Muse Automatically Cancels Forgotten Subscriptions... What Happens to the Subscription Economy?

AI Agents' Spending Optimization Could Undermine Subscription Economy
"Banks May Also Lose Significant Low-Cost Deposits"

There is an analysis suggesting that the introduction of personal assistant-type Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents could threaten the subscription economy. This is because these agents optimize consumer spending by automatically canceling unnecessary subscription services.

On September 27 (local time), CNBC reported that financial applications (apps) managing subscription services with AI technology have seen a significant increase in cancellation requests over the past year.

According to ScribeUp, a provider of such services, the number of cancellations for other subscription services requested by its members has increased by about 1.8 times compared to a year ago. The average monthly fee of subscriptions canceled so far is around $17.39 (approximately 24,000 won).

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agent. Reuters Yonhap News

The sector with the largest increase was health and fitness, which rose by 3.8 times year-on-year. This was followed by video streaming (2.2 times), news and media (2.1 times), and music streaming (1.9 times).

It is expected that more companies will competitively introduce services that help consumers manage their subscription spending. For example, Muse, a personal AI agent launched by Meta earlier this month, is equipped with such a function. If users provide access to their bank account and credit card information, the AI can automatically identify and assist in canceling subscriptions found in payment records.

Although subscription management functions have existed in the past, AI agents now combine them with personal assistant services, enabling users to identify unnecessary expenses with even greater detail.

As a result, there are reports that the subscription economy could be undermined. Until now, the subscription industry has built services in a way that leverages consumers’ tendencies to forget or delay cancellations, making the process time-consuming and cumbersome. However, AI agents are reducing the impact of these factors.

Another industry that may be affected is banking, as customers could transfer their funds from regular savings accounts to high-interest accounts. Torsten Slok, Chief Economist at Apollo, pointed out, "AI assistants like Muse could automatically transfer individuals’ spare cash from checking accounts (ordinary transaction accounts) that have an annual interest rate of only 0.1% to high-interest accounts with rates between 3.3% and 5%. If everyone utilizes such AI agents, banks could lose a significant portion of low-cost deposits that have traditionally funded their lending."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.