He expects the agent will generate more revenue per user than the company's apps.
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It's only been a few weeks since Meta introduced Muse, but the company's personal agent is already becoming central to Meta's plan to start making money off its massive investment in AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is already working on monetizing the agent, and that he expects Muse to eventually generate more revenue per user than Facebook and Instagram.
Even though Muse is only available in the US and Canada, Meta has already seen significant adoption of the agent. Zuckerberg said that more than 10 million people have started using it since its early September rollout. "Now that Muse has clear product market fit, we are entering a new phase and a more operational phase that is focused on scaling it," Zuckerberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings call Wednesday. "We expect to grow Muse to serve billions of people."
Muse is also significantly more expensive for Meta to operate compared with its other services, and Zuckerberg said the company was already working on its plans to monetize the agent. Meta plans to build "commerce tools" that will allow it to charge businesses fees for transactions facilitated by its agent, the CEO said. He noted that shopping is currently the "most common" use case for the agent, and that people are spending an average of $200 per purchase with Muse. Meta will incorporate its AI subscriptions for people and business owners who use the agent more heavily as well.
Zuckerberg predicted that revenue from Muse could eventually surpass the money it currently makes from its apps, at least by some metrics. "The average revenue per American user for our existing family of apps users is several hundreds of dollars annually, and we expect that Muse will reach an even higher level over time due to the amount of commerce that we already see taking place," Zuckerberg said.
Muse is also "central" to Meta's plans to make more money from its AI glasses, according to Zuckerberg. While the company doesn't currently "make a large profit on the hardware" it sells, adding Muse to the product will help Meta sell more AI subscriptions, Zuckerberg predicted.
Meta previewed Muse on its smart glasses last month during Connect. The company said users will be able to talk to their agent in much the same way they can currently chat with Meta AI, and will be able to check in on tasks or add items to their agent's to-do list. Meta didn't specify if Muse on its glasses would require a separate subscription, but Zuckerberg's statements suggest that at least some Muse features will be paywalled on the glasses. (The company has contemplated upcharging for other glasses features, including its upcoming hearing enhancement ability.) Muse will be available on Meta's glasses "next month," Zuckerberg said.