Meta’s new AI agent, Muse, stood out at the company’s annual Connect event. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that AI features would spread across the company’s products, the topic was discussed by Anthony Ha, Kirsten Korosec, and Sean O’Kane on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. The discussion focused on Meta’s consumer-oriented approach at a time when OpenAI and Anthropic are turning toward enterprise tools and coding.
Muse, which Meta says is intended for adults and draws attention with its Tamagotchi-style device and app experience, was described as appealing to the consumer market where the company is strong. The prevalence of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in daily life was seen as an advantage for Meta’s strategy. However, Sean O’Kane said he did not yet believe Muse would become a constant part of people’s lives.
O’Kane said Muse had helped him find money that belonged to him and had not been claimed, allowing him to make money, which he found impressive. However, he said this was a one-off experience and that it remained more of a “party trick” than a feature that would ensure sustainable use. The possibility of Muse accessing credit card and Gmail information for more extensive financial transactions, canceling unused subscriptions, or detecting duplicate payments was noted as raising questions about trust in Meta.
O’Kane said he was pleased that Muse did not directly connect him to his Threads, Instagram, and Facebook accounts when he first downloaded the app. He said that the app initially approaching him like a stranger increased his desire to use it, but that over time it began trying to collect more information about the user.
O’Kane said he trusted Apple more than Meta when it came to sensitive data. Saying that the new iOS and the now-functional Siri could offer surprising and useful controls on the phone, O’Kane argued that Apple’s business model was not based on selling personalized ads, while Meta’s core business was selling advertising. He said Muse’s consumer-focused and personalized way of communicating was intriguing, but that he had not yet seen a sufficiently useful use case beyond the one-off experience of finding money.
Why it matters
The main consequence of this development is that the balance between usefulness and trust in consumer-facing AI agents has become visible. As Muse’s access to personal and financial data expands, the convenience it provides will need to outweigh concerns about how Meta uses that information; otherwise, individual successes may not turn into regular use. This distinction also brings to the fore the question of how Meta’s advertising-based business model and the trust placed in Apple will translate into user preferences. For this reason, the unresolved issue is not whether Muse offers a surprising experience, but whether it can become a tool that inspires trust without connecting to social platforms and provides consistent value in everyday needs.
Background
Meta is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 33 reports mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the most recent was dated 2 October 2026.