and convenience.