Meta’s Muse can shop and check out for you, and it’s already changing how people buy online

Meta’s Muse is turning online shopping into something closer to delegation.

The AI agent, which reached 5 million downloads in just 22 days last week, can search for products, compare options, prepare checkout, and, with a user’s approval, complete purchases through supported payment services.

Unlike other AI agents, Meta said, “Muse was built to work for billions of people worldwide, so there’s no learning curve. Anyone can use it out of the box, no technical experience required. It can open a browser, fill out forms, and negotiate on their behalf.”

Shopping has quickly become one of Muse’s biggest usage drivers, a Meta spokesperson said, offering an early sign that consumers may be willing to hand a growing share of online buying to AI agents.

The shift matters far beyond convenience. If shoppers begin asking an AI assistant what to buy instead of opening Amazon, Google or a retailer’s website, the company controlling that agent could sit between merchants and customers at one of the most valuable points in online commerce.

“The real fight over Muse is between companies, and the consumer is the prize,” Luca Cian, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business who studies psychological responses to AI, told CNBC. “Whoever owns the agent owns the relationship with the shopper, and every retailer knows it.”

Muse wants to become the layer between shoppers and stores

Using Muse for shopping starts with a request. A user can ask the agent to find an item and specify preferences such as brand, price or availability.

Muse then browses retail sites and returns listings in its app and on its website. Selecting a product can send the shopper to the retailer or, in supported cases, keep the purchase inside Muse.

For purchases completed through Muse, the agent prepares the checkout and presents an approval card showing the order details before anything is finalized.

Muse can use payment services including Link by Stripe and Shopify Shop Pay. Meta says Link creates a one-time-use card that prevents the merchant from receiving the shopper’s actual card details. PayPal has been announced as another payment provider, though it is not yet available.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at Meta Connect that the company plans to collect a small fee on transactions.

That creates a business model with potentially enormous reach. Rather than making money only from ads surrounding product discovery, Meta could earn money at the moment a transaction happens.

Meta is already lining up retailers. The company announced partnerships on Sept. 23 with Walmart, Gap, Sephora, Expedia, Wayfair, Best Buy and others through what it calls Muse “connectors.”

Ticketmaster is taking a more controlled approach. Muse can help users reach Ticketmaster listings, but the purchase stays inside Ticketmaster’s own marketplace.

“Fans remain in complete control of their purchase decisions, as final purchases are all made within Ticketmaster’s secure marketplace,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson told CNBC.

Amazon has gone further, blocking Muse from purchasing products on its site. The retailer has accused the agent of violating its terms of service, including how it handles customer credentials and account data.

That clash may be an early preview of a larger battle over who controls shopping traffic, customer data and checkout.

Convenience comes with a trust and privacy problem

Muse arrives as retailers are already facing questions about how AI affects pricing and customer data.

A January Morning Consult survey found that 59% of U.S. adults viewed price gouging as a major concern tied to AI-driven dynamic pricing. The Bank of England has said retailers and e-commerce companies are using AI to gather customer data and experiment with dynamic or personalized pricing.

Those concerns intensify when an AI agent can see what a customer wants, what they have purchased before, what they are willing to spend, and which offers they reject.

Meta enters that conversation carrying years of scrutiny over privacy and safety. That history could make some shoppers hesitant to give Muse access to their email address, name, home address, and payment services.

Cian thinks convenience may still win for many users.

“Research shows that perceived control changes behavior. Muse is built around that lesson,” he told CNBC. “Those are the right levers. Whether they hold up in practice is what people will be watching.”

He expects consumers to be especially comfortable assigning repetitive shopping chores to agents.

“Replenishment, price comparison, returns, waiting for a price drop: nobody feels diminished because a machine did that,” Cian said.

That may be the bigger story behind Muse’s early momentum.

For years, online shopping has centered on websites, apps, search boxes and recommendation feeds. Agentic shopping changes the starting point. The shopper tells an AI what they want, and the agent decides where to look, which products to surface, and how close it can get to completing the purchase.

If that behavior sticks, retailers may soon compete for the attention of AI agents as aggressively as they once competed for search rankings, app installs, and social media clicks.