Meta's Muse AI Agent
Meta's Muse AI Agent

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Meta Platforms' new artificial intelligence agent, Muse, has passed 3.4 million downloads and reached the top of the U.S. App Store less than three weeks after launching, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, an early success that helped push Meta's shares up more than 10% last week even as questions about consumer trust and retailer access remain unresolved.

Muse launched on September 8. According to estimates from the analytics firm Sensor Tower, the app drew about 730,000 downloads in its first five days and passed 2.5 million by September 21, before crossing 3.4 million in figures current through Thursday. Sensor Tower cautioned that its install estimates can lag real-world adoption. CNBC reported that Muse overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT as the No. 1 free iPhone app in the United States on September 18. Rankings and cumulative totals are different measures, however: over the same 13-day window after launch, ChatGPT recorded about 3.1 million global downloads, ahead of Muse's 2.5 million, while Muse's total exceeded those of Anthropic's Claude and xAI's Grok, Sensor Tower said. Muse is currently available only in the United States, through Meta's iOS and Android apps, WhatsApp and the web.

Meta pitched Muse as a way for consumers to direct digital assistants that carry out tasks across the web, such as filling out online forms and organizing email inboxes. At Meta's annual developer conference last Wednesday, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg outlined further ways people will be able to use it. Users will soon be able to talk with the agent in real time, he said, and to reach it through Meta's smart glasses and a forthcoming handheld device called the Muse Charm. Zuckerberg also described a future in which AI agents play a larger role in people's daily lives.

The enthusiasm has been tempered by two hurdles the Journal highlighted. The first is trust. For Muse to work as designed, users must be willing to give it access to their email, bank accounts and other online accounts. A survey of 1,500 U.S. consumers by Oppenheimer & Co. conducted around the launch found that just 8% said they would trust Meta with their passwords, compared with 30% for Google, 23% for Apple and 16% for ChatGPT. Another 58% said they would not share passwords with any AI agent. Yahoo Tech noted that Muse arrived weeks after Meta agreed in August to a multistate settlement over social media harms reported at up to $18 billion, a backdrop that analysts say can weigh on consumer confidence in the company.

The second hurdle is commerce. For Muse to complete purchases for users, Meta needs cooperation from online retailers, and the response has been split. Amazon confirmed to CBS News that it has blocked Muse from shopping on its platform, citing security and user-experience concerns. Amazon said Meta never obtained permission for the agent to shop on its site and that the agent does not identify itself while browsing, according to reporting by Forbes that cited GeekWire. Amazon also said the agent can access customer account information such as order history and appears to be storing customer credentials. By contrast, Walmart, Sephora and Best Buy have struck partnerships with Meta, according to the Journal.

Analysts are divided on how durable Muse's momentum will be. Truist Securities estimates the agent could add $28.5 billion in revenue for Meta by 2030. Truist analyst Youssef Squali cautioned that the lead may not last. "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," Squali said. He added that, for now, "the narrative around Meta has been changing." Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, speaking on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street," said that consumer adoption of such tools has been limited so far. "I think up to this point most of the agentic use cases have not really been for normal people," Rasgon said.

The dispute with Amazon has also drawn commentary from the security industry. Palo Alto Networks Chief Executive Nikesh Arora wrote on X that the clash over AI agents on retail sites is likely to grow. "This will be a bigger battle than anyone anticipates," he wrote. John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight, told CBS News he expects more consumers to turn to shopping agents like Muse as they look to hand off tedious tasks such as comparing deals across sites and tracking down products.

Download counts measure installation rather than sustained use, and it is too early to say how many of the millions of people who tried Muse continue to rely on it. Meta has been promoting the app through its own platforms, with Sensor Tower data showing the company began running house ads for Muse on September 9, a day after launch. That promotion may have helped early growth, though it also suggests some of the early downloads reflect curiosity generated by Meta's own marketing rather than organic demand.

Investors have responded enthusiastically so far. Meta's stock gained more than 10% last week, according to the Journal, reflecting expectations that agents could open new revenue streams from commerce and advertising. Whether those expectations hold will depend on whether Meta can win consumers' trust with access to their private accounts, reach agreements with major retailers, and stay ahead of rivals widely expected to launch competing agents soon. This article is a report on market developments, not investment advice.

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