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

Meta’s new AI tool now ranks at the top of the App Store. Some retail experts see a “natural evolution from search.”

Meta's new AI tool now ranks at the top of the App Store. Some retail experts see a "natural evolution from search." Shoppers have seen the future, and many of them have decided it looks like Muse. Meta's new personal artificial intelligence agent now sits atop Apple's App Store, ahead of No. 2 ChatGPT, as more consumers put their faith in AI to save them time and money — existential AI fears be damned. Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData Retail, said the buzz around Muse underscores the "acceleration of agentic shopping." He expects more people to gravitate to AI shopping agents like Muse as they look to hand off cumbersome tasks, such as comparing deals across sites and tracking down products.

"I wouldn't say it's a tipping point, but it's certainly an important part of the journey for AI and consumers," Saunders told CBS News. According to IBM, 41% of consumers use AI assistants to research products, and 31% use them to search for deals. Since Meta unveiled Muse two weeks ago, the app has amassed more than 2.5 million downloads, according to Sensor Tower data shared with CBS News. By comparison, OpenAI's ChatGPT AI app had 3.1 million global downloads over the same time period, while Anthropopi's Claude tool had 200,000, the market research company