Meta built an AI that can shop for you. The problem is that most people don’t want AI spending their money

After a long work week, many people find solace in a relaxing Saturday filled with coffee dates and leisurely strolls, spending their well-earned money. Shopping can be a therapeutic activity - Cher Horowitz in 'Clueless' certainly understood this. However, Silicon Valley has another perspective: shopping is a task better left to artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, Meta unveiled Muse, a personal AI agent that can learn a user's preferences through years of social activity, search for items, navigate checkout, and even wait for final approval. Muse joins a growing number of AI personal shoppers from Amazon, Google, Walmart, Disney, Uber, and OpenAI, all competing for control over the shopping journey from desire to payment.

For now, Muse is free for U.S. adults, capable of autonomously completing tasks ranging from coordinating social plans to shopping for outfit ideas. Unlike standard chatbots, Muse can handle the entire checkout process and present the total for the consumer to approve through Stripe's Link service. While AI-powered shopping assistants saw a 693.4% surge in traffic during the 2025 holiday season, with online holiday spending reaching $257.8 billion - a 6.8% increase from the previous year, not everyone is eager to hand over their money to AI.

Only 31% of respondents in a Vogue Business survey would outsource shopping to an AI agent, even if it understood their tastes. Privacy concerns are also major obstacles, with 72% of people unwilling to share card details, 46% declining to provide browsing history, and 40% refusing to share location data. More than half of respondents had never used AI for fashion or beauty shopping, and only 2% believed AI consistently understood their personal style.

Meta holds vast amounts of data on user behavior, enabling Muse to transform Instagram recipe reels into grocery lists. However, this requires access to increasingly personal information, and users can disconnect services at any time, opting out of data usage for training AI models. Meta assures users that conversations and data will not be shared with advertising systems, but its history of privacy controversies, including a $5 billion FTC penalty in 2019 over allegations of violating user privacy, must overcome these concerns.

Muse seeks to leverage this personal data to offer better recommendations, but trusting Meta with this level of access is a significant ask. Muse also serves as a test for CEO Mark Zuckerberg's efforts to regain Meta's position in the AI race. Despite Meta's extensive reach through its social empire, consumers may not want AI involved in their shopping decisions.

Browsing without a plan, stumbling upon unexpected finds, and making personal choices may still hold greater appeal. The ultimate AI shopping victor may be the company that recognizes consumers' desire for assistance in comparing products or managing tedious orders, rather than complete automation. Only time will tell which tech company can master when to deploy AI agents and when to let consumers retain control.