AI: Meta expands into AI Tools for the Enterprise. RTZ #545
...building on its Ads AI tools Superpower
Meta has been in the AI pole position in open source LLM AI for a while now, as I’ve outlined in earlier posts. In particular, founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been laser focused on making the AI Infrastructure GPU and data center investments in the billions of dollars per quarter, to advance its AI Agenda. From its class leading open source Llama 3 LLM AI models, to Meta AI chatbot deployed across its billions of daily users, to its future aspirations for AI wearables and AR glasses.
But the key superpower for Meta has been its focus on providing the best of class AI tools for its other core customer set, its advertisers. And as I’ve discussed before, Meta has opportunities beyond just throwing ‘sand in the gears’ of its AI rivals on their enterprise cloud businesses. Today, Meta expanded on this opportunity.
As Axios outlines in “Meta forms product group to build AI tools for businesses”:
“Meta is creating a new product unit to develop AI tools for the 200 million businesses that use its apps, Axios has learned.”
“Zoom in: The new business AI product group will be led by Clara Shih, most recently the CEO of Salesforce AI, Axios has learned.”
“Shih will be responsible for developing and monetizing tools within Meta's AI portfolio that are catered specifically to businesses.”
“An example of that type of product is Meta's new business AI chatbot, which allows businesses to set up their own AI chatbots to talk to their customers and facilitate transactions in WhatsApp and Messenger.”
“Between the lines: Shih, who also founded the AI-driven sales social network Hearsay Social, will not only be responsible for building new tools, but also for getting businesses to adopt them.”
“In an earnings call last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said businesses that adopt its AI tools for advertising perform better.”
"We estimate that businesses using Image Generation [an AI-driven ad creation tool] are seeing a 7% increase in conversions — and we believe that there is a lot more upside here," he said.”
“Reality check: This type of thinking isn't new to Meta, but it's been super-charged by Meta's AI ambitions.”
“Meta's VP and head of monetization John Hegeman said in a statement to Axios, "We believe these latest advancements in AI represent a significant opportunity for businesses to drive more efficiencies and significantly improve the experiences they offer their customers. This new product group under Clara's leadership will help us bring that vision to life."
“Shih confirmed her new role as VP of business AI at Meta. She said Meta's vision for the new product group "is to make cutting-edge AI accessible to every business." She noted that the businesses that want to harness AI "often don't know where to begin."
“The big picture: Meta's AI chatbot has amassed more than 500 million monthly active users since it rolled out to users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in April, the company says.”
“Its chatbot is powered by Meta's open-source large language model Llama, which has been downloaded more than 600 million times to date.”
“What's next: Most of Meta's business-facing AI innovations have so far centered around ad creation and optimization. The new product group will build tools that create deeper customer relationships beyond advertising.”
So Meta joins other big tech companies in targeting businesses with its AI offerings. It’s an effort that is of course different than the cloud AI services being offered by its peers like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others.
But the focus on business customers in this AI Tech Wave continues to expand with Meta in the race. Stay tuned.
(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)