Instinct and Muse think alike: Agent is free, relying on transaction commissions.

Beating AI News Flash: Noah Shinn, founder of personal AI Agent Instinct, explained how the company plans to make money in his first public long-form interview.

Shinn hopes Instinct can eventually be free long-term, without charging users a subscription fee. After the Agent completes transactions such as booking hotels and shopping for users, Instinct would then charge the merchants who receive the orders a small commission. However, this is still only his goal for now, and Instinct has not yet promised to be permanently free.

Shinn also made clear he does not want to do advertising. Personal Agents will understand users better and better, and will also become better and better at influencing users' decisions. If the platform makes money from advertising, the Agent could start persuading users to buy things they had not originally planned to buy. He would rather Instinct only make money from transactions users were already going to complete.

Exactly how much to take has not yet been decided. Shinn used the platform commissions of Shopify, Amazon, and Apple as references. About half of Instinct's transaction volume currently comes from travel, and some boutique hotels are willing to pay commissions of more than 30% for the orders it brings, but Instinct may not necessarily charge that much.

Coincidentally, Zuckerberg previously envisioned this same model for Muse: most users use it for free, and after the Agent helps users complete transactions, it then charges the merchants who gain the business.