Just 13 days after its release, Meta’s new personal AI assistant, Muse, skyrocketed to over 2.5 million downloads and claimed the top spot on the free app chart in the U.S. App Store. Muse offers features that allow it to perform tasks such as shopping directly on behalf of users—a functionality that directly threatens Amazon’s core business interests, as the e-commerce giant primarily profits from user browsing and purchasing behaviors. After unsuccessful legal attempts to challenge similar AI agents, Amazon has shifted its strategy by revising its terms of service and implementing technical barriers to block Muse from accessing its platform.

Meanwhile, Shopify, which generates most of its revenue by charging merchants commissions, has joined forces with Google and other partners to introduce the open UCP protocol. Shopify sees AI agents as potential new distribution channels and has taken the initiative to grant Muse transaction permissions. During the same period, China’s second-generation Doubao smartphone, equipped with AI capabilities, encountered similar hurdles. Mainstream super apps continued to restrict automated operations by third-party AI agents in order to protect user engagement, advertising revenue, and data control.

Fundamentally, AI agents aim to insert themselves as an intermediary layer between users and services, directly challenging the dominance of existing platforms in capturing user attention and controlling commercial distribution rights. As the competition among various stakeholders intensifies, it is anticipated that new rules for coexistence will gradually emerge following prolonged negotiations.