Rival AI agents, Instinct and Meta's Muse, both add the ability to make calls

Meta Platforms and AI startup Instinct have both launched voice-calling capabilities for their respective AI assistant agents, escalating competition in the rapidly evolving consumer AI sector. Meta added outbound phone calling capabilities to its Muse AI agent for U.S. businesses, rolling out the tool initially to users who request call-related tasks. Concurrently, competitor Instinct debuted "Instinct Concierge," enabling autonomous voice interactions to complete real-world tasks such as booking restaurant reservations and contacting service providers. This functional upgrade represents a key shift toward agentic AI that actively performs off-platform actions rather than purely generating text responses. Consumer adoption data shows strong initial traction for Meta's agent, with analytics from Sensor Tower showing Muse achieved over 730,000 downloads in the U.S. in its first five days, outperforming the launch of Meta's standalone AI app and reaching number two on the app store charts. The fierce feature race highlights expanding investments in agentic AI interfaces, with Instinct simultaneously seeking funding at a $10 billion valuation.