Meta Aims to Control E-Commerce Transactions with AI Agent
The next big battle in e-commerce may not be about who owns the largest online store, but rather who controls the AI agent deciding what consumers buy, where they buy it, and how the transaction gets completed. JPMorgan's Doug Anmuth believes this shift could create a new revenue stream for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and potentially disrupt Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Meta's Muse is being built to do more than answer questions. It's already being used in early use cases such as shopping, restaurant reservations, travel planning, and other multi-step tasks. Meta has also added Shop Pay for agentic checkout and opened Muse connectors to developers.
This change could alter the economics of the internet if consumers increasingly ask an agent to complete a task rather than visiting individual websites themselves. Anmuth expects transactions to eventually move toward agent-to-agent interactions, with businesses deploying their own agents on Muse. Meta could then potentially monetize those transactions through commissions or a take rate.
The Information reports that Amazon has blocked Muse from accessing its shopping site, and Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora has described the episode as part of a larger battle involving major technology and AI companies.