Meta’s next move with AI is moving beyond chatbots and stepping into a shopping assistant. According to an Engadget report, citing The Information, the company is developing a more advanced “agentic” AI assistant that can perform tasks on behalf of users instead of simply answering prompts. This would include a specialized AI shopping agent for Instagram.
What’s Meta cooking up?
The new AI tool is reportedly built around a new model called Muse Spark, and Meta is said to be testing it internally. The company is also working on another project, codenamed Hatch, with testing expected to wrap up by June. If you’ve been following the AI agent race, these tools are being built to handle more than just summarizing a webpage or generating text. Now, they seek to navigate apps, interact with services, and handle multi-step tasks for the user.
Engadget referred to this as an OpenClaw-style competitor, which makes sense given how aggressively the company has been chasing agentic AI. For those unaware, OpenClaw quickly became a popular name in this category, since it is designed to work across different software and hardware platforms. Hatch is reportedly being tested on services like DoorDash, Reddit, and other third-party platforms.
Though Instagram is probably the easiest place for Meta to test this in public. The app already blends creators, product discovery, ads, recommendations, and shopping behavior. So, an AI agent that can search for products, compare options, and help users make purchases fits right in.
But there are some obvious concerns. Meta has spent years turning attention into ads, recommendations, and commerce. Giving the same company an AI agent does add a new layer of convenience, and some more discomfort.
The Manus mess still looms
Meta recently tried to accelerate its agent plans by acquiring Manus, an AI agent startup originally rooted in China and later based in Singapore. The deal was reportedly worth around $2 billion, but Chinese regulators blocked it in late April. So the new AI agent push from Meta comes immediately after the Manus deal collapsed. With the higher spending on AI infrastructure, it’s evident that the company wants a serious agent platform. But if Meta can’t buy one, building one seems like the obvious path.