Despite sounding like something recommended by your gastroenterologist, Muse is Meta’s new personal AI agent, launched Sept. 8. It’s live in the U.S. on iOS, Android, at Muse.ai and inside WhatsApp, with AI glasses coming.
Every AI company has an agent now, the kind that doesn’t just answer your question but goes off and does the task itself. Anthropic has Cowork, OpenAI has agent mode, and Google and Microsoft have their own. Think of an agent as a step beyond a chatbot: instead of telling you how to do something, it actually does it for you, like making a reservation.
Muse is being pitched as a personal assistant. Give it a goal, and it builds a plan, then keeps working after you close the app, checking back before it sends an email or spends money. It can connect to your email, calendar, and Instagram, remember what you tell it, and come back with suggestions. It’s free for most use, with paid tiers.
Roughly 83,000 iOS downloads in the first few days was good enough for No. 2 on the App Store, but a long way from the 4.3 million downloads Threads pulled on day one.
And, of course, travel is on the list. Muse handles flights through a direct connection to Duffel. Hotels have no such connection, so it shops the open web the way a guest would. Hotel booking is still pretty rudimentary at this point. We tried it, and frankly, it was easier to just book the hotel ourselves. But these are early days, and it’s going to get better.
The race to “simplify” the booking process (and monetize the hell out of it) is in full swing.
