Are AI bots like Instinct and Meta's Muse going to shop for you? And what happens if they do?

Getty Images; BI The AI industry has been promising that bots will shop for you for years.

So far, that hasn't happened — but it looks like services like Instinct and Meta's Muse could make it a reality.

If that does happen, it could be a big deal for shoppers — but an even bigger deal for Amazon.

The big news in AI is that some people in AI think AI may destroy the world .

And now the topic has broken through to regular people who couldn't tell you what an LLM is.

But another big AI development is that "agentic" bots — bots that can act on their own, on your behalf — are starting to roll out to regular people, too.

Instinct , a new service that's generating a ton of interest from the tech set, promises it can do things like buy you groceries or book your flights.

And Meta just debuted Muse , which makes the same pitch.

All of which means that the idea of "shopping" may radically change, and it could be at least as big a deal as the move from brick-and-mortar stores to the internet.

Then again: These are still niche ideas, and it's entirely unclear where this goes.

Will consumers trust a bot with their credit card? Do consumers want a bot to shop for them? And what about all the existing retail operations — especially Amazon — that expect human buyers to come to their sites and stores, where they can sell them other stuff? Can they slow this idea down or stop it altogether? I asked Jason Del Rey, a veteran retail journalist who covers this stuff full-time at The Aisle , the newsletter he launched last year, to walk me through where things stand today, and where they might go soon.

You can listen to our entire conversation on my Channels podcast; the following is an edited excerpt.

Peter Kafka: Bots that shop and do other transactions for me are something the AI guys have been talking about for years.

Why aren't they here yet? Jason Del Rey: Last year, OpenAI and ChatGPT launched something called Instant Checkout — basically the ability for you to buy something without leaving ChatGPT.