Editorial illustration for Entrepreneurs Find Instinct's Recommendations Off-Putting
Instinct's New Recommendations Feature Backfires
Entrepreneurs Find Instinct's Recommendations Off-Putting
Instinct rolled out a new feature called Instinct Selections on Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning some of its users were already souring on it. The AI startup, which has built its reputation on personalized digital assistance, is now pushing product recommendations for restaurants, travel, and home goods, framed as a way to inject "human taste" into an AI product. Founder Noah Shinn announced the change on X, describing partnerships with unnamed "local chefs, designers, architects, travel guides" who would hand-pick suggestions rather than leave everything to the model's training data.
Shinn's pitch was specific: a restaurant list "handpicked by chefs who know the hidden gems in your area," trail suggestions from local guides, furniture picks from independent designers matched to a user's budget and space. The goal, he said, was recommendations "differentiated in quality" from anything available elsewhere on the internet or from competing chatbots. Instinct hasn't named who these curators actually are, which has left some users wondering whether the feature is what it claims to be. The reaction since launch suggests the company may have misjudged how its audience would take to being sold to.
Another entrepreneur, Andrew Yeung, confirmed on X that he also received product recommendations that he hadn’t asked for, which can feel off-putting.
Why this matters
Instinct's stumble is a preview of the monetization problem every AI agent company will eventually face. The moment an assistant stops answering questions and starts pushing recommendations nobody asked for, trust takes a hit that's hard to walk back. Noah Shinn framed Instinct Selections as personalization, but Andrew Yeung and Chat Joglekar's reactions suggest users read it as something closer to an ad injection, arriving overnight and unannounced to the people actually affected.
For founders building on top of agent platforms, this is a warning about sequencing: revenue features bolted onto a product before users have opted in tend to read as a bait-and-switch, no matter the intent behind them. For developers designing these systems, the lesson is about consent and framing, not just utility. Recommendation engines can be genuinely useful, but they need to feel requested, not ambient.
Researchers studying human-AI trust should take note too. Joglekar's "ewwww" reaction is a data point about the gap between what companies think counts as helpful and what users experience as intrusive. That gap is where adoption stalls.
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Common Questions Answered
What is Instinct Selections and how does it work?
Instinct Selections is a new feature launched by the AI startup Instinct that provides personalized product recommendations for restaurants, travel, and home goods. The company framed this feature as a way to inject "human taste" into their AI product by partnering with unnamed local chefs, designers, architects, and travel experts to curate these suggestions.
Why are entrepreneurs finding Instinct Selections off-putting?
Users like Andrew Yeung and others reported receiving unsolicited product recommendations they never asked for, which felt intrusive and unwelcome. Rather than perceiving these recommendations as personalization, users interpreted them as ad injections that appeared overnight without their consent or request.
What monetization challenge does Instinct's stumble reveal for AI agent companies?
Instinct's experience demonstrates the fundamental tension between providing helpful AI assistance and generating revenue through recommendations. When an AI assistant shifts from answering user questions to pushing unsolicited product recommendations, it erodes user trust in a way that is difficult to recover from, creating a significant monetization problem for the entire AI agent industry.
How did Instinct's founder Noah Shinn justify the new recommendations feature?
Founder Noah Shinn announced Instinct Selections on X as a way to bring "human taste" into the AI product through partnerships with local experts in various fields. However, this framing as personalization did not resonate with users who saw it as an unwanted ad injection rather than a genuine improvement to the service.
Further Reading
- Instinct's new product recommendations are giving some users the ick - TechCrunch
- Instinct: AI startup Instinct brings expert-curated recommendations to its platform - The Economic Times
- Instinct: AI startup Instinct brings expert-curated recommendations to its platform - The Economic Times
- The AI graveyard: a running list of projects and startups that didn't make it - TechCrunch
