Meta’s Muse aims to regain consumer trust amid aggressive AI push

Meta just pulled off something rare in Big Tech: it launched an AI product that people actually want to use. Muse, the company’s personal AI agent, debuted on September 8 and immediately climbed to the top of the US iOS free app charts. The timing is conspicuous. Meta is fresh off an $18 billion multistate settlement over social media harms to youth, and Muse arrives wrapped in privacy-first messaging.

What Muse actually does

Unlike the wave of chatbots that emerged after ChatGPT’s debut, Muse is designed to do things rather than just say things. It sends emails, books travel, manages purchases, and integrates with services like Gmail, Spotify, and Stripe.

The underlying architecture runs on what Meta calls Muse Spark models. Each agent session operates inside a Muse Secure VM, essentially a sandboxed virtual machine that gives the AI browser access for tasks that don’t have a direct API. When the agent needs to do something sensitive, like entering payment information or accessing personal data, it requests explicit user permission first.

The pricing structure follows the now-standard AI tiering playbook. A free version handles basic tasks, a $20 per month Power tier unlocks expanded capabilities, and a $100 per month Maximum subscription provides the full suite. That top tier matches what OpenAI charges for ChatGPT Pro.

Wall Street’s verdict

Meta’s stock has risen approximately 27% since Muse’s launch, with some analyst estimates placing the increase closer to 36%. The subscription model also gives analysts something concrete to model, as Meta has historically been a pure advertising business. A recurring revenue stream from Muse subscriptions diversifies that exposure in a way investors have been asking for.

Meta Connect 2026 added fuel to the rally by previewing additional Muse features, including digital avatars and expanded service integrations.

The competitive landscape shifts

Meta’s AI infrastructure investments, led by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang through Meta Superintelligence Labs, give the company a technical foundation that few competitors can match outside of Google and Microsoft. Muse launched as a standalone app rather than being embedded into existing Meta products, meaning it has to earn downloads on its own merits rather than riding pre-installed distribution across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. So far, it’s doing exactly that.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.