Meta says Muse is a shopping machine. Fifty companies say they barely see it.
Zuckerberg touts 10 million Muse activations and big-ticket purchases, but executives from DoorDash to Hilton describe agent-driven sales as tiny so far.
DevIsDead Newsroom
Agentic shopping is either about to wreck brand loyalty or is a rounding error, depending on whose earnings call you listened to.
Meta says its Muse agent is turning into a serious shopping channel, with millions of people using it to buy things averaging more than $200. But WIRED's Paresh Dave went through earnings calls and interviews covering about 50 companies in travel, telecom, food and storage, and most of them say they aren't seeing much yet.
The numbers, such as they are
Mark Zuckerberg said Muse has been switched on by over 10 million users across the US and Canada, and over a quarter of them used it to shop, more than for any other task. Meta points to deals with 10 retailers such as Walmart, Gap and Best Buy.
On the other side of the transaction: DoorDash counts agent orders in the hundreds. Hilton calls agent bookings insignificant. T-Mobile, Ally Financial and eBay all describe tiny volumes. Fitness chain Life Time says it has seen zero membership cancellations from agents, and India's Eternal puts agentic commerce close to zero.
What actually shipped
The interesting work is on the receiving end. Chipotle found agents getting stuck on loyalty discounts and after-hours orders. Muse's launch raised its agent orders by a single-digit percentage, and the company is now cleaning up its website code so agents can finish checkout. Costco and Extra Space Storage say sales arriving from chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT are growing, and they plan to optimize for agents next.
The catches
Meta plans to charge businesses a fee on Muse transactions and predicts that revenue will eventually beat its ad business, which explains some of the hesitation. InterContinental Hotels says talks with Meta haven't produced any conclusions. Bank of America is warning customers that if they hand login details to an AI assistant, they are responsible for what it does. Amazon blocked Muse last month, then said this week that it expects to work with outside agents. Insurify blocked it too, then reversed course.
For developers
Whether or not the volume shows up this quarter, "can an agent complete our checkout?" is becoming a real requirement. Clean forms, predictable flows and readable markup help bots and humans alike. Agent-ready is starting to sound a lot like accessible.
Scoreboard update: Humans +1. Businesses report barely any shopping by Meta's Muse agent.
Stay undead.
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