Gene Munster Flags Meta’s Muse As A Bigger Risk To Google Search Than ChatGPT

• In contrast, personal AI assistants are capable of carrying out multi-step tasks and can initiate purchases, bookings, and other transactions on which Google has built its search business, they said. 
• Despite the threat, Alphabet shares have risen about 7% since Muse’s launch, a move Munster termed “surprising”. 
• The central question, Munster said, is whether Google can successfully steer the next wave of AI-driven activity back into its own ecosystem.

Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster and Doug Clinton on Wednesday said that Meta’s Muse personal AI agent poses a more significant long-term risk to Alphabet Inc.’s Google (GOOG, GOOGL) than OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot.

Conversational tools like ChatGPT primarily fielded questions that search engines had not heavily monetized, according to Munster and his co-managing partner Doug Clinton. In contrast, personal AI assistants are capable of carrying out multi-step tasks and can initiate purchases, bookings, and other transactions. “Google built a $250B search business on routing those transactions,” Munster noted.

Meta Muse Abilities And Google's 'Task' Response

Muse, which Meta began rolling out in the United States in early September, can schedule appointments, negotiate rates, complete purchases, and continue work in the background rather than waiting for a new prompt. That shift from information retrieval to action moves activity outside the traditional search that Google has spent decades refining, according to Clinton and Munster.

Despite the threat, Alphabet shares have risen about 7% since Muse’s launch, outpacing the Nasdaq’s roughly 3% gain over the same period, a move Munster termed “surprising”.

Google responded to Muse by folding its earlier Spark agent into the main Gemini experience under a new “Task” mode. The change places task-oriented capabilities directly inside the familiar chat interface, allowing users to start ongoing projects, track progress, and schedule actions without leaving Gemini.

The central question, Munster said, is whether Google can successfully steer the next wave of AI-driven activity back into its own ecosystem.

“...can Google do with Task what it did with AI Overviews and AI Mode by successfully redirecting Search traffic to its own AI features?,” he wrote.

How Did GOOG, META Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around META and GOOG stock was ‘bearish’ at the time of writing.

While META stock has gained 12% year-to-date, GOOG has gained 10%. 

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