Meta’s new Muse AI agent has climbed to No. 1 on Apple’s U.S. App Store about two weeks after its launch, an early indication that AI agents may be gaining traction beyond the workplace.
Separately, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke announced that the company is going to let shoppers use Muse to complete purchases from Shopify merchants through Shop Pay, giving the AI agent another way to move beyond recommending products and actually buy them for users.
Muse reached the top of Apple’s U.S. free iPhone app chart on Sept. 18, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Sensor Tower estimated the app had about 730,000 U.S. downloads by that point, according to Yahoo Tech.
Released Sept. 8, Muse differs from a traditional AI chatbot because it is designed to take actions on a user’s behalf. Meta says the agent can send emails, book travel, fill out forms, negotiate and work on longer-running tasks even after a user closes the app. It asks for approval before sensitive actions such as sending an email or making a purchase.
Shopping could become an important test of that model. Muse already supports checkout through Stripe’s Link, while Meta said at launch that Shopify’s Shop Pay would be added. The Shopify integration would give Muse access to another large network of online merchants and allow shoppers to move from asking an AI agent to find something to having the agent complete the transaction.
The development could also signal a broader shift for AI agents. Businesses have been among the earliest adopters, using agents for tasks including customer service, coding and data analysis. Muse’s rapid rise suggests consumers may also be willing to use agents that do things for them rather than simply answer questions.
But there are already signs of friction. Amazon has blocked Muse from shopping on its marketplace, saying the agent’s access was unauthorized, according to The Wall Street Journal. That suggests retailers may have considerable say over where consumer AI agents are allowed to operate.