The race to launch a highly competent and widely adopted digital assistant is a fight to control the next popular technology platform. As it happens, the companies primed for a heated confrontation over AI agents are also the two dominant digital advertising companies. Meta (META), which reports quarterly results on Tuesday, and Google (GOOG) are headed for an AI showdown. Last month, Meta’s Muse burst onto the scene, delivering the first mainstream AI agent for regulatory and just hit a download milestone. Muse’s initial success, both in downloads and acclaim, foreshadowed a world in which more people rely on their digital assistants to get work done and manage their daily routines. The OpenAI Dots and Meta Muse logos are seen in this illustration taken on September 29, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration · REUTERS / REUTERS But even as billions of people are connected to Meta’s social networks (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), users don’t rely on Meta in the same way they do on Google and Apple (AAPL). More cautious technology users might wait for the first wave of early adopters to find the bugs and fix the problems. Historically, the trust that comes with protecting emails, calendars, and wallets has not been Meta’s purview. It’s best to wait for whatever consumer-focused agent the iPhone maker or Gmail company has lined up. Read more.
