Noah Shinn’s Instinct can cut digital friction and grow the pie
By Bram de Vries · Reporting from Amsterdam ·
Noah Shinn's Instinct agent aims to eliminate consumer inertia by automating daily tasks, but its success depends on whether it remains a tool or becomes a new gatekeeper.
The death of consumer inertia
"Man, any product that's dependent on consumer laziness or inertia is toast, huh?" That was the reaction from host Patrick O'Shaughnessy during his recent interview with Noah Shinn, founder of the personal AI assistant Instinct. On the latest episode of Invest Like the Best, Shinn laid out a vision for a world where software agents do not just chat, but act. With a billion dollars in transaction volume already flowing through his platform, Shinn claims his agent is growing at 10% day-over-day. It is a bold, mercantile promise: a future where the friction of digital commerce—booking travel, canceling subscriptions, or managing a calendar—is reduced to zero.
The high cost of being proactive
Shinn is refreshingly blunt about the logistics of this revolution. He admits that he spends nearly 40% of his time wrestling with compute capacity. Unlike traditional consumer apps, where scaling is a matter of server load, Instinct’s proactive nature requires constant, token-heavy background work. Shinn is not building a chatbot; he is building an operational layer that wakes up, scans, and executes on behalf of the user. This is capital-intensive business. Shinn is betting that by delivering a high-quality, "understandable" product, he can capture a slice of the transaction value currently held by intermediaries like online travel agencies.
The trap of the free interface
There is a subtle danger here that Shinn acknowledges but must navigate carefully. He correctly identifies that free consumer products often monetize by manipulating user behavior against their own interests. He vows that Instinct will be different, aiming to align the agent’s objectives with the user’s true goals. Yet, as he plots his path alongside giants like Apple and Uber, the temptation to become the new gatekeeper will be immense. If Instinct truly becomes the primary interface for our digital lives, it will inherit the same power to influence commerce that he currently critiques in today's dominant platforms.
A market for efficiency, not just novelty
What makes Shinn’s pitch compelling is not the AI magic, but the focus on removing the "logistical burden" of modern life. If he can successfully automate the mundane—the repetitive, low-value tasks that consume our hours—he will grow the pie for everyone. The real test will be whether his "trusted network" can withstand the inevitable adversarial pressures of the digital economy. If he stays true to his principle of user control, he may just build the most important utility of the next decade. If he pivots to become another extraction layer, he will be just another app in a crowded, fatigued marketplace.