Competition among text-based AI assistants intensified as Instinct and Meta’s Muse both added the ability for agents to place phone calls. The new capabilities allow assistants to perform higher-touch tasks on behalf of users, such as booking reservations at restaurants that do not accept online bookings, getting on dental cancellation lists, or resolving service-provider billing issues.
What Instinct announced
San Francisco–based Instinct unveiled "Instinct Concierge," announced by founder Noah Shinn on X on September 16, 2026. According to the company, the Concierge feature enables agents to make phone calls to third parties to handle tasks like securing hard-to-book reservations or addressing billing problems.
Instinct said the feature is rolling out in early access to a subset of users and will be expanded to all users over time.
Meta’s Muse catches up
Meta’s Muse assistant added outbound calling to U.S. businesses as well. Meta stated the capability will first be available to users who explicitly ask Muse to make a call, effectively using user requests to prioritize feature rollout. Ryan Fox tweeted about the Muse beta expansion for outbound calls on September 16, 2026.
With these introductions, outbound calling no longer serves as a distinguishing advantage for any single competitor: rivals that had promoted calling as a differentiator versus Instinct are now largely on par in this respect.
Additional product moves and traction
Instinct also recently introduced email addresses to let its assistants handle account sign-ups and management. The company added a mechanism for users’ assistants to contact other users’ assistants for task coordination by adding them to a trusted network.
Both products have registered strong momentum. Instinct raised $350 million at a $2.5 billion valuation last month, and press reports indicate the company is in talks to raise $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation. Investors have shown strong appetite for text-based assistants that can navigate multiple surfaces on users’ behalf.
Analytics firm Sensor Tower noted that Muse outpaced the Meta AI app in the first days after launch in the U.S., registering more than 730,000 downloads compared with 707,000 downloads for the Meta AI app in its first five days. Muse briefly reached the No. 2 position in the app charts.
Why this matters
Adding outbound calling expands the practical utility of AI assistants by enabling them to handle more complex, human-facing tasks that require voice interaction. The rapid rollout of such features and the user adoption observed so far suggest a clear market demand for assistants capable of operating across text, email, and voice channels on behalf of users.
How the market evolves will depend on upcoming funding rounds, broader feature rollouts, and user feedback over the coming months.
