Viral AI assistant Instinct now has its own email address

Instinct, the buzzy new AI assistant now valued at $2.5 billion, is rolling out a new feature that will allow it to do more on its users’ behalf: it’s giving everyone Instinct email addresses.

The company’s founder Noah Shinn said on Tuesday that the new email addresses let the agent create and run its own accounts without cluttering up users’ inboxes.

Shinn said the idea is to allow Instinct to handle the account sign-up and management for you if it needs to do so for completing tasks that require email, like creating accounts on various services, contacting businesses, and following up on things that need attention.

“For example, Instinct can use its own email to contact a restaurant about a special request, ask a business about availability, or sign up for a service it needs to complete your task,” Shinn wrote on X.

The feature could help make Instinct’s user experience more seamless, as users wouldn’t have to intervene to log in or provide their credentials. (Instinct partnered with 1Password on the latter last week).

But for businesses trying to establish a relationship with their customers, having an AI manage the account would provide a layer of obscurity as to who they’re actually dealing with. Customers, however, may see this as a perk, as many are these days tired of having to turn over their emails and phone numbers just to complete simple tasks or one-offs.