Bank of America just warned investors that a new wave of smart virtual assistants could put a serious dent in how much money Apple makes from its services. The main focus of their concern is the newly launched Muse agent from Meta. Because these intelligent bots can handle shopping and payments directly for users, they might eventually bypass the App Store completely and take away those valuable transaction fees.
Smart bots might take over the main transaction layer
Right now, iPhone users search for things on the App Store and pay with Apple Pay. Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America, points out that bots like Muse do a lot more than just answer simple questions. They can browse websites, connect to different apps, and finish a purchase for you.
When a virtual assistant handles all these steps, the parent company like Meta becomes the new middleman. This means Apple could sell the same number of phones but lose out on the cash that comes from app discovery and transaction fees. Muse already connects with big platforms like Shopify, PayPal, and Expedia to make real-world buying easier. Interestingly, Amazon decided to block the bot from its own shopping pages to keep direct control over its customers.
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Siri faces tough competition from faster software update cycles
Apple is definitely fighting back with its own rebuilt Siri assistant. The company recently upgraded Siri to better understand personal context and take deeper actions inside apps, running on a mix of local hardware and private cloud servers.
However, Bank of America notes a big difference in how fast these tools improve. Apple usually sticks to large yearly software updates, while standalone tools backed by the social media giant get new features added all the time. If the focus shifts from just answering questions to constantly finishing tasks in the background, this speed gap might become a real problem. Apple will need to figure out how to blend its hardware power, strict privacy rules, and fast software changes to keep Siri as the top choice for users.
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