AI assistants pick up the phone: Instinct launches Concierge as Meta's Muse adds calls

Two text-first AI assistants added phone calling on the same day. On September 17, TechCrunch reported that San Francisco startup Instinct launched Instinct Concierge, while Meta's Muse began placing outbound calls to US businesses. Calling had been a selling point that rivals used to differentiate themselves from Instinct, and with Concierge rolling out, the field is now on par on that capability.

Instinct founder Noah Shinn announced the feature on X, describing Concierge as a white-glove service meant to handle high-touch cases. According to his post, users can book a restaurant that does not take online reservations, get onto their dentist's cancellation list, or work through problems with a cable bill. The feature is rolling out in early access to some users, and Shinn said it will expand to all users in time.

Meta moved in step. The company said Muse just gained the ability to place calls to US businesses, and that the feature will first roll out to users who ask Muse to make a call. TechCrunch notes this effectively serves as a feature request mechanism: Meta said that whenever Muse launches new features, they will be available first to the people who asked about them. Ryan Fox, who works on Muse, confirmed on X that the outbound calling beta is expanding.

The market the two are fighting over is crowded. TechCrunch lists Instinct, Wajo, Town, Ollie and Meta's Muse, which launched the week before, as competitors vying for users' attention and tasks, with Instinct among the most popular. The money is moving too: Instinct raised $350 million at a $2.5 billion valuation last month, and is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation.

Calling is not the only new surface. Last week Instinct rolled out email addresses so its assistant can handle account sign-up and management, and it now lets users' assistants contact other people's assistants by adding those users to a trusted network. The direction is consistent: the assistant stops being an answer box and starts holding an identity and acting on the user's behalf.

Muse's growth numbers are worth noting as well. Analytics firm Sensor Tower found that Muse outgrew the Meta AI app's launch, garnering over 730,000 downloads in the US in its first five days compared with 707,000 for the Meta AI app, and it briefly reached the number two spot in the top charts.

The more consequential shift is the interface. Phone calls push assistants out of text and into live voice conversations that require introductions, negotiation and follow-up, tasks that used to route through carriers, front desks and human support staff. Beyond a capability demo, that raises permission boundaries, recording and privacy questions, and the problem of who is accountable when a call goes wrong.

What to watch next is whether Concierge stays reliable as it moves from early access to general availability, and whether Muse's calling experience covers high-frequency jobs like restaurant bookings and subscription cancellations in the US. If delegated calls become a default, how businesses verify callers and how platforms handle call content will become the next competitive battleground.