Meta Rises After Opening Its Muse AI Agent to Small Businesses

Meta Platforms shares rose 3.2% on Tuesday, closing at $738.79, after the company opened its Muse artificial-intelligence agent to small businesses. The gain followed Monday’s slide.

The new product, Muse for Small Business, connects Meta’s agent to software that owners already run. The company named ties to commerce and payment tools including Shopify and Stripe, alongside Canva, Slack, Dropbox, Notion, Zoom and Intuit’s QuickBooks. The agent can also read a company’s Instagram analytics, Facebook pages and Meta advertising accounts, and owners can wire in their own connectors for services that are not yet supported. Meta’s argument is that an assistant with a view across a whole business will prove more useful than a standalone chatbot.

Meta also described what the agent does with that access. It said Muse can study sales and campaign activity to draft a growth plan, scan financial records for unusual expenses, single out which ads are working before writing new ones, and flag emails that need a reply. The agent draws its context from the connected accounts, spanning customer messages and payment records. The company said it kept a control layer on top: nothing is published, sent or spent without the owner’s approval.

The service is free for most uses, with paid subscription tiers for heavier work. Meta did not disclose what those tiers cost. Tuesday’s launch builds on the consumer version of Muse that the company released on September 8, an agent it has pitched as carrying out tasks rather than only answering questions. That version arrived with a free tier and paid plans at $20 and $100 a month.

The business release is Meta’s latest move to turn its heavy spending on artificial intelligence into products companies pay for. Small firms have advertised on Facebook and Instagram for close to two decades, and the agent plugs straight into those ad accounts and the analytics behind them. That existing base is the audience Meta is aiming Muse at first.

Five percent below its three-month high

The move extends a strong run. Meta has gained 27.8% over the past 30 days and closed Tuesday just under 5% below its highest close of the past three months, $777.59. The shares now sit 37% above their three-month low of $539.03. Most of that climb came in September, as the earlier Muse launch pulled in attention and users.

Volume was ordinary. About 23.6 million shares changed hands, in line with the stock’s 20-day average. A gain of more than 3% on that kind of turnover suggests the buying was broad and unforced. The September stretch has carried Meta to within striking distance of its high for the quarter, and Tuesday’s session left it a short step away.

What to watch

Meta’s next scheduled update lands October 28. The company reports third-quarter results that afternoon, after the close, its first accounting since the small-business rollout. It has not said what the business subscriptions will cost.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.