Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares fell 2% on Tuesday to close at $332.22 after a Bank of America note warned that AI agents could pressure the company’s most profitable business lines. The stock remains up 22% for the year.

Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan said Meta’s Muse represents a new type of competitor because it can handle commerce and other tasks without requiring users to interact directly with an iPhone or a separate app.

The agentic AI app — software built to carry out multi-step tasks on a user’s behalf rather than simply answer questions — launched on September 8 and recorded 2.5 million downloads during its first two weeks, quickly reaching the top of the US iOS free-app chart. Muse can book travel, make purchases and complete other tasks from a single prompt.

Mohan said control over the AI agent could determine which companies receive transaction-related revenue, shifting influence away from operating systems, search engines and app stores.

“Whomever the agent chooses becomes the merchant, and whoever owns the agent collects the routing economics that previously accrued to operating systems, search, and app stores,” Mohan wrote.

For Apple, those routing economics flow through its own platforms today: the App Store and its payment services sit inside the services business the bank flagged, so an agent that bypasses operating systems and app stores also bypasses a key Apple revenue channel.

Muse Adds Commerce Partners

Muse is designed to do more than respond to questions. It can open a browser, fill out forms and continue working in the background after a user closes the application.

Several major platforms have connected their services to the app. Shopify gave Muse access to its full catalogue and Shop Pay system, while Expedia and PayPal joined for bookings and payments. Amazon has blocked Muse, making it an exception among the companies discussed in Bank of America’s analysis. Mohan viewed that decision as evidence of the significance of the competitive issue for other platforms.

Apple released a rebuilt version of Siri with iOS 27 on September 14, six days after Muse launched. The updated assistant uses custom Google Gemini models.

Mohan said Siri still lacks persistent background tasks and a payment system with a reach comparable to Muse’s. He added that the iPhone’s hardware is not the limiting factor because it can readily meet the specifications required to run Muse.

Instead, Mohan identified development speed as the main challenge. Apple typically delivers major software updates once a year, while competing AI agents can improve almost daily.

“Agents are accelerating innovation cycles, and Apple needs to ensure that its teams around services, silicon, payments, privacy etc. are integrating with Siri AI and moving at a pace to match innovation at competitors,” Mohan wrote.

Despite the warning, Bank of America maintained its Buy rating on Apple and its $370 price target. Mohan cited Apple’s large, loyal user base and privacy-focused approach as advantages that Meta does not have.

Investors will be watching whether Shopify, Expedia and PayPal begin reporting meaningful transaction volume through Muse. Such data could help indicate whether Apple is losing activity to the service or whether the current competitive concern remains limited.

OpenAI was also expected to launch its own consumer AI agent on the same day the report was published, underscoring how quickly the consumer AI agent landscape is expanding.

Source: CoinCentral