Personal AI agents are arriving fast. I tested one on a family trip to Lisbon. Here is why I won't keep using it.

Last week I asked a new personal agent, Instinct, to plan a family trip to Lisbon. I wrote to it on WhatsApp the way I'd write to a friend. Within minutes it had the train times, a family discount that took almost half off the fare, three places to stay with its reasons for each, and a map of our day with two small children.

When it offered to book the Airbnb, I let it try. I wasn't going to give it my real card, so I made a virtual card locked to Airbnb with a $200 limit, signed in myself, and let it do the booking. It was incredibly smooth. It even asked whether to request a cot for my two-year-old.

Then, to book the train, it asked for passport details for all four of us. It told me everything was kept in a private vault it would never see. So I asked Claude to read the privacy policy and terms with me. The word "Vault" isn't in the privacy policy at all, nothing says the agent can't see what's stored, and the terms put every consequence of what it does on my behalf back on me.

The agent had reassured me about its own privacy in a way its own documents don't support. I booked the train myself.

I'm genuinely excited about personal agents, and busy parents especially are going to want one. But the most important thing with them is keeping your own agency: knowing what is stored, for how long, and who can see it, and deciding for yourself what you hand over. A disposable card with a $200 limit, yes. My children's passports or my email, not yet.