[Photo Credit: Reuters]

Meta’s Muse the first major consumer product to emerge under Alexandr Wang since he was ‌hired to head its AI efforts last year, has split the fortunes of US stocks this week.

Muse, which allows users to delegate tasks such as shopping, travel booking and form-filling to an AI agent, overtook ChatGPT as the top free app on Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store in the US and Canada.

The app ​recorded 2.8 million downloads within two weeks of its launch, posting an average daily download growth of 55% in the first 10 ​days, according to market intelligence company Sensor Tower.

Investors worried that Meta’s scale could turn Muse into a powerful ⁠comparison-shopping tool, enabling consumers to more easily find lower-cost alternatives and weakening the loyalty that often keeps users with incumbent providers.

The development dragged ​on several sectors this week, while Meta and AI-infrastructure related companies rallied.

Financials stocks were the hardest-hit in the previous session and remained under pressure on Wednesday on fears that ​the AI agent could prompt users to switch to policies with cheaper prices.

Big banks such as JPMorgan (JPM.N), opens new tab and Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab lost more than 3% ​each so far this week, while brokerage Charles Schwab (SCHW.N), opens new tab was down nearly 5%. Insurers such as Marsh (MRSH.N), opens new tab and Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG.N), opens new tab were down 2.4% and 4.6%, ‌respectively.

Art Hogan, ⁠chief market strategist for B. Riley Wealth, however, said those disruption concerns were far-fetched.

Booking companies such as TripAdvisor (TRIP.O), opens new tab and Booking Holdings (BKNG.O), opens new tab, which rely ​on subscription models, have lost over ​6% this week.

Planet Fitness (PLNT.N), opens new tab has tanked ⁠17%, while the New York Times (NYT.N), opens new tab is down 10%.

Other decliners included ride-hailing companies such as Uber (UBER.N), opens new tab and Lyft (LYFT.O), opens new tab, and online food marketplace DoorDash (DASH.O), opens new tab.

Meta’s shares have soared nearly 13% this week and are set for ​their fifth-straight week of advances.

The gains were fueled by expectations that the mainstream consumer-focused app could generate ​additional annual revenue, ⁠with Truist Securities estimating it to touch at least $28.5 billion by fiscal 2030.

US-listed shares of Canada’s Shopify have jumped 11.4% this week, after it said it would use Muse to process checkouts. Payments platform PayPal (PYPL.O), opens new tab has marginally gained after saying it would allow users to discover products and complete purchases through the ⁠AI agent.