Meta just let everyone redesign its AI mascot

Meta launched Muse in September as a personal AI agent that can book travel, make purchases, fill out forms and keep working after you close the app. A lot of that work happens somewhere you can’t see. So Meta gave it a body. Jolly is the fuzzy character that represents Muse, turning an invisible process into something that can move, react and eventually develop behaviors around what it’s doing.

Muse interface showing Jolly completing a field trip permission form — Muse completing a field trip permission form from email. Image via Meta Muse.

The problem is that Meta also wants Jolly to be yours. Users can name their agent, create an avatar and customize how it communicates, and Mark Zuckerberg’s version, Agrippa, appeared at Connect wearing a toga and laurel wreath. That makes sense for an avatar, because an avatar is about self-expression. A mascot has almost the opposite job. It needs to become more recognizable every time you see it.

Jolly running on a treadmill beneath falling confetti — Jolly running while Muse works in the background. Image via Muse.

Duo can wear costumes, get sick, melt, die and come back to life, but he is always unmistakably Duo. If Jolly can look completely different for every user, Meta is giving away some of what could make the character recognizable. And the base design isn’t doing enough to compensate. The fuzzy body, tiny face and collectible-toy proportions already feel familiar. WIRED describes it as “Labubu-like.” It feels very now, but there is little about it that feels specifically Meta or Muse.

Jolly wearing headphones and working on a laptop — Jolly working at a laptop. Image via Muse.

What I would do is keep the personalization, but build it around a much more fixed character. Give Jolly a recognizable silhouette, personality and behavior, then let people change the clothes, accessories and environment. Let users personalize Jolly without reinventing Jolly.

Because the underlying idea is good. AI agents are invisible and complicated, and giving one a character can make what it is doing easier to understand and much more memorable. But if Meta wants Jolly to become an asset people recognize years from now, it needs to give people something consistent to recognize.

I direct brand characters for companies and keep developing them so they can do exactly this. If you have one that could be doing more, talk to me.