Meta has launched Business AI, a new artificial intelligence assistant built to help retailers drive sales and streamline customer interactions. The tool acts as a 24/7 sales agent, offering personalized product recommendations, answering questions and guiding shoppers through checkout—all automatically.
In 2024, Meta brought in $164.5 billion in revenue, with nearly all—97.3%—coming from advertising. Its expansion into AI tools promises to leverage its massive user base and ad capabilities to help businesses grow.
Using Meta Business AI for smarter customer engagement
Business AI works across Facebook, Instagram and Shopify-powered websites, giving retailers the ability to deliver tailored suggestions and a smoother shopping experience wherever customers are browsing, helping turn engagement into helpful conversions.
Meta says its Business AI is meant to do more than boost advertising. “We are going beyond ads and beyond Meta to help businesses drive impact across their customer experiences and customer operations,” Clara Shih, the company’s head of business AI, said during a briefing this week.
According to Shih, companies will be able to add the Business AI assistant to their Meta ads at no cost, letting customers ask questions and even complete purchases directly inside Facebook and Instagram campaigns. Businesses that want to use the tool on their own websites, however, will face a separate fee, one that Shih said would be lower than current market offerings, although Meta has yet to set a final price.
Meta already builds detailed advertising profiles by tracking how users engage across its platforms—the posts they share, the pages they click on and the networks they belong to. This wealth of behavioral data provides the company with strong insights into what people might want to buy and has been a central factor in both the growth and profitability of Meta’s entire business model.
Turn user conversations into actionable sales insights
Meta’s new AI chatbot offers a more direct way to understand user intent. When users discuss the items they want to buy, trips they plan or problems they face, these interactions generate structured insights that feed into Meta’s algorithms. The company plans to use this data both to improve ad targeting and to fine-tune the curated content delivered across its social media platforms, which keeps users shopping.
“Just like other personalized services, we tailor the ads and content you see based on your activity, ensuring that your experience evolves as your interests change,” Meta said in its Wednesday blog post. “Many people expect their interactions to make what they see more relevant. Soon, interactions with AIs will be another signal we use to improve people’s experience.”
Retailers can use the AI assistant to make their day-to-day operations run more smoothly. Instead of spending time answering the same basic questions over and over, staff can focus on trickier problems or bigger-picture projects. At the same time, the AI can give businesses a sense of which products or services are sparking the most interest, helping them spot trends and plan inventory more intelligently.
The assistant can even help boost sales in subtle ways. By paying attention to what customers are asking about, it can suggest complementary items or upgrades right in the moment, nudging shoppers toward adding more to their carts. Over time, the data it collects can also help businesses adjust pricing, shape promotions and sharpen content strategies—turning everyday customer conversations into insights that eventually drive smarter and more efficient decision-making.
Customize your AI agent with existing business data and brand voice
Meta now lets businesses customize their AI agent using the information they already have, from product catalogs and website content to social media posts and ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. This makes it easier for customers to get accurate recommendations and support, since the AI is fully aware of what a business offers.
Companies can also decide which topics the AI should handle and shape how it responds to match their brand’s voice. Whether you want it to be friendly, professional or totally unique, Meta provides the tools to make sure the assistant always sounds consistent with your business. You can find every Meta business bot conversation in your Business Suite inbox, making it simple to check what’s been asked and answered.
The platform makes it easy to keep the AI up-to-date. Businesses can add, remove or edit information at any time; connect the AI to relevant documents, websites or catalogs; and give feedback on responses. This means the AI can stay current with new products, promotions, or policy changes while learning to answer questions more accurately over time. Meta says setting up these chatbot agents won’t require any coding skills or prior technical experience and can even be used on external websites.
Meta’s new generative AI tools for personalized ads and social media content
Building on the capabilities of Business AI, Meta has also introduced generative AI tools within its Advantage+ suite to help businesses create more engaging, individualized social media content. These features include AI-generated music tailored to a product’s style and mood, AI-powered dubbing for multilingual audiences and enhanced high dynamic range video for brighter, more vibrant visuals. By automating these creative elements, businesses can produce higher-quality ads, reaching audiences across Facebook, Instagram and beyond with content that stands out and looks top grade.
The platform can create multiple versions of the same ad for different audience segments. For instance, a smartwatch could be marketed for its stylish design to fashion lovers, its fitness tracking to athletes or its productivity tools to busy professionals. Meta is also reportedly experimenting with virtual try-on features, allowing users to see how items look on them before making a purchase.
AI-powered creator tools to boost influencer marketing and campaign reach
Meta is giving brands a major boost in the influencer game too, with additional shiny new AI tools. The Facebook Creator Discovery API lets companies hunt down creators using keywords, peek at their audience stats and see who’s actually engaging—making it way easier to spot the perfect influencer for your vision.
Meanwhile, the Instagram Creator Marketplace is spreading to more countries and can now be accessed by agencies, advertisers and even external developers straight from Meta Business Suite. And thanks to AI-powered collaboration suggestions, brands can instantly spot organic creator posts that are ripe to turn into slick partnership ads, cutting the hassle and boosting reach fast.
To get the most out of Meta’s AI tools, start by setting up your Business AI assistant with your product catalog, website content and social media posts so it can give customers accurate, real-time recommendations. Next, let the generative AI features in Advantage+ do the heavy lifting by creating multiple versions of your ads for different audiences.
And don’t overlook the power of creators: leverage the Creator Discovery API and Instagram Creator Marketplace to find the perfect influencers and transform their organic content into ads that truly resonate with your audience. By combining these tools with Business AI and generative content, you can create a faster, smarter and more unique way to connect with customers, turning insights and automation into real sales growth.
Photo by Alex Photo Stock/Shutterstock
