It has only been a few weeks since Meta officially introduced Muse, but the company’s new personal agent is already becoming the centerpiece of Meta’s long-term strategy to start turning a profit on its massive, multi-billion-dollar investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure. During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Meta is already actively working on monetization plans for the agent. In a bold projection, Zuckerberg told investors and analysts that he expects Muse to eventually generate more revenue per user than traditional core applications like Facebook and Instagram, setting a remarkably high financial bar for the emerging technology.
Even though Muse is currently restricted in its availability to users in the United States and Canada, Meta has already experienced significant adoption rates since its initial rollout in early September. Zuckerberg reported that more than 10 million people have already started using the personal agent in the short time since it launched. Now that Muse has demonstrated a clear product-market fit during its initial testing and early release window, Zuckerberg noted that the corporation is officially entering a new and more operational phase focused heavily on scaling the product for a mass audience. During the earnings call, the CEO emphasized that the company’s ultimate ambition is to grow Muse to serve billions of people worldwide.
Operating an advanced personal AI agent like Muse, however, comes at a notably higher operational cost for Meta compared to running its traditional text and photo-sharing services. Because the computational requirements are significantly steeper, Zuckerberg explained that the company has already developed concrete plans to monetize the agent to offset these expenses and generate substantial profits. Meta plans to construct robust commercial tools that will enable the company to charge businesses various fees for transactions that are successfully facilitated by its AI agent. Zuckerberg pointed out that shopping is currently the single most common use case for Muse among consumers, noting that users are spending an average of $200 per individual purchase when utilizing the agent. In addition to transaction fees, Meta intends to incorporate paid AI subscriptions aimed at everyday consumers and business owners who rely on the agent for heavier, more intensive daily workloads.
Looking ahead to the financial future of the platform, Zuckerberg predicted that revenue generated by Muse could eventually eclipse the money the corporation currently brings in from its massive family of social media apps, at least when evaluated through certain economic metrics. Elaborating on this dynamic, Zuckerberg explained that the average revenue per American user for their existing family of apps is already several hundreds of dollars annually, but they fully expect Muse to reach an even higher level over time. This elevated earning potential is driven primarily by the sheer volume of commercial transactions and consumer shopping activity that the company already observes taking place directly through the platform.
Beyond software and standalone digital applications, Muse is also playing a central, foundational role in Meta’s broader corporate plans to extract more revenue from its line of smart glasses and wearable hardware. While Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company does not currently command a large profit margin on the physical hardware it sells to consumers, integrating Muse directly into the product ecosystem will dramatically help Meta sell more high-margin AI subscriptions moving forward. This hardware integration strategy represents a critical convergence of Meta’s physical product division and its advanced artificial intelligence software initiatives.
Meta first offered a preview of Muse on its smart glasses last month during the annual Connect conference. At the time, company executives outlined how users would be able to converse with their AI agent in a manner very similar to how they currently chat with the standard Meta AI assistant, while also gaining the ability to seamlessly check in on pending tasks, manage daily schedules, or add new items directly to their agent-managed to-do lists. While Meta did not explicitly specify during the initial announcement whether accessing Muse on its smart glasses would require a separate, dedicated subscription fee, Zuckerberg’s recent earnings call statements strongly suggest that at least some advanced Muse features will likely be placed behind a paywall on the hardware devices. This approach aligns with the company’s broader experimentation with premium software features on wearables, as Meta has also contemplated upcharging users for other specialized glasses capabilities, including its newly introduced hearing enhancement functionalities. Concluding his remarks on hardware availability, Zuckerberg confirmed that Muse will officially roll out to Meta’s smart glasses next month.
