AI assistants that hunt savings could upend insurers, airlines and subscription firms

Personal AI assistants are emerging as powerful money-saving devices, scanning bank data to cancel unused services, negotiate lower rates and retrieve forgotten credits. CEOs such as Noah Shinn of Instinct tout the ability to quantify savings, while Meta promotes its Muse agent in a similar vein. Users have reported tangible cuts, from a Datadog engineer lowering his Verizon bill by $25 a month to a Merit Systems employee recouping flight credits.

Industry observers warn that widespread adoption could threaten business models that rely on consumer inertia, with insurers, airlines, banks and subscription platforms most exposed. Following Muse’s debut, shares of Airbnb, Booking.com and Planet Fitness dropped double-digit percentages, and experts estimate billions of dollars in premiums could be at risk if a modest share of customers use agents. Companies may respond by hardening their processes or deploying their own AI to retain customers.