Meta Takes Muse to Small Business as Zuckerberg Targets Enterprise AI

Meta launched Muse for Small Business on Tuesday, connecting its AI agent to workplace software from Asana, Zoom, Intuit, Box, Canva and Salesforce's Slack. The agent also links to Meta ad accounts and professional Instagram and Facebook profiles.

The company did not disclose pricing. A note at the bottom of its blog post pointed to the existing Muse app, which is free with usage limits and available on a subscription basis beyond that.

The stakes are considerable. Meta derives almost all of its revenue from digital advertising, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed to finding new business opportunities with AI — particularly after paying billions of dollars last year for top AI talent, most notably Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, who now leads the company's AI efforts. Wang's group has been shipping new AI models under the Muse Spark family since April.

At Meta Connect last week, Zuckerberg called Muse the "centerpiece" of his AI strategy.

The launch follows Monday's announcement that Meta will build a new enterprise platform, run by newly hired MongoDB CEO CJ Desai. That platform will include a Muse agent, a business agent and a coding tool.

Timing matters here. Meta announced Muse for Small Business the same day OpenAI held its developer day. The move signals Meta's intent to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic in the enterprise market, where both rivals have built substantial businesses.

A built-in customer base

Meta enters this fight with an unusual advantage: 200 million small businesses already use Facebook, according to the company.

"Small businesses have been growing on our apps for nearly two decades," Meta said in the blog post. "They told us they're short on hours, not ideas. So we built Muse for Small Business to help get work done with the tools they already use."

The company framed the agent's capabilities in broad terms.

"Give Muse a goal — like running your business or finding new customers — and it gets it done," Meta said in Tuesday's post.

Wall Street momentum

The product push builds on what has been a strong month for Meta investors. The stock rose 25% in September, though it pulled back over the past two trading days.

The rally followed the Sept. 8 rollout of the Muse consumer app, which climbed to the top of Apple's App Store and surpassed ChatGPT. Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney told CNBC he expects Muse to reach 100 million users within six to 12 months.

That consumer traction now gives Meta a distribution base few enterprise AI rivals can match. OpenAI and Anthropic have built their businesses on chatbot subscriptions and API sales; Meta can pitch an AI agent to millions of businesses that already run their operations through Facebook, Instagram and Meta's ad tools.

The enterprise gambit

Hiring Desai away from MongoDB signals how seriously Meta is taking the enterprise push. His remit covers a full platform — a Muse agent, a business agent and a coding tool — rather than a single product.

The question Meta has not yet answered is pricing for the business tier. The consumer app's freemium structure suggests the company may again favor scale over immediate revenue, a strategy it used to dominate social media.

With Muse for Small Business live, Desai's enterprise platform in development, and Muse Spark models shipping since April, Meta has now assembled the components of a full enterprise AI stack. The next test is whether small businesses will hand their workflows to the same company that sells their ads.