Investing.com – Consumer AI agents could transform online shopping, payments and financial services, although their success will depend on how established companies respond, according to Bernstein.
The rapid growth of Muse, which can compare products and quotes, call businesses, send emails, fill out forms, manage inboxes, cancel subscriptions and negotiate on users’ behalf, has sparked speculation about an “iPhone moment” for consumer AI. OpenAI has launched Dots, while Google is expected to improve Spark.
Amazon blocked Muse within two weeks of its launch, citing lack of prior notification, failure to properly identify itself, apparent collection of customer credentials, and access to account pages and order histories. Other companies, including Shopify, Walmart, Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Wayfair, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ulta Beauty, Fanatics, Expedia, and Instacart, have partnered with Muse for online shopping and payments.
Payments use Stripe Link, single-use virtual cards or Shop Pay; integration with PayPal is announced but not yet active, while Meta plans to charge a transaction fee.
Bernstein hopes for selective access rather than blanket lockdowns. Muse is developing API connectors with retailers, although currently it primarily browses websites, fills out forms, and prepares orders for user confirmation.
Meta received more than 1,500 developer requests in less than a week, but OpenAI’s Instant Checkout, despite its partnerships with Walmart, Etsy, Instacart, and more than a million Shopify merchants, illustrates the challenges facing the sector.
Cloudflare notes that AI agent requests on its network increased more than 1,700% in a year, while human traffic in retail and financial services categories with high crawl activity fell by up to 40%. More verifications, human checkpoints and differentiated access to catalogues, prices and accounts could follow.
Agents could gain traction by streamlining high-friction tasks such as insurance, medical and school forms, travel planning and coordinating tickets, reservations, transportation and expense sharing. American travelers view 277 pages of travel content and spend approximately five hours researching their trips in the 45 days before booking.
Source: es-us.finanzas.yahoo.com
