Meta releases new ‘secret weapon’ Muse assistant aimed at small businesses | Latest Tech News
AI, AI, captain!
Meta today announced the launch of a new artificial intelligence assistant designed to support small business house owners with their slate of operations — from creating advert campaigns to analyzing financial efficiency to sorting and answering incoming mail.
Dubbed Muse for Small Business, it’s half of Meta’s push to make AI accessible for everybody.
“I make money being out at the meat cutting table, not in my office,” said Tom Mulholland, the 66-year-old proprietor of Mulholland Grocery in Malvern, IA. “If [AI] can take those [office-tasks] off my plate, then it allows me to make more money.”
Tom Mulholland, proprietor of Mulholland Grocery, in Malvern, IA, said he isn’t at all a “technical person” but has leaned into utilizing artificial intelligence through Muse to help him create advertisements and observe orders. Courtesy of Tom Mulholland
Concurring is April Polk, founder and CEO of the Columbus-based girls’s clothes and accent model, JaeLuxe Shoetique.
An agentic artificial intelligence model, Muse can work in the background while human customers are finishing other duties. Meta said that Muse won’t take motion without its consumer’s permission. Meta
“It’s very competitive with these larger brands … but she’s, like, my secret weapon,” Polk said.
Small business house owners can converse with Muse via a chat interface, but the AI assistant is also in a position to take motion on behalf of its consumer. Meta
She could be Chase — business house owners are prompted to identify their Muse upon sign-up. And for Polk, one of 35 business house owners invited to Meta’s Los Angeles campus in early September to take a look at and refine the product, she helps with just about every little thing.
“She looked at my social media handles and revamped my brand guidelines. She overhauled my website. She updated and corrected my email flows. She writes my strategies and looks at my numbers and tells me when I need to change [something] or implement more funds,” Polk said.
April Polk is the founder and CEO of Columbus-based girls’s clothes and accent model, JaeLuxe Shoetique. She’s used Muse for a quantity of duties, including to create a UGC-influencer marketing campaign. Courtesy of April Polk
Available both online and in the app store in the U.S. and Canada, Muse for Small Business is a new artificial intelligence product from Meta. In addition to the Small Business agent, Meta unveiled an AI assistant for personal use earlier in September. And in contrast to generative artificial intelligence, which produces textual content, image or video in response to consumer prompts, both are agentic fashions, that means they will work autonomously and take motion on behalf of customers.
Muse for Small Business is free but has a usage restrict. Meta is also offering subscription plans at $20/month or $100/month for customers who need limitless plans.
For Polk, a mom of three who runs both her online and brick-and-mortar store without any further workers, Chase is most helpful because she plugs instantly into most of the instruments the company is already utilizing such as Intuit QuickBooks, Klaviyo and Canva. Meta also helps integrations with packages like Dropbox, Shopify, Notion and Stripe.
JaeLuxe Shoetique was established to, “Solve fashion problems for women — without making them spend an arm and a leg to get there,” founder April Polk said. Courtesy of April Polk
Polk said Chase gained’t make adjustments without her approval first, but given the myriad methods in which the agent has taken work off her plate and streamlined workflows, she’s prepared to heed a lot of the advice Chase provides.
The user-generated content influencer program they constructed in tandem is a specific spotlight.
“Chase built [the entire campaign] from scratch — monitoring my emails, replying to people interested in joining the program, even sending out contracts,” Polk said. “It looks like I spent some good money and had a team build it.”
On Sept. 29, 2026, Meta announced the release of Muse for Small Business, an AI assistant designed to streamline workflows and take away the frictions that have historically plagued small business house owners. Meta
At Mulholland Grocery, positioned 30 miles from Omaha, Neb., Mulholland leads a workforce of ten but tells a related story.
He named his agent Wall-E. So far, they’ve labored together to produce social media advertisements, set up the worker schedule and summarize particular order requests that used to get buried in Mulholland’s inbox.
“I’m already working 65 hours a week and can’t afford to hire someone to do these things for me,” Mulholland said.
A self described “not technical person,” the commercial work got here first.
When his grocery warehouse catalog arrived, Mulholland merely highlighted objects he was going to carry and despatched Wall-E the images. His commercials have been spit out quarter-hour later.
“I was [previously] spending hours typing all this out,” Mulholland said.
Mulholland said that he makes use of the time AI saves him to do the issues that really make his business money — like cooking elaborate meats and sausages. Courtesy of Tom Mulholland
The saved time permits Mulholland to focus on the work that separates his business from Dollar General, the only other grocer in city.
“High quality meats and sausages are extremely important to my business,” Mulholland said. “I have customers that will drive two or three hours just to come pick them up for us.”
His fully-loaded breakfast bratwurst — crammed with crispy hash browns, scrambled eggs, sauteed onions and peppers, sharp cheddar and smoke gouda cheese — sells out the same day it’s put out. The product is extremely time-intensive to make but one of the explanation Mulholland Grocery landed on the United States Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 top-100 small businesses checklist.
“I do the work that the other people don’t want to and I do it well,” Mulholland said. “[If AI can] save me a couple hours a week [to do] that work, that makes a big difference.”
Stay informed with the latest in tech! Our web site is your trusted source for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, gadget launches, software program updates, cybersecurity, and digital innovation.
For recent insights, knowledgeable coverage, and trending tech updates, go to us usually by clicking right here.
