Meta Platforms is wasting no time in bringing its new enterprise AI ambitions directly to business owners, starting where it already has a significant foothold. The social media giant on Tuesday launched Muse for Small Business, a version of its popular AI agent designed to help entrepreneurs automate daily tasks, from communicating directly with customers to managing cash flow and inventory processes to creating websites. “This is the next version of Muse,” Meta president and vice chairman Dina Powell McCormick said in an interview on “Mad Money” airing Tuesday night. “This essentially allows small business owners to spend the most valuable thing they have, their time, building their business for the future without having to worry about back-office tasks.” (Part of the discussion was broadcast on “Squawk on the Street.”) This news follows Monday’s announcement of the Meta Enterprise Platform. The Meta Enterprise Platform is a new business led by CJ Desai, an experienced technology executive who left his role as CEO of MongoDB to join Meta. The division will bring together all of Meta’s AI efforts, including the Muse agent’s consumer and business applications, which have had a ChatGPT-like moment since launching earlier this month. With deep connections to small businesses through Facebook and Instagram, it makes sense to tap into them, which are fertile ground for Meta. “There are 200 million small business owners on the Meta platform,” Powell McCormick told Jim Cramer. “This means that we actually have connections with so many small business owners who are now not only using our product to run their companies or promote their products on our platform, but now actually use Muse for Small Business to work hard for them every day.” It can connect to workplace software widely used by companies, such as Salesforce’s Slack. Rather than requiring small business owners to adopt a completely new ecosystem, Meta allows them to incorporate Muse into the tools they already use. Muse for Small Business doesn’t need to contribute much to your revenue at this point, but you can look at this launch as a positive. We see potential, and so does Jeffries. In a note to customers last week, analysts said they expect Muse’s subscription revenue to be meaningful. In a scenario where Muse reaches 1 billion users by the end of 2027, with 3% of them converting to paid members and generating an average of $30 per month in revenue, Jefferies analysts estimate that the service could reach $10.8 billion in annual subscription revenue, with enterprise customers potentially providing further upside. Small and medium-sized businesses may be particularly receptive to AI agents because they lack the staff and resources of larger companies. Muse for Small Business follows the same pricing model as the consumer version of the agent, with a free tier subject to usage limits and paid subscriptions beyond that. This opportunity is another potential way for Meta to monetize its large AI investments, but it must first prove that small businesses will use Muse regularly, delegate important tasks to Muse, and ultimately pay for the service. It will also face stiff competition as AI and software companies race to introduce agents into the workplace. Meta shares rose 26% in September as investors grew more optimistic about the company’s AI strategy. Muse’s expansion into the business gives it another reason to believe Meta’s hundreds of billions of dollars in AI investments can generate new revenue streams and potentially earn the stock a higher price-to-earnings ratio. According to FactSet, the current P/E ratio is just 14.6 times expected earnings per share in 2029. The company has traditionally traded like a consumer business. But “corporate companies are getting high multiples,” Jim said on Tuesday’s “Morning Meeting,” meaning a successful move into the business sector of the market could ultimately give investors a reason to pay more for Meta’s profits. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is a Long CRM, META. See here for a complete list of stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investing Club, you’ll receive trade alerts from Jim Cramer before he makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
