Marketers Weigh in on Meta’s Revenue and Consumer Risk Potential With Chatbots and Business AI
A ton of News from Meta this week and it all relates to AI. The brand introduced Business AI, a new digital assistant that helps companies deliver personalized product recommendations and streamline shopping through chat interactions.
As part of its growing suite of business tools, Business AI reflects Meta’s strategy of testing, learning, and refining AI innovations to improve performance across the advertising ecosystem. The assistant can be integrated into apps like Facebook and Instagram as well as retailer websites powered by Shopify, giving online sellers new ways to drive efficiency and strengthen customer engagement.
This also highlights how much Meta is investing in AI. The company has been ramping up its spending, with projected capital expenditures for 2025 now expected to reach between $66 billion and $72 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $60 billion to $65 billion.
Helen Ma, Vice President of Product Management at Meta, said during the Meta Press Zoom Call that the company’s long-term vision for generative AI is focused on integrating it across the entire advertising stack. She explained that Meta began by focusing on creative tools, recognizing the importance and complexity of producing engaging content across its diverse platforms such as Feed, Reels, and Stories.
“So on the creative side with the, you know, popularity of mage animation, we said, ‘hey, let’s move to multi-scene video generation.’ That’s the next step,” said Ma. “With the text translations, we were offering that for just the ad copies. We said, ‘Let’s move to AI dubbing.’ And a lot of this is a build on what’s working, so we can amplify and make it even easier than ever for advertisers and brands.”
Meta’s early successes with tools like image animation and video expansion showcased the potential of AI to simplify and enhance creative development. Ma also added how AI can reimagine interactivity between brands and consumers, moving beyond simple taps to more immersive experiences such as AI-powered call-to-action stickers and virtual try-ons.
At the same time AI is a growing space where ads are ranked and delivered, forming the backbone of advertising performance. If Meta’s AI tools can answer questions, create content, brainstorm ideas, and eventually enable commerce, are we looking at a future where every interaction generates a constant stream of first-party data full of deeply personal insights? Could this be the kind of signal that makes ad targeting sharper than ever or does it raise new questions about privacy and control?
This coincides with Meta’s plans to use interactions with its AI chatbot to serve users more targeted ads.
Marketers are saying AI generated advertisements served in response to AI identified queries raise significant concerns. One risk is that ads may end up being tailored based on sensitive personal attributes like gender, age, or race. For instance, someone might see an ad featuring a person who resembles them based on photos they have shared, and someone else might see the same ad adapted to match their own appearance, down to details like facial hair. Though this kind of hyper personalization may seem like a marketing win, it could backfire. As people become more aware of these practices, such tailored ads may feel invasive, creepy, or even discriminatory, potentially hurting trust more than boosting effectiveness.
Stephen Adler, Digital Marketing Manager at Horowitz Agency, said incremental performance gains must be evaluated with careful attention to lead attribution and weighting. While touchpoints are becoming increasingly tailored, Adler explained that the process is complicated by ads served through less intentional searches or tangential topics surfaced by chatbots. Because the way algorithms crawl and weight content remains closely guarded, Adler added it may be difficult to accurately connect touchpoints to specific stages of the funnel.
“From a consumer perspective, the quality and perceived artificiality of the content served will be a big differentiator. If the models can maintain a warm human tone they will likely be more effective than if they are, as they have been in their infancy, somewhat cold and impersonal,” said Adler. “The Human element is something that will likely continue to resonate even with those passionate about AI.”
Meta’s push to use AI for revenue growth started in 2022 with the launch of its Advantage+ advertising suite. The strategy accelerated in 2023, and by 2024, generative AI had become the company’s top priority. Meta is still exploring ways to monetize its entire ecosystem, not just Instagram with its unskippable ads. The company is looking to boost ad performance, expand e-commerce opportunities, and develop business tools that turn user engagement into revenue.
Jonathan Guda, CEO of AdOmni, an AI-powered programmatic advertising platform, described the shift as a dream scenario for advertisers. With intent signals available at scale, Guda noted, the creative possibilities and performance potential are enormous. Meta’s decision to leverage AI conversations for ad targeting, Guda added, is less surprising than it is inevitable as Mark Zuckerberg’s multibillion-dollar investment in AI is aimed at building a future where Meta captures not only attention and clicks but also intent, curiosity, and language drawn directly from chat-based interactions and generated content.
“We’ve seen this pattern before. Remember when people suspected Meta of listening through phones? The idea was brushed off, the public acclimated,” said Guda. “Now we’re not just talking near our phones, we’re [typing directly into the machine]. Feeding it what we think, want, and feel. And Meta will use it.”
