Meta's new personal AI agent, Muse, has climbed to the top of Apple's App Store. It now ranks ahead of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which sits in second place.
The ranking comes as more consumers turn to AI tools to save time and money.
Meta unveiled Muse two weeks ago. Since then, the app has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times, according to Sensor Tower data shared with CBS News.
Over the same period, ChatGPT recorded 3.1 million global downloads. Anthropic's Claude app had 200,000 downloads, the market research firm found.
Muse Takes Action for Users
Unlike traditional chatbots, Muse can complete tasks on behalf of users. It can book flights, clean up email inboxes and track price drops on products.
Meta is marketing Muse as a tool to help people with everyday tasks. Until recently, most people used AI as a "glorified search engine," said Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData Retail.
Saunders said the interest in Muse shows the "acceleration of agentic shopping." He expects more people to use AI shopping agents for tasks like comparing deals across websites and finding products.
"I wouldn't say it's a tipping point, but it's certainly an important part of the journey for AI and consumers," Saunders told CBS News.
John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight, said the benefit for shoppers is not only saving time. It is also about helping them find deals. "It's a natural evolution from search," he said.
Mercer added that if Muse keeps its momentum, it "could maybe leapfrog Claude among consumers and get into the top tier" of AI tools.
How Shoppers Are Using AI
Survey data shows many consumers already use AI when shopping. According to IBM, 41% of consumers use AI assistants to research products, and 31% use them to search for deals.
A recent Coresight survey of more than 1,000 consumers found that 30% would use an AI tool to compare prices for holiday shopping. The same share said they would use AI to find deals or promo codes on holiday gifts.
Saunders said AI agents can summarize and show products that match each person's interests. That cuts out some of the work, so shoppers do not have to visit several sites to compare options.
Still, he expects wider use of AI shopping agents to take time. Some cases of AI agents making mistakes have already been reported, which has shaken trust in the tools.
"People are still a little bit nervous about allowing AI agents to do the purchasing on their behalf," Saunders said.
Not every retailer is welcoming Muse. Amazon confirmed to CBS News that it has blocked the app from shopping on its online store.
The company cited security and user experience concerns as the reasons for the block.
