Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that the company’s personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse, will remain free for most users and unveiled a slate of new retail and productivity partnerships at the company’s Connect event.
Free Now, Profit Later
Zuckerberg said Muse has “a novel business model,” betting the agent “will make you money” by making it “free for a huge number of tokens” rather than charging users upfront.
Meta instead expects to eventually profit by “taking a small fee from transactions” Muse completes on users’ behalf, such as purchases, bookings or bill negotiations.
Muse launched on Sept. 8, with the basic version free and subscription tiers priced at $20 and $100 a month for heavier use.
The company’s AI chief Alexander Wang said the agent has already helped users save money on insurance, hunt down unclaimed refunds, and negotiate a cable bill down by $85 a month.
Retailers Are Racing to Plug in
Wang announced that Walmart Inc., Best Buy Co Inc., Gap Inc., Sephora, Wayfair Inc., Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., Ulta Beauty, and Fanatics are integrating with Muse to power new in-app shopping experiences, alongside productivity tools Box, GitHub, Granola, and Notion.
Expedia is joining for travel planning, and Instacart for grocery orders.
Muse already taps into Shopify Inc.‘s full product catalog, using Stripe‘s Link and Shop Pay to complete purchases, and has added PayPal Holdings Inc. support to expand global payments.
Over 1,500 Developers Are Already Building on It
Muse was launched with connectors including Spotify, Plaid, and Ticketmaster.
Meta opened its connector platform to outside developers last week, and Wang said the company has already received more than 1,500 applications from developers looking to build their own integrations.
Analysts at JPMorgan said Muse could become the most widely used consumer AI app since OpenAI‘s ChatGPT.
Price Action: Shares closed 1.02% higher on Wednesday at $744.10 and fell 1.36%, according to Benzinga Pro.
Benzinga edge rankings indicate Meta’s stock has a Momentum score in the 78th percentile and a Growth score in the 79th percentile.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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