Instinct, in the wild

Things a chief of staff already handled while the phone stayed in a pocket.

Instinct is a personal AI chief of staff that works over text, email, and WhatsApp. It orders, books, researches, watches, and follows up. Below: real errands from real usage, anonymized to the bone, plus what the same plumbing makes possible next.

Got one of your own? Submit your use case ↓

It happened

Real tasks, names and numbers stripped.

01
RealErrands
Text thread: a gift link becomes a placed order and a tracking number

The gift errand, end to end

I texted a link with "send this to my friend." It found a working $260-off code, applied it, checked out as a guest, and texted me the FedEx tracking number the moment the label moved.

02
RealErrands
Text thread: a photo becomes an identified part and a confirmed order

"Buy this," with a photo

I sent a photo of an office gadget. It identified the part number, checked prices across retailers, and placed the order. When the first store's payment form broke, it switched retailers mid-task and kept going - then handled the vendor's post-purchase reply requirement too.

03
RealMoney
Spreadsheet: an investment tracker with current value and IRR rows

The spreadsheet that runs itself

My personal investment tracker, assembled from a pile of PDFs and emails: capital calls, distributions, live IRR per position, color-coded. Missing figures flagged, never guessed.

04
RealErrands
Checklist: daily reminders, finished items sunk to the bottom

Reminders with a memory

I get daily nudges by text, tied to a shared checklist. Tick the box and the reminder stops. Finished items sink to the bottom of the list every day at 12:18 sharp.

05
RealMoney
Offers page: 92 loyalty offers added to a card, one card deliberately skipped

The 92-click chore

Ninety-two loyalty-program offers added for me in a single session, so no deal goes unclaimed. The one card I excluded was left exactly, deliberately alone.

06
RealFamily
Chat: a voice note transcribed, translated, and answered

Voice note in, answer out

I forwarded a voice memo in another language and got back a full transcript, an English summary, and a recommended reply. I approved sending it with one word.

07
RealWork
Calendar event: unresponsive guests caught before an empty meeting

Calendar diplomacy

It caught that my meeting was never actually confirmed before anyone showed up to an empty call. When my work calendar proved read-only, the event landed on it anyway through an invite workaround.

08
RealErrands
Text thread: an honest 'I couldn't do it' with the workaround

The honest no

I asked for a cancellation that couldn't be completed, and got back "I couldn't do it, and here's exactly why." A confident lie would have been easier. It wasn't an option.

17
RealTravel
Rebooking card: delayed flight, one option taken, four refunded, car at arrivals

The Jackson Hole delay

A delay text at night became five flight options: I took one, the other four were refunded, and a car was waiting at arrivals for my 5am landing. I never opened an app.

18
RealFun
Ticket card: two IMAX premiere seats grabbed at 3:09am

The 3:09am IMAX seats

A sold-out premiere at the most in-demand IMAX in the country. The second a cancellation opened at 3:09am, two seats were mine.

19
RealHealth
Booking card: in-network podiatrist booked, intake forms done

The podiatrist paperwork

It found and booked me an in-network podiatrist, with the new-patient paperwork filled out before my visit. No portal password scavenger hunt.

20
RealMoney
Bill card: cable bill cut from $100 to $60 a month

The Comcast script

My bill was $100 a month. When the chat hit a wall, I got a phone number and the exact words to say. One three-minute call later: $60. That's $480 a year back.

21
RealErrands
Payment card: toll notice paid from a photo, second notice caught

The toll notice photo

I sent a photo of a toll notice and it became a paid notice - plus a second outstanding one it found and settled before it could turn into a fine. No account number typed.

22
RealTravel
Audit card: three airlines checked, three errors caught in the notes

The honeymoon audit

"Confirm all our honeymoon flights." Delta, Air France, and Air Tahiti all checked against my bookings - and three errors caught in my own notes, not the flights.

23
RealErrands
Batch card: tickets, groceries, inbox, sushi cleared in four texts

The procrastination pile

Movie tickets, groceries for tomorrow, a Gmail cleanup with the unsubscribes I'd been skipping, and sushi timed to land when I walked in the door. One text each.

24
RealTravel
Proactive card: checked in unprompted, forgotten reservation flagged

The one that doesn't wait

Already checking me into flights and flagging the restaurant reservation I forgot to cancel, before I ask. Unprompted is the whole point.

25
RealFun
Watch card: pre-1960s acoustic guitars tracked hourly across dealers

The guitar watch

Every pre-1960s acoustic guitar entering the big dealers' inventory, digested hourly for me and priced against historical averages. The good ones surface before the crowd.

26
RealErrands
Ranking card: parking options stack-ranked by cost and ticket odds

The parking play

Creative parking options, stack-ranked for me by cost and the odds of a ticket, on the fly. Worked to perfection.

27
RealHealth
Scheduling card: overdue medical appointments booked, grocery delivery automated

The overdue list

My long-overdue medical appointments are finally on the calendar, and the weekly grocery delivery is automated. The pile of 'I'll get to it' got smaller.

28
RealMoney
Alert card: water bill surge caught and mapped to a fix

The water bill catch

My water bill suddenly surged. It caught the spike and mapped the likely fix before I even noticed something was off.

29
RealMoney
Watchdog card: every auto-renewal under management

The renewal moat

Everything I have that auto-renews - insurance, memberships, subscriptions - now runs on a management plan. Nothing quietly renews at the higher rate anymore.

30
RealMoney
Found money card: forgotten credits and gift cards surfaced

The found money

Thousands in forgotten airline credits and gift cards surfaced, with expiration dates on watch so none of it lapses. Money I already owned, back in play.

31
RealMoney
Refund card: price-drop difference won back after purchase

The price-drop fight

The price dropped after I bought. It fought the retailer for the difference, after the fact, and won.

32
RealTravel
Points card: hotel cash booking targeted for a points swap

The points upgrade

My cash hotel booking is marked for replacement. Three times a day it searches for the points rate that makes the cash version unnecessary.

33
RealTravel
Trip card: full family trip booked including every dinner

The family trip, dinners included

Flights, hotel, and every single dinner reservation for our full family trip. The whole thing booked, down to the Tuesday-night table.

34
RealTravel
Seat card: better seats free, kid reseated with family

The seat shuffle

Better seats, free. And it spotted one kid on a separate booking and reseated him with the family before anyone had to negotiate at the gate.

35
RealTravel
Fare card: nonstop Japan flights verified inside the visa window

The visa-window flights

Nonstop flights to Japan inside my 90-day visa window, Newark vs JFK priced out to an $8 difference, every fare verified real before it hit my shortlist.

36
RealTravel
Alert card: text sent the moment the fare drops $100+

The fare-drop text

It watches my fare and texts me the moment it drops $100 or more. Google Flights alerts can't handle trips this long. This can.

37
RealFamily
Gift card: new-parent gift set shopped and assembled

The new-parent gift

A friend had a baby. It shopped, chose, and pulled together the gift set. I got to be the thoughtful friend without doing the shopping.

38
RealFamily
Restock card: sold-out toy caught via Instagram stories

The toy restock

The sold-out toy restocked at a local store, caught by watching their Instagram stories. Under my tree instead of on a waitlist.

39
RealFamily
School card: pajama day never missed again

The pajama day save

It monitors my school emails so we never miss pajama day again. Some defeats stay with you. This was the last one.

40
RealFun
Watch card: standing prime rib reservation watch tied to SF trips

The prime rib watch

I have a standing watch on House of Prime Rib that wakes up whenever I'm traveling to SF. A table appears, I hear about it.

41
RealFun
Auction card: deals sniped in the final seconds

The auction sniper

It hunts card deals across auction sites for me daily, then snipes in the final seconds, when nobody can answer the bid.

42
RealFun
Scorecard card: collection valued live against daily comps

The collection scorecard

A live spreadsheet values my card collection against daily comps and flags what's mispriced. My binder has a Bloomberg terminal.

43
RealWork
Migration card: old cloud storage consolidated into the new

The cloud migration

Everything in my old cloud storage, consolidated and moved into the new one. No orphaned folders, no lost files, one login.

44
RealWork
Moodboard card: Notion brief turned into a Figma v0

The moodboard

"Make a moodboard in Figma from the latest project I was assigned in Notion." It found my brief, logged into Figma, and built v0.

45
RealWork
Ops card: CRM, follow-ups, and data room run in the background

The invisible chief of staff

CRM, email follow-ups, and the LP data room, running alongside my travel and reservations. All of it current, none of it on my desk.

46
RealErrands
Quote card: bumper repair shops sent quote requests as him

The bumper quotes

Every bumper repair shop in range got a quote request, sent as me. The replies came back to my inbox with prices attached.

47
RealErrands
Security card: login attempts and fake account caught and locked down

The fraud lockdown

11 suspicious Facebook login attempts and a fake Walmart account opened with my email. Caught, flagged, and every account walked through the lockdown step by step.

48
RealFamily
Chat: a voice note becomes a tournament registration, a calendar event, and a draw-time watch

Voice note to tournament entry

Sent a voice note; Instinct registered my kid for a tennis tournament, put it on the calendar, and now watches for the draw so I get his start time the moment it posts.

49
RealHealth
Lock screen: a 7:00 AM reminder for iron and vitamin D with a rotating tip

The 7am supplement nag

Every morning at 7am, a reminder to take my iron and vitamin D - with rotating tips from my doctor's note so it never becomes wallpaper.

50
RealFamily
Calendar grid: school days off and half-days highlighted, each event prefixed

Photo of a school calendar

I snapped a picture of the school calendar. Nineteen days off and half-days showed up in my Google Calendar, each titled with a prefix so I can spot them instantly.

51
RealWork
Chat: a Friday 4pm check-in on the week's priorities, answered honestly

The Friday accountability check-in

Every Friday at 4pm, Instinct asks what actually shipped against the priorities I set - and remembers what I said I'd do, so I can't quietly renegotiate with myself.

52
RealFamily
Notes list: which school office to email for what, saved as a cheat sheet

Who-do-I-email cheat sheet

I sent photos of a school contact guide. Now I have a text cheat sheet of who to email for what, and the details are filed for whenever the school sends me hunting.

It can

Same capabilities, pointed at what comes next.

09
TheoreticalWork
Email thread: watched until the reply lands, then one alert text

"Tell me the second they reply"

It watches my email thread. The moment the answer lands, one text arrives with the summary and the decision I need to make. I never open the inbox in between.

10
TheoreticalTravel
Itinerary card: trip options, nothing booked until one word picks it

The surprise trip

My birthday getaway, planned end to end: destination options, the impressive hotel found, the itinerary drafted. Nothing gets booked until I pick it with one word.

11
TheoreticalTravel
Fare alert: price drop below the set threshold, ready to book

The fare watch

My flight prices, checked daily against a threshold I set. When the fare drops below it, I get one text: the option, the price, ready to book on my approval.

12
TheoreticalMoney
Email: a lease renewal reduced to the one number that matters

The lease renewal

My landlord's renewal email gets read and reduced to the real number: "5% increase." A draft reply waits for my one-word decision.

13
TheoreticalHealth
Shortlist: restaurants pre-screened against dietary rules

The quiet screen

Every restaurant suggestion gets checked against my dietary rules before it's ever mentioned to me. The right shortlist, no explanations owed.

14
TheoreticalWork
Email: a forwarded vendor question, answered and closed

"Handle this"

I forward a vendor email and it becomes the answer, the documents, and the follow-up. I never open the thread. The loop gets closed.

15
TheoreticalTravel
Check-in card: checked in the moment the window opened, boarding pass delivered

The boarding pass that checked itself in

My flight's check-in window gets watched to the minute. The second it opens, my check-in is done and the boarding pass is on my phone. I never open the airline app.

16
TheoreticalTravel
Rebooking card: cancelled 7am flight replaced with a 9:15 seat, same fare class, zero dollars

The 6am rebooking

Woke to a cancellation text for the 7am flight. Replied "fix it" and went back to sleep. By the time the alarm went off there was a seat on the 9:15, same fare class, no cost, and a one-line summary in the thread.

Submit yours

What has Instinct handled for you - or what should it handle next?

Every submission is read and reviewed before anything goes live: it has to be doable with Instinct, reasonable, and anonymized. No email address, no personal details needed.