Meta Platforms is preparing to release Muse, its artificial intelligence agent, in the UK in the coming weeks as it extends the tool to new markets around the world.
It is understood that Meta will announce partnerships with several retailers that will give Muse the ability to make purchases on their sites. Senior Meta executives will fly to the UK for the launch.
Meta declined to comment.
Muse is an AI personal assistant that can read emails, pay bills, book transport or shop online. Users interact with it through a standalone app.
The tool was released in the United States and Canada in September and has passed 11 million users. Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder and the chief executive of Meta, described it as “one of our most successful launches ever”.
He said: “We expect to grow Muse to serve billions of people … putting the power of personal superintelligence in everyone’s hands.”
Over the past few weeks, Meta has released Muse in new markets including Mexico, Singapore and Japan.
Muse will be free for most people, although the most intensive users can subscribe directly. Meta will take a fee based on the transactions that it helps to facilitate.
Meta has said that online shopping is Muse’s most popular use, cited by a quarter of its North American users. Gartner, the research company, has forecast that a fifth of all e-commerce transactions will be completed through AI agents by 2030.
The UK rollout comes after an increase in Meta’s AI spending plans earlier this year. In April the company lifted its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to as much as $145bn, and its shares fell about 7 per cent in after-hours trading.
Experts have said the growth of “agentic” commerce will present opportunities for retail businesses looking for new areas of growth, but could also pose new risks for consumers.
Among UK businesses, a survey of 1,000 small business owners by Small Business Britain and Alibaba.com, published in September, found that only 5 per cent regularly use agentic AI tools, although 70 per cent said they felt confident using generative AI.
A group of regulators, including the Competition and Markets Authority and the Information Commissioner’s Office, said last month that agents could “amplify and accelerate risks and introduce new ones”.
The warning came in a joint statement published on 30 October by members of the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, whose members also include the Financial Conduct Authority and Ofcom. The statement sets out how existing legal and regulatory frameworks apply to personal AI agents.
The regulators said: “Questions of consumer protection, competition and data protection, for example, the risk of fraud and scams, personal information sharing not in line with user expectations and misleading recommendations, decisions or information provided, must be addressed to ensure innovation develops in ways that earn and maintain public trust.”
The CMA has separately published research on agentic AI and consumers, which covers how consumer law applies and links to its guidance for businesses using AI agents. The page was last updated on 30 October.
The ICO opened a call for evidence last month on the data-protection risks arising from agentic AI. It said the “novel, dynamic and distributed nature of agentic AI raises important questions about data protection compliance”.
The pace of the AI rollout also featured in the US midterm elections last week. The Times reported that the Democrat victory raised the prospect of tighter regulation and triggered a sell-off in global markets.
