Meta tests human concierge feature for Muse AI assistant, then hits pause over privacy concerns

Meta’s new AI assistant can already book your dinner reservation and manage your inbox. Now the company wants it to pick up the phone and talk to actual humans on your behalf, with a twist: sometimes the voice on the other end of Meta’s call would be a real person pretending to be an AI. Or, more precisely, a human stepping in when the AI can’t handle the conversation alone. The company has been internally testing a “human concierge” feature for its Muse personal AI agent, allowing trained contractors to take over specific outbound phone calls that the AI initiates or struggles to complete. The test rolled out to roughly half of Meta’s workforce around mid-September 2026, shortly after Muse’s phone-calling capability went live. But the experiment didn’t last long in its original form. Privacy concerns prompted Meta to pause the trial. What the human concierge actually does Muse can autonomously handle a range of tasks, from managing emails to shopping to making bookings. Its phone-calling feature, which began internal testing back in August 2026, extends that capability into voice conversations with real people, like restaurant hosts, doctor’s offices, or customer service lines. Th...