5 AI apps you should use instead of Meta Muse

If you have grown tired of seeing Meta AI being pushed across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and whatever other apps the company runs, Meta has a surprise for you: more AI! Meta Muse is an agentic app that can do stuff on your phone rather than just pull up information for you. The cute, fluffy mascot makes you want to use Muse all the more, and that’s why it’s gaining so much traction online.

However, no matter how cute it makes its AI, Meta’s reputation precedes it. It is the last tech giant that comes to mind if you think of privacy-conscious companies, thanks to its past privacy lapses. And that’s a valid reason if you might want to steer clear of Muse and look for safer alternatives. Here are some solid agentic AI tools that aren’t made by Meta.

Claude Cowork

Anthropic’s Claude means business, and so does its agentic workhorse, Cowork. It is designed for professionals who need deep knowledge work done — think of researching, developing, collating several sources, et al. This is the tool I’d go for if I needed complex, multi-step knowledge work done. For instance, I’d use it to run through lengthy legal documents (say, tech-adjacent international laws) and ensure there are no attribution gaps in the story I’m working on.

Honestly, that’s just scratching the surface of Claude Cowork. Since it runs on your computer, you can give it access to an entire work folder and ask it to organize hundreds of PDF receipts in folders, name them, and create a spreadsheet based on the details inside those files. You can connect it to external databases like HubSpot and Apollo using MCP and extract background information on the companies you’re planning to target. Developers can create supplementary files like installation instructions for their GitHub repository.

It’s perfect for such multi-step tasks. You just have to tell it what you need — without explaining how to do it — and it automatically figures out the required steps. Since it’s more business- and enterprise-oriented, it’s not as suited for consumer-level tasks.

ChatGPT Work

Just like ChatGPT is a more generalist tool than Claude, so is its agentic mode called Work. On the desktop app or the web, slide the button at the top, and ChatGPT will transform from a simple chatbot to an agent that gets things done, no matter how lengthy the process. Its biggest perk is that it’s far more consumer-friendly, with direct integrations for DoorDash, Expedia, Canva, Uber, Spotify, etc.

So, with everything connected, you can ask Work to pull up information from one app and take action in another without leaving the chat interface. Being an agent, it can take multistep actions both on your computer and on the web, handling everything on its own. ChatGPT recently added another layer of automation with Dots — the anthropomorphized agents that can delegate tasks to Work. But to access Dots, you need the $200 Pro plan, while Work is available on cheaper Go and Plus plans with varying usage limits.

I personally pick ChatGPT since it’s a better all-rounder than both Claude and Gemini for my use. It gets the same task done with fewer steps, though other options on the list may meet your needs better.

Perplexity Computer

The Perplexity Computer has always stood out because it gets you the best of all worlds. It is more than an AI agent, which is what other companies offer, and works as an orchestrator instead. This means it has access to all recent models from Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others, and delegates subtasks to each depending on their strengths. That also means you aren’t locked into one ecosystem and can use whatever model that’s currently doing well on the market.

I find Perplexity Computer to be very reliable because, while it sets up its multi-step flow for a given task, it always double-checks its own work before delivering you the final copy. Secondly, Perplexity also has its AI web browser called Comet. If you’re using Computer inside Comet, it can actually control the browser window, log in to the account you’ve given it access to, or browse the web for a service that it can’t directly talk to, to get you what you need.

It is an incredibly powerful AI assistant that is suitable for both work and personal use. However, it hasn’t found its footing among consumers because it requires the pricier $200 plan, which might prove to be quite value-for-money for businesses and serious work.

Gemini Spark

Google’s version of agentic AI called Gemini Spark works like every other tool on this list. But being a Google product, it is hyper-optimized for Workspace apps and is deeply integrated to both pull information from and take actions inside those services. If you live and breathe Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Keep, etc., Spark makes perfect sense because, unlike other tools that have external connections to your inbox and cloud storage, Spark is very much a part of that ecosystem.

Having said that, as a professional tool, Gemini still doesn’t have as extensive a list of external app connections as Claude and ChatGPT. That is its biggest shortcoming, though at least it can work locally on your computer to take actions stored on your disk (needs the AI Ultra plan) and browse the web for you inside Chrome.

Gemini Spark is a great tool for what it does, but it’s not something you should primarily subscribe to the AI Pro plan for. But if you’re already paying for the Google AI Pro plan, Gemini Spark is a solid perk.

Siri AI

Not everyone needs a professional AI agent to help them get by with their day. Sometimes all we need is just a tiny bit of assistance to make our everyday life a bit easier. And surprisingly, the new Siri AI fits the bill exactly. It’s nowhere near as independent and powerful as the likes of Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work, but it does get stuff done.

Siri already has extensive personal context on you with its deep integration inside both iPhone and Mac, so it is hyper-personalized to you from the get-go, while other AI tools have to learn about you from scratch. That’s why it has already proven to be a much more natural integration in my daily workflow than Gemini on Android. It helps me take quick actions even inside third-party apps, like filling up my Blinkit cart with groceries or taking multi-step actions across Notes and Calendar, taking context from Messages.

And when it comes to privacy perception, Siri AI is the opposite of Meta Muse. Apple is generally considered more reliable with your data, taking steps to securely handle your details even when processed in the cloud.

It would be unwise to assume that all the Meta Muse alternatives are 100% safe and privacy-conscious — Anthropic and OpenAI keep pointing fingers at each other every other day for different kinds of violations. But Meta has historically proven to be far more notorious than probably all of these tools combined, so I’d much rather pick one of these alternatives than fall for Muse’s cutesy marketing.

Which Meta Muse replacement would you choose? Let us know in the comments below.