Instinct’s new product recommendations are giving some users the ick

Instinct has found a new way to try to make money: product recommendations. The problem is that the first version of the feature is landing with a thud. Users say the AI agent started surfacing shopping suggestions on its own, with no clear prompt, and that makes the whole thing feel less like help and more like a sales pitch.

The feature is called Instinct Selections. Founder Noah Shinn says the idea is to build curated lists for things like dining, travel, and shopping by working with people such as local chefs, designers, architects, and travel guides. The pitch is “human taste” layered on top of what the model already knows from the wider web. Instinct didn’t say who those human partners are.

Shinn framed it as a way to improve the quality of recommendations. He pointed to restaurant picks from chefs, trail suggestions from local guides, and home decor from independent designers that match a user’s style, space, and budget. He also said the goal is to produce recommendations that are better than what users would find online or get from other chatbots. But users are already pushing back on the delivery, not just the concept.

Shruti Gandhi of Array VC said Instinct suggested carry-on luggage, sunglasses, and a brim hat she didn’t want. Andrew Yeung said he got recommendations he hadn’t asked for. Chat Joglekar, who runs a business-buying marketplace, called it his first “ewwww” moment with an AI assistant after Instinct suggested products based on email and upcoming trips. The pattern is pretty clear: if the assistant inserts shopping nudges at random, people hear ads, not taste.

That matters because Instinct is competing with bigger players, including Meta and OpenAI, that apparently aren’t doing this. Instinct also hasn’t said whether the recommendations already make money or are meant to become an advertising, commerce, or affiliate channel. The timing is awkward, too: the feature arrived soon after the company said it raised a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation, while Shinn has also said the platform is approaching a billion dollars in annual transactions and that more than half of them are travel-related.