AI agents promise to do everything for you. There may be a big wrinkle in that plan

Meta wants its new Muse AI agent to be the gateway to users’ digital lives. But that all depends on whether popular apps and services are willing to give it the keys.

Agents go a step beyond how most people have used AI up to this point. Instead of simply answering questions, organizing emails and creating images, they can take multistep actions on the internet. They can compare prices, shop, book reservations and fill out forms, if the companies that sell things and take reservations allow them.

That change may spark a new battle over the future of internet services. Amazon recently blocked Muse’s AI agent from accessing its store, and some experts say the move could foreshadow a dilemma for online businesses.

If more people use AI agents for daily tasks, businesses may need to make a critical choice: Partner with companies like Meta and risk their own platforms possibly becoming irrelevant. Or potentially miss out on reaching billions of customers through what may be the future of how people get things done.

Shares of Airbnb, Expedia, and Trip Advisor fell around 5% last week after Meta announced new updates for its Muse agent.

The idea of AI agents isn’t new; OpenAI, Google, Apple and Amazon, along with Meta, have been working towards this future for years and have gradually rolled out new agent-like features.