In a new investor note released today, Bank of America says Meta’s new Muse AI agent highlights how third-party AI agents could increasingly bypass Apple’s ecosystem and threaten its services revenue. Here are the details.
BofA maintains a “Buy” rating.
Apple shares fell more than 2.5% today after Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan issued a note to investors warning that artificial intelligence agents like Meta’s Muse could increasingly capture the product discovery, referrals and transactions that currently occur across the Apple ecosystem.
From his note, go In search of the Alpha:
“The risk for Apple is that it can keep every phone sale and still lose discovery, referral and initiation of the transaction.”
Mohan’s note comes as Meta’s Muse approaches a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. App Store’s free apps chart. According to Sensor Tower estimates cited by TechCrunchMuse has amassed more than 3.4 million downloads in the past week.
Meta’s OpenClaw-like AI agent can browse the web, fill out forms, book travel, send emails and make purchases on a user’s behalf, and appears to have caught on with the general public, as it took just 10 days to overtake ChatGPT at the top of the US App Store.
Returning to Mohan’s note, he maintained a “buy” rating and $370 price target on Apple, arguing that despite the new risks posed by AI agents, he still sees the company as an “eventual winner in cutting-edge AI.”
From his note, go Yahoo! Finance:
“Whoever the agent chooses becomes the merchant, and whoever owns the agent collects the previously accumulated routing costs in operating systems, search and app stores.”
Mohan also points to Muse’s growing list of commerce integrations, including Shopify and Shop Pay, Expedia, and PayPal, as examples of how AI agents can increasingly manage transactions from discovery through checkout.
Furthermore, Mohan notes that modern iPhones already have more than enough computing power to run AI agents, making running and integrating the software Apple’s biggest challenge.
In his note, Mohan argues that Apple needs its services, silicon, payments, privacy and Siri AI teams to move together more quickly if the company wants to compete for what he calls “the economics of user intent.”
Specific to Siri AI, he also noted that it’s missing some of Muse’s features, including persistent background tasks, broad support for third-party actions, and a dedicated checkout guide for agents.
He also highlighted the difference in the pace of development, with Apple typically providing major software updates once a year, while AI agents can “improve daily.”
That said, Mohan sees Apple’s huge installed base and reputation for privacy as important advantages, particularly when it comes to convincing users to trust AI agents with sensitive tasks.
Have you used AI agents like Muse? let us know in the comments.
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