Meta, Stripe and Shopify are extending AI assistants into retail payments, but a 2026 survey shows consumer trust in automated purchases trails interest in using AI to shop.
Shopify said 65% of shoppers in its holiday research expected to use AI for at least one shopping task, while only one-third trusted an agent to complete a purchase for them. The online survey covered 18,000 adults in nine markets in July 2026.
According to Meta, Muse can complete web forms and carry on with a task after a user closes the app. It requires approval before sending an email or placing an order. Meta said Sept. 29 that Muse was available in the United States and Canada.
Stripe said U.S. Muse users can connect its Link payment service to buy from more than 1 million businesses that accept it. For other purchases, Link can issue a single-use virtual card capped at the amount the buyer approves. Stripe says the buyer authorizes each transaction total and Muse does not see the underlying payment details.
Stripe reported a 38-fold rise in agent purchases through Link in the month before Sept. 29, without stating the initial transaction count.
Shopify made Meta an Agentic Storefronts channel Sept. 8. Shopify says sellers’ listings go to Meta by default, with settings to control catalog sharing and direct checkout. That gives merchants another route to shoppers using assistants, while keeping product information current and readable by those systems adds work for sellers.
Retailer access has also been contested. In an Oct. 31, 2025, letter concerning Perplexity’s Comet, Amazon said the agent should identify itself and respect Amazon’s decisions about access. The letter addressed Comet, not Muse.
Meta acknowledges that Muse can make mistakes and encounter malicious instructions in material it reads. The company says it uses an isolated virtual machine, a separate system to authorize actions outside the agent and user approval for purchases. “Muse isn’t immune to attack,” Meta Superintelligence Labs software engineer and vice president Tarek Sheasha wrote.
Meta plans to introduce Muse Confidential VM later in 2026 but has not announced a release date.
