Bank of America has maintained its Buy rating and $370 price target on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), even as analyst Wamsi Mohan outlined a competitive threat that has nothing to do with iPhone sales or chip performance.
Mohan’s warning centers on a structural shift in how users interact with digital services, one that could quietly redirect transaction revenue away from Apple’s ecosystem over the coming years.
Apple shares slipped roughly 2% after the note landed, a reaction that analysts say was aimed squarely at the company rather than the broader technology sector.
The core concern is about AI agents, software that browses websites, completes forms, and executes transactions on behalf of users without them ever opening an app directly.
Mohan argued that whoever controls these agents will collect the routing economics that previously flowed to operating systems, search engines, and app stores, a business model Apple has long dominated.
He pointed to Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ: META) Muse assistant as a concrete example of how that shift is beginning to take shape in the market right now.
Muse has secured access to commerce services from Shopify, Expedia, and PayPal, giving it the ability to complete purchases and bookings on behalf of users across multiple major platforms.
Amazon has moved to block Muse, demonstrating that access to large commerce ecosystems is not guaranteed and that incumbent platforms are aware of the competitive dynamics at play.
Bank of America does not expect Muse to generate meaningful revenue from ads, subscriptions, or commissions before 2028, suggesting the threat is still early-stage but directionally significant.
Mohan’s note stops well short of a sell recommendation, with the analyst continuing to credit Apple’s large installed base, user trust, and privacy-focused technology as durable advantages in the longer AI race.
The argument is specifically about the gap between now and when Apple closes its agent capabilities, a window during which third-party assistants like Muse could intercept user intent before Apple’s own software does.
Shareholders are being advised to monitor any Apple announcements related to Siri background tasks or third-party agent actions, since those are the precise areas Mohan identified as competitive vulnerabilities.
Any meaningful product update in those categories could shift the market debate around Apple’s AI positioning considerably faster than gradual software improvements alone.
For Meta, the Muse expansion signals an aggressive push into commerce infrastructure, though Amazon’s decision to block the agent is a reminder that platform access remains a contested and fragile advantage.
