Zuckerberg says Meta’s Muse AI agent tops 10 million users

More than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada have set up Muse, Meta's personal AI agent, in about six weeks. Mark Zuckerberg disclosed the figure on the company's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, October 21. He said shopping volume through Muse was high enough that Meta had to get Stripe to raise credit limits, according to Fortune. Meta also plans to charge businesses a fee on sales that Muse helps complete.fortune.com

The numbers are the first hard sign that Meta's heavy AI spending is producing a product people use. They also point to a revenue source beyond advertising.

Early adoption and shopping

Zuckerberg said the sign-ups since Muse became available on September 8 are "more than twice the level that Threads started at or where we believe that other AI apps started at as well," Fortune reported. About 25% of people who set up Muse use it on any given day, the Associated Press reported.apnews.com+1

Shopping is the most common use. More than a quarter of users make purchases through Muse, and the average purchase is over $200, according to Business Insider. "We had to work with Stripe to raise credit limits since the volumes were above what any of us expected," Zuckerberg said. He did not say how much the limits went up.fortune.com+1

Monetizing sooner

Muse will stay free for most consumers. Meta plans to make money from commerce tools that take a fee from the transactions it facilitates, Business Insider reported. Power users can pay for $20 and $100 monthly plans, according to CNBC. Zuckerberg said Meta would "work on monetization somewhat sooner on this than our normal playbook." Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said Meta is working with partners including Shopify and Walmart on a Personal Agent Protocol, a standard that would set out how consumer agents interact with business agents.cnbc.com+2

Costs and results

Muse uses a lot of computing power to run, but Meta expects to make it more than 10 times as cost-efficient within a year, "which will enable it to be profitable once the revenue lines are at scale," Zuckerberg said, according to the AP. Meta expects capital spending of $135 billion to $145 billion this year, up from $72.2 billion last year, Fortune reported.fortune.com+1

Third-quarter revenue rose 26% to $64.60 billion, beating estimates, and net income was $9.86 billion. Meta forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $73 billion to $76 billion, according to CNBC. Its shares rose in extended trading Wednesday but slipped on Thursday, Yahoo Finance reported. Li acknowledged that adoption among businesses "will likely be uneven" because some are wary of giving up their customer relationships.apnews.com+3