Why Walmart Is Embracing Meta's AI Shopping Agent While Amazon Blocks It

Muse is quickly becoming a test of whether consumers are ready to hand over more of the shopping journey to an AI agent, from product discovery, price comparisons to the purchase itself.

In six short weeks, more than 10 million consumers in the U.S. and Canada have signed up for Meta’s AI-powered personal agent, which can proactively perform tasks on a user’s behalf, much like a human personal assistant. It can work in the background to monitor product prices, restock the pantry or plan a trip that fits one’s schedule and budget—with the user giving final approval for a purchase.

Shopping has emerged as Muse’s most common use, with more than a quarter of weekly users making purchases and transactions averaging over $200, including travel bookings. During Muse’s first week, transaction volume was much higher than expected. As a result, Meta has decided to work with Stripe to raise credit limits to meet demand.

“Growth continues to be strong and we have been number one in the App Store almost every day,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the third-quarter earnings call. “Engagement and retention are also off to a strong start. About 25% of people who have set up Muse use it on any given day. For our earliest adopters, the longer that they use Muse, the better that retention seems to get.”

Muse’s rapid adoption has drawn a growing roster of retail partners, including Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora, Wayfair, Gap, Ulta Beauty, American Eagle Outfitters, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fanatics, Michael Kors and eligible Shopify stores—a huge unlock for small direct-to-consumer retailers that run on Shopify.

And in a potential gamechanger in the agentic AI arms race, Muse is designed to enable a customer’s AI agent to communicate directly with participating retailers’ AI agents to search for products, compare options and facilitate purchases.

The nation’s largest retailer, Walmart, and a growing list of others have embraced that vision. Amazon, the second largest retailer in the U.S., has not.

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