Zuckerberg says AI could ‘redefine’ Meta’s ad business

Mark Zuckerberg envisions Meta’s platform to become the “ultimate business agent”, using AI to drive outcomes directly and lead to a significant increase in the overall percentage of GDP spent on advertising. 

In an interview with Stratechery’s Ben Thompson, Zuckerberg spoke about how Meta is shifting its advertising model towards delivering more measurable results for businesses rather than just impressions. 

Focusing significantly on the power of AI, the Meta CEO is looking at how the company can use this technology to help generate ad creatives – including text, images, and videos – for businesses based on their objectives, which could potentially lead to an infinite number of variations for testing and optimisation. 

Zuckerberg said: “In general, we’re going to get to a point where you’re a business, you come to us, you tell us what your objective is, you connect to your bank account, you don’t need any creative, you don’t need any targeting demographic, you don’t need any measurement, except to be able to read the results that we spit out. I think that’s going to be huge, I think it is a redefinition of the category of advertising.”

Meta also plans to use AI to deliver highly effective targeting, leveraging user data, with Zuckerberg encouraging businesses to trust the company’s algorithms over their own targeting limitations. 

Enhancing the ad business is the most immediate and straightforward revenue opportunity for Meta, Zuckerberg said. Others include increasing the consumer experience on engagement, monetising Meta's messaging platforms, and focusing on AI products like the Meta AI app and other potential AI-first features.