A growing number of AI agents are designed to be used by text message rather than through a separate app, TechCrunch reports in a round-up of the main services.
Users message the agent as they would a person, and it can remember context, connect to email and calendars, and carry out tasks such as booking appointments, making reservations, shopping or setting reminders. The best known is Instinct, which TechCrunch says raised $1 billion in September at a $10 billion valuation and now gives each assistant its own email address so it can sign up for services on a user's behalf.
Others include Ask Proxy, which works over SMS for $1 a day; Caddy, which runs in iMessage and RCS; Folk, which runs on its own cloud computer; the open-source Comma; and Fambot, a family organiser that sends a nightly summary of the next day's plans.
Source: TechCrunch
