We’re about to be immersed in the busiest shopping season of the year, and if Mark Zuckerberg has his way, people will completely hand over the responsibility of buying stuff to their own personal AI agent. In fact, according to the Meta CEO, that is already happening.
During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that over a quarter of Meta Muse‘s engaged users — now totaling more than 10 million — were using the AI agent for shopping, with an “average purchase size of over $200.”
“Plaid told us that they hadn’t seen activity like they’re seeing with their connector on any other service before,” Zuckerberg said, referring to financial services company Plaid, which facilitates payments between stores and buyers. He added that, due to higher-than-expected volumes, Meta had to work with payment app Stripe to raise credit limits to meet the shopping demand by Muse users.
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Now that the AI agent has achieved what Zuckerberg referred to as a “product-market fit,” the name of the game for Muse in the long term is that we may be living in a reality where you have your own personal AI agent communicating with a business’s AI agent to complete transactions without you ever needing to speak with someone directly.
“Billions of Muses in a network at scale will be able to get more done for people and businesses by working together,” Zuckerberg said, painting a picture of what a large-scale Muse network could look like.
One of the goals is to get Muse to scale up its revenue, which he believes will eventually surpass the earnings of Meta’s combined existing family of apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads and Messenger.
‘The Muse network’
Then there’s the coming integration of Muse into Meta’s smart glasses, which will launch next month. Soon, you’ll be able to access Muse on the go, without having to pull out your smartphone to use it.
“Having your personal superintelligence with you throughout the day will be the most important part of the experience,” Zuckerberg said.
How will all this work together? That remains to be seen, but during the call, Zuckerberg referenced something called “the Muse network,” which he said is Meta’s plan to, if I understand things right, gamify the whole personal AI agent experience.
A Meta spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.
“It’s not just a kind of single-player game where you have your Muse, but making it so that your Muses can work with your friends’ and your families’ [Muses],” Zuckerberg said, before bringing the conversation back to shopping, “And if you want to buy something, it’s not just navigating to that business’s website; it’s talking to their agent.”
Meta announced third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, a 26% jump from the $51.2 billion announced this time last year. Costs were significantly higher, however, up by 68% to $51.6 billion due in large part to the company’s “agreement with 52 attorneys general to resolve litigation related to teen mental health and social media, which provides for payments of up to approximately $18.59 billion.” Net income was up by 264% year-over-year to $9.9 billion for the quarter.