Meta (the parent company of Facebook) is advancing two types of artificial intelligence (AI) strategies: one is the core AI that supports its advertising system; the other is the generative AI, which has not yet become the main source of revenue but has huge potential. Although the latter has high development costs, Meta's senior management firmly believes it will bring disruptive changes to the entire advertising industry.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stated, "In the next few years, AI will be able to help advertisers automatically generate creative content and personalize displays according to the audience. Ultimately, advertisers will only need to provide marketing goals and budgets, and the rest will be completely handled by AI. We will advance gradually, but I believe this is a very important direction."
Although some market analysts believe that generative AI may become a powerful engine for advertising platforms, some are reserved about AI fully controlling the advertising process. This is because some advertisers and marketers are reluctant to give up control over advertising content, placement, and monitoring.
Mike Prokes, Vice President and Research Director at Forrester Research, pointed out that although Meta has the capability to create value for advertising clients with AI, in reality, most CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) are still unwilling to let AI fully handle creative production, even though the technology is rapidly advancing. He emphasized that the "human judgment" behind advertising creativity is still irreplaceable.
However, in an interview with Stratechery, Zuckerberg appeared very confident. He believes that AI will soon dominate the entire advertising process, including creative production, audience targeting, and performance evaluation. He said, "In the future, companies will only need to state their goals and link their bank accounts, and leave the rest to us. AI will automatically generate text and video ads related to the products, precisely target the intended users, track performance, and expand reach." He believes that AI-driven advertising will not only optimize delivery results but may also directly guide users to complete purchases within the Meta platform, thereby reshaping the entire advertising ecosystem.
