Bank of America Warns Meta's Muse AI Agent Threatens Apple Services Revenue

Bank of America issued a research note warning that Meta's popular new AI agent, Muse, could bypass the iOS ecosystem and threaten Apple's services revenue. Following the report, Apple's stock dropped over 2.5% as Muse topped the US App Store charts for two consecutive weeks, exceeding 3.4 million downloads. As autonomous AI agents handle product discovery, navigation, and purchasing directly, platform operators like Apple risk losing valuable traffic distribution and transaction referral fees. This signals a potential shift in mobile business models, where control shifts from operating systems to personal AI agents that act on behalf of users. Muse enables automated web browsing, form filling, travel bookings, and purchases through direct integrations with services like Shopify, Shop Pay, Expedia, and PayPal. Bank of America noted that Apple's Siri currently lacks background task execution, broad third-party action calling, and specialized transaction payment channels, putting Apple at a structural disadvantage against daily-iterating AI agents.