(June 3): Meta Platforms Inc is selling businesses access to an artificial intelligence (AI) agent for the first time, its latest effort to generate revenue to offset the company’s hefty AI investments.
The social media giant will begin charging some customers for what it calls Meta Business Agent beginning Wednesday, according to a company spokesperson. The agent’s main functionality is chatting with a business’s customers over WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, the spokesperson said.
Larger businesses that use the agent will pay Meta for the data used to power it, known as tokens. Smaller businesses will also have to pay for the agent via one of Meta’s new subscription offerings, the spokesperson said. Meta, which offers multiple business subscriptions, declined to comment on which tier will feature the agent. The company previously offered AI agents for customer interactions, but didn’t charge for the feature.
Meta has been looking for ways to earn revenue from its AI investments, which are expected to total hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. It also announced a consumer subscription for its AI chatbot late last month, though it is only offered in a few countries.
Meta was initially caught flatfooted by the boom in AI, with start-ups like OpenAI and Anthropic PBC faster out of the gate with consumer and enterprise-friendly AI tools that they monetise through subscriptions. Meta has repeatedly said its AI models are leading to better targeting for ads and content recommendations on Instagram and Facebook, but some investors were spooked in April when the company announced an increase in AI spending.
While the AI agent is primarily used for chat conversations, it will eventually be able to complete other tasks without human oversight, like conducting market research, surfacing product insights and managing a user’s calendar, according to a Meta blog post.
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