Meta's Muse AI assistant will now phone businesses for you, from dinner reservations to your insurer
The feature, announced on November 12, is available to paid subscribers in the United States and covers everything from restaurant bookings to calls with insurance and cable companies.
On November 12, Meta rolled out a calling feature for Muse, its artificial intelligence assistant. Users hand off a task, and Muse phones the business and handles the conversation on their behalf. The feature is available to paid Muse subscribers in the United States.
The announcement came from Alexandr Wang, Meta's head of AI, in a post on his social media profile. “Let Muse handle all those calls you don't want to make,” he wrote, pointing to insurance, cable, the DMV and dinner reservations. According to Digital Trends, in a story published on November 13, the company began testing the feature in September with access limited to a small group.
Example use cases include calling a restaurant to book a table, talking to an insurer or sorting out issues with a cable provider. Meta also mentions government services such as the DMV.
From shopping to the phone
Muse launched in September as an assistant for shopping, travel bookings and other tasks. A few weeks later, Meta added Spaces, personalized mini apps.
Retailers have given it a mixed reception. Amazon has blocked Muse from making purchases on its platform, while Walmart and Shopify have been more open to the assistant.
What it costs
The Power plan costs $20 a month and includes 500 million Muse tokens per week. For heavier users, the Maximum plan runs $100 a month and raises the allowance to 3 billion tokens.
The history with human operators
Meta's early calling experiments were not handled by AI alone. The company tested human contractors placing calls on behalf of Muse users. The arrangement reportedly raised privacy concerns among employees, and Meta pulled back from the human-assisted test.
Since then, the company has promised disclosures and safeguards before expanding access. It is still unclear whether people are involved in the current version or how Meta is handling those disclosures.
For brand teams, the takeaway is that an AI assistant is now talking directly to businesses on the consumer's behalf, over the phone, in the United States. Restaurants, insurers and cable providers are among the examples cited, and in commerce the big platforms are already taking different positions on Muse.
Key questions
Who can use Muse's calling feature?
Anyone with a paid Muse subscription in the United States. Before that, the test was limited to a small group.
How much does a Muse subscription cost?
The Power plan costs $20 a month and includes 500 million tokens per week. The Maximum plan costs $100 a month and includes 3 billion tokens.
Are people making the calls instead of the AI?
Meta tested human contractors on the calls and pulled back after privacy concerns. It is unclear whether people are involved in the current version.
Source: Digital Trends.