Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks as he presents the new Meta Ray-Ban Display at the 2025 Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, on Sept.
17, 2025.Benjamin Legendre | AFP | Getty ImagesMeta's efforts to expand its core from online advertising involves pitching companies AI-powered chat tools that they can use on their own websites.The social media giant debuted on Thursday a digital assistant dubbed AI, describing the software as a way for companies to offer to their customers more personalized duct recommendations and faster ways to buy goods via chat interactions.
Online retailers can use the AI digital assistant across apps Facebook and Instagram as well as their own websites that are powered by Shopify, Meta said.The new company-focused artificial intelligence assistant represents another way Meta is trying to make a make a big incorporating generative AI, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been billions of dollars into.
It also comes amid a wave of companies offering advanced digital assistants called AI agents that can line tedious, repetitive tasks.Amazon, for instance, debuted in September an AI agent that third-party merchants can use for their online es."We are going beyond ads and beyond Meta to help es drive impact across their customer experiences and customer operations," Meta's head of AI, Clara Shih, said during a press briefing.Shih said that the AI digital assistant will be free for companies to incorporate into their Meta ads so their customers can ask duct-related questions and more easily purchase items by interacting with the Facebook and Instagram advertisements.
If those companies want to use the Meta AI assistant on their own websites, they will have to pay a yet-to-be-determined price that Shih said will be cheaper than other "market alternatives.""We're entering a new AI duct category that makes our ads better," Shih said.The AI digital assistant will also be available on WhatsApp and Messenger later this month in Mexico and the Philippines, with more coming down the line, Shih said.If companies use the AI digital assistant across Meta apps and their retail-oriented websites, Shih explained that the software should presumably vide better responses to users that correspond to their duct-related inquiries.Shih said that Meta is partnering with companies her former employer Salesforce, as well as Microsoft, ServiceNow, Zendesk and others to vide customer relationship management services and chatbots as part of its AI push."The best analogy is if you, as a customer, ask a salesperson warranty information or a return," Shih said the way Meta's AI software would work alongside third-part chat apps focusing on customer support.
"Often, they'll walk you over to the customer service desk to handle those more complicated requests."Meta previously spent $1 billion in 2020 to buy the enterprise CRM startup Kustomer, but then spun it out in 2023 as an independent company during the social media giant's "year of efficiency."The company also debuted another tool called the Meta AI assistant, which is int for its advertisers to access for account blems and learn how their ad campaigns are performing.
WATCH: Meta is paving the way for the industry, not chasing quick fits.watch now3:3403:34Sag: Meta is paving the way for the industry, not chasing quick fitsWorldwide Exchange