Meta said its first-ever AI imaging model enables small and mid-sized businesses to create ads and campaigns comparable to those of larger brands and enterprises.
After initially introducing the Muse family of multimodal models in April with Muse Spark, Meta released Muse Image, developed by the Meta Superintelligence Lab, on July 7. It is embedded in the Meta Advantage+ automated ad suite. This enables businesses to use the tool to generate brand-consistent image variations. The new model functions as an agent, and businesses can modify parts of the image it produces, such as the background, by typing natural-language instructions.
For small and medium-sized businesses, the release of Muse provides access to an AI-powered image-generation and editing tool that can boost their performance and efficiency on Meta’s platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.
“This helps SMBs ride the wave of AI generation like larger businesses have, especially around editing, remixing and generation, thanks to AI,” said Liz Millier, an analyst at Constellation Research.
The Opportunity for Meta
While Muse provides opportunities for SMBs, Meta has an ulterior motive, especially since Muse’s capabilities lag those of other platforms, such as Amazon Ads, which offers similar AI-powered services, Miller said.
“The money maker for Meta may not be with advertisers and agencies who have likely already established their content creation and AI generation processes and flows before this later launch,” Miller said. “The money here is with the SMBs and the consumer, with an AI model that is developed and owned by Meta.”
She added that Muse is a way for Meta to advance its AI offerings and capabilities. Muse could deliver the results SMBs need, while boosting Meta’s ad spend, which could potentially surpass Google’s.
Therefore, while Muse will likely never be as capable as popular image-generating models such as Midjourney or Adobe Firefly, it may not need to be. It might be just good enough for an SMB to get “personalized campaign assets just like the big agencies and brands,” Miller continued.
Caution Needed
However, users need to exercise due diligence; it will be up to them to ensure that whatever is created with Muse Image is not used to train any Meta-developed model.
“If you are an artist showcasing work on Instagram via a public profile page, for example, that content, those artworks, those images are all potentially being used for training,” Miller said. She added that users should also ask questions about Muse-powered generations and safety.
“For a small business, this may simply not be an issue … but for brands, digital safety and the assurance that the images being generated are safe and ready for commercial use is massively important,” she added.
