Editorial illustration for Instinct Founder: Over 50% of Platform Transactions Are Travel Bookings
Instinct: 50% of Bookings Are Travel, Founder Reveals
Noah Shinn built Instinct as an invite-only booking agent, and on a recent podcast with investor Patrick O'Shaughnessy, he put a number on what people are actually using it for. More than half of all transactions on the platform are travel bookings, hotels and flights mostly, the kind of thing people used to hand off to Expedia or a human travel agent. Shinn didn't break down the exact math behind that figure, but he did say the platform is growing 10% day over day, with transaction volume climbing at roughly the same pace. He also told O'Shaughnessy that Instinct is closing in on a billion dollars in annual transactions.
The travel numbers weren't the only thing that got attention from the interview. Shinn spent time explaining why he thinks existing booking interfaces, airline sites, hotel chains, aggregator apps, fall short of what an AI agent can do when someone needs to move fast. That argument set up a broader pitch about what Instinct could replace next, starting with an industry that runs on a much older kind of first-come-first-served logic: restaurant reservations.
The viral Instinct agent is no different, as it sees more than 50% of transactions on the platform for travel, the company’s founder, Noah Shinn, said in a recent podcast.
Why this matters
Travel booking keeps surfacing as the default proving ground for consumer AI agents, and Instinct's numbers give us a rare concrete data point instead of another demo reel. Shinn's claim that travel makes up more than half of transactions, on a platform nearing a billion dollars annually, tells us where real usage and real spend are concentrating right now, whatever the eventual ceiling looks like. For founders building agents, that's a signal worth weighing before chasing broader "do anything" assistants: the willingness to let an AI complete a purchase seems highest where the product (flights, hotels) is already standardized and comparison shopping is a known pain point.
For researchers, it's a decent natural experiment in trust and checkout behavior. But we'd push back on taking "approaching a billion" at face value without knowing how that figure is calculated, gross booking value, revenue, or something else entirely. Invite-only platforms also self-select for early adopters comfortable handing over a credit card to a bot.
Worth watching whether that ratio holds once Instinct opens up, or whether travel just becomes the wedge use case that fades as agents diversify.
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Common Questions Answered
What percentage of Instinct platform transactions are travel bookings according to founder Noah Shinn?
More than 50% of all transactions on the Instinct platform are travel bookings, primarily consisting of hotels and flights. This represents a significant portion of the platform's activity and demonstrates that travel booking has become the dominant use case for the AI agent.
What is Instinct's current day-over-day growth rate and transaction volume trajectory?
Instinct is experiencing 10% day-over-day growth with climbing transaction volume across its platform. This growth rate indicates strong user adoption and increasing engagement with the booking agent's services.
How does Instinct's travel booking focus compare to traditional booking services?
Instinct is replacing the role traditionally filled by services like Expedia and human travel agents by handling hotel and flight bookings through its AI agent platform. The platform's ability to capture over 50% of transactions in the travel category suggests users are shifting away from legacy booking methods toward AI-powered alternatives.
Why is travel booking significant as a proving ground for consumer AI agents?
Travel booking has emerged as the default use case for demonstrating consumer AI agent capabilities, and Instinct's concrete transaction data provides rare empirical evidence rather than just product demos. The concentration of real usage and spending in travel bookings signals to founders where market demand is currently strongest and validates the viability of AI agents in this specific domain.
Further Reading
- Instinct founder said more than 50% of transactions on the platform are travel-related - TechCrunch
- Instinct's App Is Fueled by Travel — Founder Says It's Half of Volume - Skift
- Instinct: The Personal Agent - Colossus
- Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent - Invest Like the Best - Apple Podcasts
- Exclusive Instinct Founder Interview: $10B Valuation, 10% Daily User Growth & How This Startup Will Rewrite the Future of the Internet - 36Kr
