Travel dominates Instinct's AI agent platform with over half of all bookings

Travel bookings have emerged as the dominant use case for Instinct, the viral AI agent platform that recently secured major venture funding. In a recent podcast appearance, founder Noah Shinn disclosed that more than half of all transactions flowing through the service involve flight or hotel reservations—a pattern consistent with how most AI assistants are publicly demonstrated.

Scale and momentum#

Instinct is approaching annual transaction volumes near $1 billion, Shinn revealed in his interview with investor Patrick O'Shaughnessy, though he did not elaborate on the specific methodology underlying that calculation. The 14-person startup is experiencing rapid expansion, with daily growth rates around 10% and transaction volumes climbing at a comparable pace.

The company just completed a $1 billion Series C funding round that valued it at $10 billion, backed by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue.

Why travel matters#

Shinn articulated a key advantage AI agents offer over traditional booking sites. While conventional platforms excel at aggregating hotel chains, airlines, and other services into user-friendly interfaces, they fundamentally remain static. An AI agent, by contrast, enables a conversational approach: users can express urgent, contextual needs like "I need to be in New York tonight" and have the system work in real time to find options.

Expanding beyond travel#

Shinn also outlined ambitions for the platform beyond accommodations. He suggested that restaurant reservations represent an opportunity for reinvention—pointing out that most establishments rely on first-come-first-serve systems that fail to recognize meaningful occasions. An AI agent capable of monitoring availability across restaurant websites in real time could surface premium slots to diners celebrating anniversaries or special events.

He framed the restaurant challenge as an alignment problem: diners want tables for significant life moments, while restaurants prefer customers whose visits drive business or represent special occasions. Instinct's model positions AI agents as the bridge between those interests.

Skeptics raise concerns#

Critics quickly flagged potential pitfalls with this approach. Observers raised the possibility that users could misrepresent occasions—claiming anniversaries they aren't actually celebrating simply to secure desirable reservations. Others countered that restaurants often prioritize loyal local patrons over one-off visitors, regardless of occasion, complicating any system built around special event preferences.