Meta’s new AI personal assistant, Muse, is rapidly gaining downloads and projected to generate billions in revenue, but rising trust concerns and platform disputes signal potential challenges amid intensifying competition from Google and Apple.
Meta’s latest AI push is being judged not by hype, but by revenue. The company’s new personal agent, Muse, is already being treated by some analysts as more than a consumer feature: Truist Securities’ Youssef Squali has suggested it could generate almost $30bn in additional annual income for Meta by 2030. That would be a meaningful contribution against projected 2025 revenue of more than $200bn, and it helps explain why investors are watching the rollout so closely.
The first signs of traction are encouraging. Axios reported that Muse reached the top of the US iPhone free app chart within ten days of launch, and the service has already amassed about 2.5 million downloads, according to the figures cited in the Dutch financial press. Meta is leaning on the strengths that have long defined its business: mass distribution, familiar consumer design and an ability to push new products quickly to huge audiences. Support from Shopify, as well as payment links with PayPal and Stripe, gives Muse an immediate route from product discovery to checkout.
That commercial promise is also what is provoking resistance. Amazon has blocked Meta’s agent from using its platform to buy goods, according to Axios, a sign that the largest US online retailer does not want customer relationships, or the data that comes with them, diverted to a third-party assistant. The dispute underlines a broader fault line in so-called agentic commerce: the more useful these systems become, the more they sit between merchants and consumers, and the more platform owners will try to control access.
Trust remains Meta’s most obvious weakness. The group’s history of privacy controversies continues to shape public perceptions, particularly when an AI agent needs permission to inspect e-mail, passwords and payment details in order to act on a user’s behalf. The Dutch article cited research showing that only 8% of respondents trust Meta with passwords, compared with 30% for Google, while Apple continues to score highest on privacy. That may give Apple a strategic opening if it can produce a compelling rival agent.
The stakes go well beyond Meta. Shares in financial firms and online travel companies fell as investors began to price in the risk that AI agents could intercept customer interactions and take over bookings, payments and service queries. The companies most exposed will need to find new ways to keep hold of the relationship, and to protect proprietary data that can make their own offerings indispensable. Meta has made an important first move, but the advantage may not last. Google, OpenAI and eventually Apple are expected to answer with competing systems, and the eventual winners are likely to be those that combine useful automation with genuine user trust.
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