Meta Brings Muse AI to Small Businesses With New Enterprise Push

Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick described the product as the next iteration of Muse. In an interview scheduled to run Tuesday evening on Mad Money, parts of which aired on Squawk on the Street, she said Muse for Small Business allows owners to use their most precious asset, time, to build their businesses rather than worry about back-office work.

The small-business offering follows Meta's Monday announcement of the Meta Enterprise Platform, a new business led by CJ Desai. Desai left his role as CEO of MongoDB to join Meta. The division will bring together Meta's AI efforts, including consumer and business applications of the Muse agent. CNBC reported that Muse has been having a ChatGPT-type moment since launching earlier this month.

Meta is leaning on its existing relationships with small businesses. Powell McCormick told CNBC's Jim Cramer that Meta has 200 million small business owners on its platform. She said those owners already use Meta products to operate their businesses and advertise goods, and can now have Muse for Small Business work for them every day.

Muse for Small Business can connect directly to professional Facebook and Instagram accounts, Meta advertising accounts, and workplace software from Zoom Communications, Intuit, the parent of QuickBooks, and Salesforce's Slack, CNBC reported. Meta is trying to bring Muse into tools that small businesses already use rather than asking them to adopt an entirely new ecosystem.

The service uses the same pricing model as the consumer version of Muse, with a free tier subject to usage limits and paid subscriptions beyond that. CNBC reported that Muse for Small Business does not need to become a major earnings contributor for the launch to be viewed positively.

Jefferies analysts said in a note to clients last week that they see a path to meaningful Muse subscription revenue, CNBC reported. In a scenario where Muse reaches 1 billion users by the end of 2027, converts 3% of them to paid subscribers and generates an average of $30 per month, the analysts estimated the service could reach $10.8 billion in annualized subscription revenue, with business customers offering additional upside.

Small businesses may be particularly receptive to AI agents because many lack the staff and resources of larger companies. But Meta must first prove that small businesses will use Muse regularly, trust it with important tasks and ultimately pay for the service. It will also face intense competition as AI and software companies race to bring agents into the workplace.

Meta shares have surged 26% in September as investors have grown more optimistic about the company's AI strategy, CNBC reported. The expansion of Muse into businesses gives another reason to believe Meta's AI investments can create new revenue streams and potentially earn the stock a higher price-to-earnings valuation. Its current P/E is just 14.6 times 2029 earnings-per-share estimates, according to FactSet. It has historically traded like a consumer business, but Jim Cramer said on Tuesday's Morning Meeting that enterprise companies get high multiples. Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CRM and META.