Meta’s Muse Could Upend All Kinds of Businesses. It Hasn’t Yet

Meta’s Muse was among the hottest topics on corporate earnings calls in recent weeks. Meta has claimed that the agentic AI tool, which lets users automate various online tasks, is becoming a major force in shopping, with millions of people using it to make purchases of more than $200 on average.

在最近几周的企业财报电话会议中，Meta 的 Muse 成为最热门的话题之一。Meta 声称，这款能够让用户自动执行各种在线任务的代理式人工智能工具，正成为购物领域的一股主要力量，已有数百万人使用它进行平均超过 200 美元的消费。

Wall Street fears that proactive shopping assistants like Muse will erode brand loyalty, ignite price wars, and squeeze corporate profits. Yet on the earnings calls and in conversations with WIRED, executives across roughly 50 companies—spanning travel, internet providers, food, and self-storage—shrugged off immediate disruption. In fact, many insisted they would mostly benefit from any real widespread adoption of agents.

华尔街担心，像 Muse 这样主动的购物助手会削弱品牌忠诚度、引发价格战并挤压企业利润。然而，在财报电话会议以及与《连线》（WIRED）杂志的对话中，涵盖旅游、互联网服务提供商、食品和自助仓储等约 50 家公司的高管们对即时的颠覆性影响不以为意。事实上，许多高管坚称，如果代理工具得到真正广泛的应用，他们反而会从中受益。

Food delivery app DoorDash described the number of orders from Muse and other agents as in the “hundreds.” T-Mobile remarked, “We haven’t seen anything of significance” from agents. Hotel chain Hilton was more direct, calling bookings from them “insignificant.” The banking provider Ally Financial characterized activity as “quite low,” while eBay termed it “very, very small.”

食品配送应用 DoorDash 将来自 Muse 和其他代理工具的订单数量描述为“数百个”。T-Mobile 表示，他们“没有看到任何显著的”代理活动。连锁酒店希尔顿则更为直接，称来自这些工具的预订“微不足道”。银行服务提供商 Ally Financial 将其活动描述为“相当低”，而 eBay 则称其“非常、非常小”。

While financial experts have suspected that users may ask Muse to dump unused subscriptions and memberships, fitness chain Life Time Group said it has “seen zero” cancellations from agents. Public Storage and Hartford Insurance Group offered similar data. In India, the delivery app giant Eternal estimated agentic commerce as “close to zero.”

尽管金融专家怀疑用户可能会要求 Muse 取消未使用的订阅和会员资格，但健身连锁品牌 Life Time Group 表示，他们“零”次看到来自代理工具的取消请求。Public Storage 和哈特福德保险集团（Hartford Insurance Group）也提供了类似的数据。在印度，配送应用巨头 Eternal 估计代理商业活动“接近于零”。

The comments leave questions about where users of Muse, Instinct, and other popular AI agents are spending their money. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on his company’s earnings call this month that more than 10 million people in the US and Canada had activated Muse. Over 25 percent used it for shopping, more than any other task and above the company’s expectations, he added.

这些评论引发了人们对 Muse、Instinct 以及其他流行 AI 代理工具的用户究竟将钱花在何处的疑问。Meta 首席执行官马克·扎克伯格在本月的公司财报电话会议上表示，美国和加拿大已有超过 1000 万人激活了 Muse。他补充说，超过 25% 的用户将其用于购物，这一比例高于任何其他任务，也超出了公司的预期。

Meta declined to comment beyond the earnings call remarks, but pointed to partnerships with 10 retailers including Walmart, Best Buy, and Gap to simplify shopping with Muse. Many of them last reported earnings before Muse launched and haven’t shared data about it yet.

Meta 拒绝就财报电话会议之外的内容发表评论，但指出已与沃尔玛、百思买和 Gap 等 10 家零售商建立合作关系，以简化使用 Muse 的购物流程。其中许多零售商在 Muse 发布前就已公布了上一次财报，目前尚未分享相关数据。

Across the board, executives acknowledged agents are at an early stage. But immense public anxiety about AI technologies has left companies searching for any lessons they can from the outset.

总体而言，高管们承认代理工具尚处于早期阶段。但公众对人工智能技术的巨大焦虑，促使企业从一开始就试图从中汲取任何可能的经验教训。

Despite the seemingly slow uptake, some are already hard at work optimizing their websites for agents. Chipotle chief digital officer Arlie Sisson told reporters this week that the restaurant chain discovered agents struggling to complete purchases because of hiccups from applying loyalty discounts or ordering after-hours. Muse’s debut increased agentic orders by a single-digit percentage, she said. So Chipotle is now tidying up its website code to help agents better navigate and satisfy the hungry humans behind them.

尽管采用速度看似缓慢，但一些公司已经在努力优化其网站以适配代理工具。Chipotle 首席数字官 Arlie Sisson 本周告诉记者，该连锁餐厅发现，由于应用忠诚度折扣或非营业时间下单时出现的小故障，代理工具在完成购买时遇到了困难。她说，Muse 的推出使代理订单增加了几个百分点。因此，Chipotle 目前正在整理其网站代码，以帮助代理工具更好地导航，并满足其背后饥肠辘辘的人类用户。

Similar discussions are underway at Doordash, even though CEO and Meta board member Tony Xu said present hype about agents might be “delusional.” Costco and Extra Space Storage said sales originating from AI chatbots such as Gemini and ChatGPT are surging as the companies optimize their online content for the tools, so they plan to do the same for AI agents.

Doordash 也在进行类似的讨论，尽管身为首席执行官兼 Meta 董事会成员的徐迅（Tony Xu）表示，目前关于代理工具的炒作可能是“妄想”。Costco 和 Extra Space Storage 表示，随着公司针对 Gemini 和 ChatGPT 等 AI 聊天机器人优化在线内容，来自这些工具的销售额正在激增，因此他们计划对 AI 代理工具采取同样的做法。

Reliance on agents could be costly. Zuckerberg said Meta plans to charge businesses a fee for transactions facilitated by Muse, and he predicted that this source of revenue would eventually top the company’s massive advertising business. InterContinental Hotels CEO Elie Maalouf is taking a cautious approach in ongoing talks with Meta. “We haven’t come to any conclusions on what an eventual collaboration could look like, if any,” he said.

对代理工具的依赖可能会带来高昂的成本。扎克伯格表示，Meta 计划对通过 Muse 完成的交易向企业收取费用，并预测这一收入来源最终将超过该公司庞大的广告业务。洲际酒店集团首席执行官 Elie Maalouf 在与 Meta 的持续谈判中采取了谨慎态度。他说：“我们尚未就最终的合作形式（如果有的话）达成任何结论。”

Security issues and errant orders remain top of mind. This week, Bank of America became the latest big bank to warn customers about giving login information to AI assistants. “If you do share your credentials, keep in mind that you’re responsible for activity resulting from that access,” chief client care officer Ashley Ross wrote in an email.

安全问题和错误订单仍然是人们关注的焦点。本周，美国银行成为最新一家警告客户不要向 AI 助手提供登录信息的大型银行。首席客户服务官 Ashley Ross 在一封电子邮件中写道：“如果您确实分享了您的凭据，请记住，您需要对由此访问产生的活动负责。”

There’s also the possibility that agents encourage comparison shopping in a way that hurts profits. Executives at many companies dismissed the notion. They suggested product quality, customer service, and brand trust would still factor into purchase decisions despite less human involvement.

此外，代理工具还有可能以损害利润的方式鼓励比价购物。许多公司的高管驳斥了这一观点。他们认为，尽管人类的参与度降低了，但产品质量、客户服务和品牌信任度仍将是影响购买决策的因素。

Stances on agents are evolving quickly. Amazon blocked Muse last month, contending that users would prefer its own Alexa shopping agent. But this week the retail giant acknowledged that it anticipates working with outside agents. Insurance marketplace Insurify also blocked Muse but this week changed its mind after introducing technology to ensure agents could present accurate offers.

对代理工具的态度正在迅速演变。亚马逊上个月封锁了 Muse，理由是用户会更喜欢其自有的 Alexa 购物代理。但本周，这家零售巨头承认，它预计将与外部代理工具合作。保险市场平台 Insurify 也曾封锁过 Muse，但在引入确保代理工具能够提供准确报价的技术后，本周改变了主意。