Exclusive Report - Meta is testing the "AI Concierge Service" for its new personal AI assistant Muse

Supplemented with details about Muse and background information on Meta's AI plans, paragraphs 6 to 14.

Katie Paul

Reuters, New York, Sept 22 - According to internal company posts seen by Reuters, Meta META.O has been testing a "human concierge" service for its newly launched personal AI assistant Muse (link), which involves human contractors quietly handling some of the calls placed through the digital assistant.

The company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, informed employees about the test last week, shortly after it publicly launched Muse’s phone call feature.

The posts show that some employees expressed privacy concerns about real customer service representatives handling calls, warning that this could inadvertently expose sensitive information to call center contractors.

When asked about the feature, a Meta spokesperson said employee feedback was “overwhelmingly positive,” and that the goal of the test is “to gather feedback so we can implement safety and privacy protections and improve the feature before public release.”

“We are working with businesses to continue improving this potential calling feature, and it will only be officially launched when it is fully ready and we have made appropriate disclosures,” said spokesperson Daniel Roberts.

MUSE Tops US Download Charts

According to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Meta’s Muse smart assistant has topped US app download charts within two weeks of its launch, with over 2.5 million downloads.

As a core part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan—to deliver “personal superintelligence” to the billions who use Meta’s services daily—this AI bot can independently perform tasks such as sending emails, shopping, and booking travel on behalf of users.

Meta highlighted the AI assistant’s security safeguards at launch, assuring prospective users that each assistant would have an independent secure “virtual machine”—that is, a dedicated computer in the cloud designed to ensure user sessions are isolated from each other, with sensitive information such as passwords stored in separate secure storage.

With the phone call feature, Muse users can instruct the assistant to call US businesses and talk on their behalf to handle tasks such as booking hair appointments, checking product stock at stores, and requesting quotes from different contractors.

After the call, the smart assistant provides a summary and a call record in the Muse app.

Internal posts show that Meta began employee testing (i.e., “internal pilot”) of the phone call feature in August, and gradually rolled out the feature to Muse users just days after the app’s launch.

According to the post announcing the feature to employees, last week Meta enabled the “human concierge” function—also known as “human customer service call”—for half of its employees.

“Muse can now pass requests to trained customer service representatives, who will make the call and handle related matters,” the post said.

According to the post, employees who do not wish to participate can join an “opt-out” group.

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