Rival AI agents, Instinct and Meta’s Muse, both add the ability to make calls
- ID
- 25544
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 17 Sep 2026, 9:46 PM
- Fetched
- 17 Sep 2026, 10:43 PM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/17/rival-ai-agents-instinct-and-metas-muse-both-add-the-ability-to-make-calls/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 17 Sep 2026, 10:43 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- ai_agent_usersdeveloperssaas_founders
What happened
Instinct (reportedly valued at $10B) and Meta's Muse both added phone-calling capabilities to their AI agents. Instinct's 'Concierge' feature can book restaurants without online reservations, join dentist cancellation lists, or resolve cable bill issues; Meta's Muse can place calls to U.S. businesses, rolling out first to users who ask Muse for the feature.
Why it matters
Both features are US-focused and consumer-oriented, so Malaysian builders can't directly use them yet. The practical signal is that voice/telephony is becoming a baseline expectation for AI agents rather than a differentiator—anyone building agent products should consider whether their roadmap needs a calling or telephony integration, and watch which provider opens API access first.
Discussion angle
If calling becomes table-stakes for agents, what's the next differentiator—and does a Malaysian or SEA startup have an advantage in building telephony-capable agents for markets where phone-based business is still the norm?