Some Users Are Repelled by Instinct’s New Product Recommendations
After a $1 billion Series C, Instinct introduced Instinct Selections, AI-curated dining, travel, and shopping recommendations. The overnight rollout drew criticism from users who called unsolicited product suggestions spammy and mismatched. While founder Noah Shinn says the feature adds human taste and a revenue path, Instinct has not disclosed user counts, leaving questions about its $10 billion valuation and monetization.
Key Takeaways
- Instinct AI launched “Instinct Selections,” a feature that pushes personalized product recommendations for dining, travel, and shopping shortly after raising a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation.
- The feature is meant to bring human-curated taste into AI recommendations through partnerships with chefs, designers, architects, and travel guides, though those partners have not been disclosed.
- Some users and investors complained that unsolicited shopping suggestions felt spammy, intrusive, and comparable to an “Amazon recommends app,” rather than a helpful AI assistant experience.
- The backlash highlights a key challenge for AI agents: product recommendations must be opt-in, highly relevant, and tied to user requests to avoid damaging trust and usability.
Instinct AI Agent Pushes Product Recommendations After $1 Billion Round
Meta Description: Instinct's AI agent added product recommendations after a $1 billion Series C, prompting user complaints about unsolicited shopping advice and spam.
Tags: Instinct AI, Instinct Selections, AI product recommendations, Series C, AI agents
Featured Image: abstract technology style with personalized recommendation cards for dining, travel and shopping, no real people, no company logos, no text
Funding Background: A $10 Billion Valuation Without a User Count
Instinct's AI agent has started pushing product recommendations through a new feature called Instinct Selections, giving the startup a potential revenue path beyond its assistant. The change matters because the recommendations launched shortly after Instinct confirmed its most recent financing, a $1 billion Series C round, a late-stage funding round that valued the company at $10 billion. Instinct has not said how many people use its product, a figure that would help justify that valuation. In a recent podcast with investor Patrick O'Shaughnessy, founder Noah Shinn said the agent regularly handles transactions for users and that the platform is approaching a billion dollars in annual transactions, with more than 50% related to travel.
Tuesday Debut: Human-Curated Lists for Dining, Travel and Shopping
Shinn announced the debut later Tuesday and explained the idea on X. Instinct Selections is designed to curate personalized lists in dining, travel and shopping. The plan is to partner with local chefs, designers, architects, travel guides and other specialists so the agent can bring human taste to suggestions, rather than relying only on training data gathered from the wider web. Shinn described examples such as restaurant picks from chefs who know hidden gems, trail routes from local guides that fit user preferences, and home pieces from independent designers matched to a user's style, space and budget. He said the goal is to deliver world-class recommendations that differ in quality from ordinary internet results and from other chatbot output. Instinct did not identify the human partners.
Overnight Rollout Turns Into User Pushback
The rollout happened overnight, and not all users welcomed it. Shruti Gandhi, a general partner at Array VC, an AI-focused investing firm, posted on X on September 29, 2026 that the change made Instinct feel overnight like a "shitty Amazon recommends app." She said she did not need carry-on luggage, sunglasses or a brim hat, and that she would have preferred a personalized shopping list of things she actually needed. Entrepreneur Andrew Yeung also confirmed on X that he received product recommendations he had not asked for. Chat Joglekar, founder of a business-buying marketplace, wrote on September 30, 2026 that Instinct gave him his first "ewwww" moment with an AI assistant by suggesting products based on email and upcoming trips, including a to-go coffee flask because of a Blue Bottle coffee subscription and travel accessories. Ash Thaker posted on September 29, 2026 that a random notification about additional equipment for a future trip was unwanted and that users should be able to curate their own sources as well as the ones Instinct uses.
Where This Leaves Instinct
Those reactions point to the core challenge: curated suggestions are useful when a user asks for them or when they fit naturally into a conversation. If recommendations arrive at random intervals, as they have for Instinct, they need to be highly personalized and strong enough to avoid feeling like spam. Instinct did not say whether it currently earns money from these recommendations or plans to, but the feature seems suited to advertising, commerce or affiliate arrangements, where a platform may earn a commission when users buy linked products. TechCrunch asked the company for further comment. The current stage is an early rollout with unconfirmed partners and unclear monetization. Unlike agents from Meta and OpenAI, which do not do this, Instinct is testing a recommendation channel that could deepen user value or irritate users before the company has disclosed a user count or revenue plan. Watch for clearer disclosure of human partners, opt-in controls and whether the suggestions become more tied to active requests.
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