I tried turning Meta's Muse AI into my personal shopper — only 3 of 7 prompts actually worked

The Rise of Meta’s Muse AI

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, Meta’s Muse has emerged as a significant contender. With over half a million downloads and a ranking that has successfully challenged industry giants like ChatGPT on the Apple App Store, this AI assistant is capturing widespread attention. Originally designed as a versatile chatbot, users are now testing its limits as a dedicated personal shopper.

The Shopping Challenge

To put the tool’s capabilities to the test, I decided to treat my Muse avatar, "Amani," as my primary shopping assistant. My mission was straightforward: find the best possible deals on comic books, video game controllers, and physical video games. I tasked Muse with providing seven specialized prompts designed to optimize the search process for finding discounts, comparing prices, and identifying hard-to-find items.

Testing the Prompts

Muse suggested seven distinct strategies for deal hunting:

• Baseline + deal hunt: Finding standard pricing followed by a search for lower listings.
• Coupon and promo code sweep: Scouting for active discounts at specific retailers.
• Compare across stores: Analyzing multiple retailers to rank products by total cost.
• Set a max budget: Filtering search results based on a predefined price cap.
• Open-box/refurbished/used: Focusing on secondary market savings.
• Facebook Marketplace local deals: Scouring local inventory for pickup.
• Price-drop watch: Monitoring specific products for future price reductions.

While the strategy was solid, the results were mixed. Attempts to locate active coupons for Amazon and local deals on Facebook Marketplace failed to provide reliable or actionable data. However, the 'baseline + deal hunt', 'compare across stores', and 'open-box' commands proved highly effective.

Real-World Results

Using the 'baseline + deal hunt' prompt, I successfully sourced the 'Batman by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale Omnibus' at a 40% discount compared to the list price. Furthermore, the 'compare across stores' prompt identified a significant deal on a Midnight Black PS5 DualSense controller, saving me money over the standard retail price. Finally, for a physical copy of 'Garou: Mark of the Wolves', the refurbished search command connected me with a high-rated seller, proving that with the right input, the AI is a legitimate asset for savvy shoppers.

Final Verdict

Despite some failures in specific niche searches, Meta’s Muse has proven to be a surprisingly capable shopping tool. While not every prompt yields immediate success, the ability of the AI to aggregate data across various platforms makes it a valuable addition to any consumer's digital toolkit as we head into the holiday shopping season.