Meta Develops Easy-to-Use AI Agent for Consumers

Meta plans to build an agentic artificial intelligence assistant for consumers that is comparable to OpenClaw but easier to use, The Financial Times (FT) reported Tuesday (May 5), citing unnamed sources.

The assistant is being trialed internally by some staff, and Meta outlined its plan for the project at a companywide meeting last week, according to the report.

The Information also reported on the consumer-focused AI agent and added that Meta is also working on an agentic shopping tool that will be integrated into the company’s Instagram platform. This tool will allow users to complete purchases within Instagram, the report said, citing unnamed sources.

Meta did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

According to the FT report, Meta tried to hire OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger before he joined OpenAI, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week during an earnings call that there is an opportunity to develop a version of the OpenClaw experience that is more polished and easier to use.

PYMNTS reported April 29 that during that day’s Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg covered Meta’s long-term vision for AI, framing personal superintelligence as the company’s chief product goal.

“My view is that human progress has always been driven by people pursuing their individual aspirations,” he said.

Also during the call, Zuckerberg said the company had seen a surge in business users employing its AI tools. The number of conversations being handled by these tools each week leapt from 1 million at the start of the year to 10 million by late March.

In addition, Muse Spark, Meta’s first model from the company’s in-house AI lab, debuted during the first quarter and now powers Meta AI across all apps and the standalone Meta AI app. Sessions per user grew double digits following the introduction.

Meta also upped its full-year guidance for capital expenditures from the earlier $115 billion to $135 billion to a new projection of $125 billion to $145 billion, citing the rising cost of memory and additional data center capacity and acknowledging that it has consistently underestimate its compute needs.

On Friday (May 1), it was announced that Meta has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), a startup developing AI models for general-purpose, humanoid robots.

In February 2025, it was reported that Meta planned to develop AI-powered humanoid robots, including hardware, AI, sensors and software, with a focus on robots that can perform household chores.