Meta's Muse shopping agent is a hit, as AI commerce starts to take off

Meta's Muse, a personal AI agent, has quickly gained popularity on Apple's App Store, currently ranking above ChatGPT in popularity. Neil Saunders, a retail analyst from GlobalData Retail, believes the app's success highlights the rapid advancement of AI shopping agents. Saunders predicts more people will turn to these agents to automate tasks like comparing deals and locating products.

According to IBM, 41% of consumers use AI assistants for product research, and 31% use them to find deals. Since its launch, Muse has accumulated over 2.5 million downloads, surpassing OpenAI's ChatGPT, which had 3.1 million downloads, and Anthropic's Claude, with 200,000 downloads. Amazon has barred Muse from its e-commerce platform due to security and user experience concerns.

Unlike conventional chatbots, Muse can perform actions for users, such as booking flights, organizing email inboxes, and monitoring price drops. When it comes to shopping, Muse's advantage lies not only in saving time but also in helping consumers discover deals. A recent survey reveals that 30% of consumers would utilize an AI tool to compare prices for holiday shopping, and the same percentage would use the tools to find discounts or promotional codes on holiday gifts.

While Muse's impact is already notable, Saunders believes that widespread adoption of AI shopping agents will take time, as there have already been instances of agentic AI failures that have shaken people's trust in these tools.