How to detect Instinct, the invite-only AI agent you text

Instinct, a text-based personal AI assistant from Spear Street Technology, can use customers’ stored credentials and cloud browsers to complete tasks such as reservations, shopping, and ticket purchases, creating challenges for websites that may perceive its rapid activity as suspicious automation. A reported incident in which Instinct repeatedly queried Resy for a difficult restaurant reservation led to a customer account’s temporary deactivation, illustrating the tension between accommodating legitimate users and preventing abusive bot behavior. Fingerprint says its Bot Detection Smart Signal can identify traffic inferred to come from Instinct, classifying it as an unidentified AI agent rather than inherently malicious activity, and enabling businesses to apply context-specific controls such as rate limits for scarce inventory, stronger verification for account changes, and additional checkout scrutiny when other risk indicators appear. The capability is being rolled out to Fingerprint accounts and is included for eligible Pro and Enterprise customers.

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