Meta launched Muse as an AI agent capable of doing almost anything for you. Turns out, what people really want it to do is shop.
During Meta’s Q3 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that more than a quarter of Muse users are using the agent for shopping, with an average purchase size above $200. Meta says more than 10 million people have already set up Muse since its launch roughly six weeks ago.
Shopping Is Already The Biggest Use Case
The numbers suggest people are not just asking Muse for product recommendations. They are actually letting it transact.
Zuckerberg said Plaid had seen more activity through its Muse connector than on any other service, while Stripe had to raise credit limits during the first week because transaction volumes exceeded expectations.
That starts to validate the commerce infrastructure Meta has been building around the agent.
Muse launched with Stripe’s Link for payments, gained access to Shopify’s entire catalog, and has since added retailers including Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora, Gap and Wayfair. Meta has been steadily turning the agent into something that can find a product, compare options, navigate checkout and ask for approval before spending your money.
For all the futuristic talk around personal superintelligence, that is a remarkably familiar problem to solve.
Find me the thing I want, at the best price, and buy it.
Agentic Commerce Is Becoming A Business Model
The more interesting part is what shopping means for Meta itself.
Zuckerberg said Meta expects Muse to remain free for most users and eventually make money by charging businesses fees on transactions the agent helps facilitate. Subscriptions for heavier users and business services would provide additional revenue streams.
That puts shopping at the center of more than the product experience. It could become the economic engine behind Muse.
And Meta has a natural advantage here. Instagram and Facebook already influence enormous amounts of product discovery. WhatsApp connects consumers directly with businesses. Meta’s advertising infrastructure already knows how to connect intent with commerce.
Muse potentially collapses those steps.
Discovery becomes recommendation. Recommendation becomes action. Action becomes transaction.
The Agent Becomes The Storefront
We wrote last month that Meta seemed determined to make Muse the layer between intention and action. These numbers are the first real signal that consumers may actually want that.
Shopping is particularly suited to agents because it is full of tedious work humans are happy to delegate: comparing prices, checking availability, searching across stores and filling out forms.
The big shift is what happens if consumers stop visiting retailers themselves.
The storefront becomes less important. The agent becomes the customer interface.
Meta launched Muse promising a personal AI that could help with almost anything.
Its first killer app may be much simpler.
Buy this for me.