AI: Meta Muse Moves Beyond Chatbots to Online Transactions

Meta has launched Muse, an AI agent capable of booking a trip, sending an email, filling out forms, and especially making online purchases after user validation. Presented on September 8, Muse operates in a secure virtual machine and notably uses Stripe Link to pay. Meta is first deploying it in the United States on iOS, Android, and muse.ai.

Muse moves AI from response to action

Meta does not present Muse as an additional chatbot. The goal is to entrust the AI with a complete task and let it proceed until human intervention becomes necessary. The difference is significant while AI agents are already starting to handle payments and stablecoins.

Muse can open its own browser, navigate between different services, fill out forms, or arrange travel. Meta also gives longer examples: preparing to sell a car, trying to reduce a bill, or adapting a training program.

The agent does not stop when the user closes the app. Some tasks can continue in the background. Muse then returns when something changes or when authorization becomes necessary.

The system is based on Muse Spark, which Meta presents as its most capable model to date for agent tasks. Access also goes through WhatsApp. The user can therefore talk to Muse like a contact and then ask it to perform a series of actions.

Meta is starting in the United States. Muse is available on iOS, Android, and on the web, with a free plan covering most uses and subscriptions for users needing more capacity. An arrival on Meta’s AI glasses is also announced.

Stripe gives Muse the ability to buy on the Internet

The most concrete part concerns payment. Meta has integrated Link, Stripe’s wallet, directly into Muse. At over a million merchants who already accept Link, the agent can use the payment method registered by its owner.

For other sites, Stripe can generate a one-time virtual card limited to the previously approved purchase. Therefore, the real card data is not communicated to the merchant’s site.

Muse asks for confirmation before certain sensitive operations, notably sending an email or making a purchase.

Meta also states that the agent does not have direct access to passwords or payment data. They are stored in a secure area to which the system can refer without displaying them. A log simultaneously allows seeing what Muse has done and what it plans to execute.

This issue of control becomes central as automated AI payments gradually leave the experimental stage. Meta has built for this Muse Secure VM, a virtual machine dedicated to each agent. A second system, called Sentinel, controls actions intended for the Internet and can request additional authorization.

Later this year, Meta also plans Muse Confidential VM. The data and conversations would then be encrypted with a key held only by the user, so Meta claims it could not access them itself. This feature is not yet available.

Payments become a new competitive ground for AI

Muse mainly shows how far the current AI race is moving. Assistants were long evaluated on their ability to answer, summarize, write, or code. Agents are now judged on what they can actually accomplish: booking, negotiating, buying, and moving money.

Stripe clearly wants to occupy this transactional layer. Its Link wallet immediately gives Muse access to more than a million merchants, without asking each one to adapt their system to the agent. Shop Pay is also to be added soon.

However, something is missing from Meta’s launch: crypto. Muse does not use stablecoins for its announced purchases. The system currently relies on Stripe Link and traditional payment methods of American users.

Elsewhere, the market is taking another direction. Circle is developing wallets intended for AI agents, Visa is studying stablecoins for automated micropayments, and Franklin Templeton estimates that blockchains could become an important infrastructure for this new machine-to-machine economy.

Meta is already familiar with this path. The group notably tested stablecoin payments in Colombia and the Philippines, with Stripe as a partner and settlements using notably Polygon and Solana. Muse thus starts with the bank card rather than blockchain. But the important step is already taken: Meta’s AI is no longer limited to proposing a purchase. It can now proceed to payment, subject to the user’s consent.