Meta’s AI Shopping Agent Muse Tops App Store as Agentic Commerce Gains Traction

Meta’s latest personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse, has secured the number one spot on Apple’s App Store, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The surge in popularity highlights a growing consumer willingness to delegate time-consuming shopping tasks to AI, even as existential concerns about artificial intelligence persist.

The application has recorded over 2.5 million downloads within its first two weeks since launch, according to Sensor Tower data provided to CBS News. This figure outpaces the approximately 3.1 million global downloads OpenAI’s ChatGPT app achieved during the same period and significantly exceeds the 200,000 downloads for Anthropic’s Claude tool.

Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData Retail, described the trend as an “acceleration of agentic shopping.” He noted that consumers are increasingly turning to AI agents to handle cumbersome duties such as comparing deals across multiple websites and locating specific products. While Saunders did not characterize this as a definitive tipping point, he identified it as a crucial milestone in the relationship between AI and consumers.

Data from IBM indicates that 41% of consumers now utilize AI assistants for product research, while 31% use them to hunt for discounts. John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight, suggested that if Muse sustains its current momentum, it could potentially leapfrog Claude to join the elite tier of consumer AI tools. Mercer emphasized that Muse represents a natural evolution from traditional search, offering capabilities that go beyond information retrieval.

Unlike conventional chatbots, Muse is designed to execute actions on behalf of users. Its functionalities include booking flights, organizing email inboxes, monitoring price reductions, and assisting with holiday shopping by comparing prices and finding promo codes. A recent Coresight survey of more than 1,000 consumers revealed that 30% are willing to use AI tools for price comparisons and deal-finding during the holiday season.

However, adoption faces hurdles. Saunders pointed out that broader consumer acceptance of AI shopping agents will likely take time, citing emerging cases of agentic AI mishaps that have shaken public trust. He observed that many users remain hesitant to grant AI agents full authority to make purchases on their behalf.

Adding to the complexity of the AI commerce landscape, Amazon confirmed to CBS News that it has blocked Muse from operating on its e-commerce platform. The company cited security risks and potential negative impacts on user experience as the primary reasons for the restriction.