After first testing the feature in September, Meta’s consumer AI agent Muse can now make calls to U.S. businesses on behalf of users. However, the company says that only paid subscribers can access this feature.
The company announced last month that Meta’s Muse, which currently has over 10 million users, is working to make consumer AI a mainstream product for everyday users. Making phone calls is one method aimed at achieving this goal, as it may take care of another task on people’s to-do list.
Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer and head of Superintelligence Labs at Meta, said the feature could be used to handle calls people don’t want to make, such as calls to cable companies, the DMV or restaurants that don’t offer online reservations.
Previously, only some Muse early adopters could try out this feature after requesting access from AI. Currently, anyone who pays for Muse can make this type of request. Currently, Muse subscription plans start at $20 per month for 500 million Muse tokens per week. Heavier AI users can choose to pay $100 per month for 3 billion tokens.
Muse isn’t the only AI agent that can call businesses. Startups Instinct and Google’s Gemini offer similar options. However, while AI tools can now reliably handle the task, reception on the other end of the call may be mixed. Many companies and receptionists will hang up on calls from AI agents as soon as they realize the caller is not a human. But as AI becomes better able to mimic real human voices, it will become more difficult to tell the difference between a customer and the AI working on their behalf.
Despite the challenges, this feature could be attractive to consumers who have long been increasingly dissatisfied with the state of customer service. For too long, customers have been forced to navigate complex phone trees and sit on hold until a human agent answers. If they’re lucky, that person can actually help them and not transfer them to another department. Now, these consumers could use AI with infinite patience to replace this tedious task.
For now, calling is a paid-only feature, but the recently added option to create a Muse email address will soon be rolled out to free users, Wang said this week.
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