AI connectors could spark the next App Store-style boom. Here's how they work.

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@ 22/09/2026

AI connectors could spark the next App Store-style boom. Here's how they work.

Ben Shimkus

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A phone screen with several Meta apps, including Muse, in a folder. — Connectors are essentially keys to specific internet applications for AI agents. Meta's Muse is a big test that could revolutionize browsing, like Apple's App Store.
Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The next phase of the internet could rely on a new set of keys for AI agents. They're called connectors.

Connectors are links that let an agent — with a user's permission —use an internet service. For example, if someone wants to make dinner plans through an AI assistant, the agent could use a calendar connector to check when everyone is free and a restaurant reservation connector to find a table. After the user approves, it could make the booking.

The internet-key-like tool keeps the AI agents cleanly focused on a single task, like getting that perfect dinner reservation. A connector often runs on a service's API, the underlying technical doorway that lets software applications communicate with each other.

Silicon Valley executives are sounding increasingly bullish on the idea that connectors could be the next gigantic internet shift. Box CEO Aaron Levie wrote on X that personal agents and connectors could create the "biggest opportunity and shakeup in consumer tech since the App Store itself," which shifted much of the internet from websites in a browser to apps on a phone screen.

If he's right, that could change how we build the internet for AI tools.

Meta is giving that idea a high-profile early test with Muse, its consumer-focused personal AI agent. Meta says — unlike Claude and ChatGPT, which have largely focused on enterprise applications — Muse can take on annoying errands that require consumers to hop between apps and accounts, like finding the cheapest price for a product or purchasing the right back-to-school supplies for multiple children.

On Monday, Muse was the most-downloaded free app in Apple's US App Store.

Muse's usefulness largely rests on which services offer those connector keys. So far, reactions from the business community have been mixed.

Amazon blocked Muse agents from shopping on its website, citing its terms of use. Shopify's CEO, Tobi Lütke, had a noticeably warmer reaction, announcing a partnership while posting a picture of Muse's snuggly-looking mascot holding a Shopify-branded bag.

We are excited to announce we are partnering deeply with Muse to enable agentic checkout with Shop Pay on all Shopify stores, offering people an easy and delightful way to shop and check out with Muse. pic.twitter.com/KmRlKjoLoq
— tobi lutke (@tobi) September 21, 2026

The divide gets at the central tension around personal agents. Muse can try to browse a website like a person, but companies may not want an outside AI system standing between them and their customers.

So, Meta is courting businesses with a new line of thinking, and it all goes back to the internet's keys.

On Friday, Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang wrote on X that the company was opening its Muse connectors to developers. The pitch to businesses is simple: plug your underlying software into Muse, "then people can use your service just by asking for it," he said.

That could create a new kind of competition for businesses. If consumers begin by asking an agent to book travel, order products, manage ad spending, or organize a project, companies will want to make their services easy for the agent to find and use.

Meta has already sketched out how Muse could make money. In a September 8 interview on the "Sources Podcast," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta could take a small cut of the underlying transactions, potentially paid by the businesses involved. That could keep the AI agent free for the "vast, vast majority of people" who use it, he said.

Still, that vision depends on businesses handing over those keys. The fight over who controls the doors could spawn the next internet age shift — or slam it shut.

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AI connectors could spark the next App Store-style boom. Here's how they work.

AI connectors could spark the next App Store-style boom. Here's how they work.

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