Agent "reshapes" the service industry! Muse reignites "panic" and financial stocks "take a hit"

Meta's consumer-grade AI agent Muse has topped the Apple App Store with overwhelming download volume, sparking a new wave of Wall Street concerns about AI disrupting the financial services industry. Bank and brokerage stocks experienced their largest single-day declines in months.

On September 22, the US financial sector plummeted, with the S&P 500 financial sector falling about 2%, dragging the broader market roughly flat.

Brokerages Schwab and LPL Financial both fell over 6%. JPMorgan dropped 3.4%, marking its largest single-day decline since July; Wells Fargo fell 3.9%, its largest drop since May; Bank of America and Citi fell 3% and 2% respectively.

Insurance company Allstate and travel booking platform Booking Holdings also were not spared.

The core market concern lies in the fact that, once AI agents like Muse gain mass adoption, they could erode traditional business models reliant on consumer behavioral inertia—from wealth management and brokerage services to insurance pricing, all face risks of being bypassed or even replaced.

Analysts point out that the range and intensity of this sell-off has far exceeded the market volatility triggered by similar events earlier this year.

Devin Ryan, Head of Financial Services and Fintech Research at Citizens, pointed out, “Although no AI agent can overturn the entire industry overnight, the rapid pace of product releases in recent months has shaped a narrative—the world is changing and uncertainty is rising.”

The threat of AI agents to financial institutions is far more than simply replacing human advisors or diverting premium channels. Their true disruption lies in automatically helping users compare prices, switch services, and manage bills. This directly destroys business models dependent on ‘consumer inertia’—where users, lacking initiative in decision-making, tend to maintain their current consumption habits.

A research report from Goldman Sachs notes that as AI agents continue to improve in price comparison, travel bookings, and customer service interactions, industries such as telecommunications, insurance, and utilities—which rely on recurring bills, negotiable pricing, and bundled services—will be the first to come under pressure.

On Tuesday, Goldman’s "consumer inertia" risk basket of stocks fell 2.6% in a single day, its worst result in nearly six months, with a cumulative decline of over 7% over the past six trading days. Goldman’s risk basket covers AT&T, T-Mobile, Allstate, Progressive, Netflix, Paramount Skydance, and also Expedia and Booking.

Rhys Williams, Chief Strategist at Wayve Asset Management, said:

Muse is undoubtedly a negative factor for such companies. Right now it’s still more of a novelty, but I think in two years we’ll all be using agents.

In this sell-off, brokerage stocks fell even further. Schwab tumbled over 6%, LPL Financial dropped more than 7%, and Raymond James and Ameriprise Financial also saw notable declines.

Devin Ryan, Head of Financial Services and Fintech Research at Citizens, explained, the threat is not limited to AI replacing human advisors or compressing fee spreads.

In his view, agents may be able to more efficiently complete tasks such as tax-loss harvesting and fund rebalancing for clients, thus reducing the idle time cash sits in brokerage accounts and squeezing firms' space to earn yield from client cash. Ryan said:

If an agent is optimizing asset allocation around the clock, will the system's idle cash balances eventually be depleted?

It’s worth noting that this panic is not without precedent. Earlier this year, when fintech firm Altruist launched a personalized tax strategy tool, it sparked a similar sell-off; in February, when Anthropic launched its Claude agent tool, SaaS stocks also suffered a sharp decline.

But analysts argue that, with Meta's existing apps boasting billions of users, Muse’s potential impact is broader and its speed of penetration faster.

Bank Stocks Under Pressure, Fundamentals Also Worrying

In addition to the disruption from AI agents, the banking sector is also facing its own challenges on the fundamentals front.

Wallstreet News mentioned that Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan stated that third-quarter sales and trading revenue “will be one of our best third quarters ever, but will be roughly flat compared to last year.”

Wells Fargo CFO Mike Santomassimo said at last week’s Barclays financial industry conference that lending and other core business growth will continue, but is expected to slow compared to the first half of the year. These statements had already triggered a broader pullback in bank stocks last week.

Moreover, against the backdrop of the Federal Reserve’s rate hike cycle, a flattening yield curve has further compressed banks’ net interest margins.

Amid the market panic, some investors and consultants advise against excessive pessimism.

Alois Pirker, founder of wealth management consulting firm Pirker Partners, said that large financial institutions own vast amounts of client data and are inherently advantaged in technological transformation, “This is a tremendous opportunity for these firms,” but transition will take time, “After all, you can’t turn an ocean liner around overnight.”

Last week, Anthropic just launched a Claude workflow tool, now integrated with platforms like Schwab and Vanguard. Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Macrae Sykes wrote in an email, “If Schwab is able to use this to serve advisors and enhance the quality and efficiency of their recommendations and asset acquisition, it will ultimately benefit the company through custody, client engagement, and other areas.”

Goldman Sachs strategists were more cautious: "This is still far more complex and nuanced than just 'buy all AI.'"

As Anthropic and OpenAI launch ever more affordable frontier models, the next wave of AI may not just be a few labs building massive compute clusters, but billions of distributed agents collectively driving progress.

This will reshape the entire AI infrastructure demand landscape, and the financial sector will continue to be pressured and to adapt throughout this process.