MENLO PARK, September 24 — Meta’s new personal AI agent, Muse, has climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store, overtaking ChatGPT for the No. 1 spot as more consumers turn to artificial intelligence to save time and money. The app has amassed more than 2.5 million downloads since Meta unveiled it two weeks ago, according to Sensor Tower data shared with CBS News. Over that same stretch, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app recorded 3.1 million global downloads and Anthropic’s Claude tool recorded 200,000, the market research company found.
Here’s what it means in plain terms. Muse is not just another chatbot that answers questions.
Unlike traditional chatbots, it can take action on behalf of users — booking a flight, decluttering an inbox, tracking a price drop. Think of it like hiring a personal assistant who never sleeps and never forgets to check whether the thing you wanted went on sale.
The shopping shift
Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData Retail, told CBS News the buzz around Muse underscores the “acceleration of agentic shopping.” He added: “I wouldn’t say it’s a tipping point, but it’s certainly an important part of the journey for AI and consumers.” The numbers back up the appetite. According to IBM, 41% of consumers use AI assistants to research products and 31% use them to search for deals.
In a recent Coresight survey of more than 1,000 consumers, 30% of respondents said they would use an AI tool to compare prices for holiday shopping, and the same percentage said they would use such tools to find deals or promo codes on holiday gifts. “What agentic commerce does is basically summarizes, discovers, showcases what it thinks is interesting to each individual, and that does cut out some of the work so you don’t have to go to multiple sites and cross-compare,” Saunders said.
Partnerships — and a block
Expedia and PayPal both announced on Tuesday that they are partnering with Muse, letting customers find travel deals and shop using the AI tool. Not everyone is opening the door. Amazon confirmed to CBS News that it has blocked the AI app from shopping on its e-commerce platform, citing security and user experience concerns.
John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight, told CBS News that until recently people mostly used AI as a “glorified search engine,” and that Meta is marketing Muse as a tool to help with everyday tasks. “If [Muse] maintains momentum, it could maybe leapfrog Claude among consumers and get into the top tier,” Mercer said.
The practical upshot: the race among AI assistants is no longer just about who gives the best answer. It is about who can actually get things done — and who consumers trust to do them. What to watch next is whether Muse holds its App Store lead as the holiday shopping season approaches, and whether more retailers follow Expedia and PayPal into partnerships or follow Amazon in shutting the door.
