Meta's Muse tops App Store as Amazon blocks it from purchases

Financial firms sell off as investors weigh AI agent disruption

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Meta Platforms’ personal AI agent Muse has been sitting atop Apple’s U.S. App Store since Friday, sending the company’s stock up 11% on Monday, while Amazon over the weekend blocked the agent from shopping on its site. The early success and immediate friction illustrate the split reaction to consumer AI agents: rapid adoption among users and investors, alongside early resistance from platforms, privacy concerns from consumers and a competitive landscape that analysts say is weeks from intensifying.

Meta launched Muse on Sept. 8 as an easy-to-use personal AI agent accessible through a smartphone app. Sensor Tower data shows the app has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times since launch. It is unclear, however, how many of those users have granted Muse full access to their online lives. On Sunday night, Amazon moved to make Muse a less useful product, blocking the agent from accessing its shopping site and from purchasing items on behalf of users. An Amazon spokesperson said the company was not made aware in advance that Muse would be accessing its store and had not authorized the action. “We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate,” the spokesperson said. Meta declined to comment.

Analysts said Amazon’s block reflects a broader dispute over how AI agents interact with e-commerce platforms built around advertising revenue. “Almost all of the internet marketplaces either have a very large advertising business or plan to build one over time,” said Josh Beck, a tech analyst at Raymond James. “So this, I think, is a major chokepoint.” Beck added that sites need to believe working with AI agents will bring enough new users to boost revenues and not become “net negative.” Meta said it has established partnerships with Shopify, Instacart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Consumer trust is a separate hurdle. An Oppenheimer & Co. survey of U.S. consumers found that only 8% would trust Meta with their passwords, compared with 30% who would feel comfortable giving them to Google. The gap matters because Muse becomes more useful as users grant access to more of their digital lives, including emails, text messages and calendars.

Security concerns compound the trust gap. In its launch announcement, Meta emphasized that Muse was built with security in mind and said each agent runs on its own secure, dedicated computer. Ahead of the launch, Meta’s AI chief, Alexandr Wang, said in an interview that the company was more concerned about the potential for an agent to accidentally leak personal information or delete important emails than about the AI going rogue. Analysts, however, warned that a major breach could set back the entire category. “If tomorrow we come in and there’s some kind of major hack of some of these agents having taken someone’s credentials or somebody’s credit card information and went berserk, then I think it’ll be negative for the entire space,” said Youssef Squali, a Truist Securities analyst.

The commercial stakes remain high despite the obstacles. One estimate from Truist Securities projects Muse could add $28.5 billion of incremental revenue for Meta by 2030. Squali, however, was cautious about how durable Meta’s lead would be. “I don’t know whether it’s sustainable because if we learn anything from this space, give Google and OpenAI a couple weeks and they’ll duplicate whatever is out there,” he said. “At least, as of now, I think the narrative around Meta has been changing.”

Competitors are close behind. Analysts expect OpenAI to announce a consumer AI agent in the next week or two, and Apple is expected to enter the market as well. The only other comparable product currently available comes from a startup called Instinct, which is gaining traction but remains invite-only. “It’s way too early to have a firm view on how this will develop,” Beck said. “But everyone started to move in this direction.”

The rapid adoption of Muse has also triggered fears that AI agents will disrupt established industries. On Tuesday, shares sold off across wealth-management firms, brokerage houses and banks, including a drop of more than 6% for Charles Schwab. Travel-site owner Booking Holdings and insurance provider Allstate were also hit. “Time to market matters here,” said Ken Gawrelski, an analyst with Wells Fargo. “These assistants get better and better as we, the consumers, learn how to best interact with them and direct our agents.”

Meta retains a first-mover advantage and, as the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has access to data on millions of users and a distribution platform analysts described as nearly unrivaled. Google, Gawrelski noted, has substantial computing capacity it could redeploy to build a comparable product. Muse itself uses significant computing resources because each agent runs on its own virtual computer.