Meta may not dominate AI headlines like ChatGPT or Claude, but the company is quietly building significant momentum in the business AI space. The social media giant revealed during its Q1 earnings call that its business AI tools now handle about 10 million conversations per week, a massive jump from just 1 million at the start of this year.
The 10x growth comes as Meta expanded its business AI assistant beta program across the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. While competitors like Microsoft and Google charge premium prices for their AI business tools, Meta is currently offering its AI capabilities for free to help small businesses adopt the technology at scale.
This rapid adoption reflects a broader shift in how businesses interact with customers. Companies are increasingly turning to AI-powered chat tools to handle customer service, sales inquiries, and support across messaging platforms. Meta’s approach differs from standalone AI chatbots by integrating directly into platforms where businesses already connect with customers – WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that the free model won’t last forever. “Business AIs today are currently free for most businesses on our messaging apps, but as we make more progress, we expect that we will also work towards establishing a longer-term monetization model,” he said during the earnings call.
The company is powering these business tools with Muse Spark, its new large language model developed under Meta Superintelligence Labs, the AI division launched last year. This represents Meta’s push to compete more directly with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in the enterprise AI market.
Meta’s AI momentum extends beyond business chat tools. The company reported strong adoption of its creative AI features among advertisers:
- More than 8 million advertisers now use at least one of Meta’s generative AI ad creative tools
- Small and medium-sized businesses show particularly strong adoption rates
- Advertisers using video generation tools see conversion rates more than 3% higher in tests
This week, Meta is launching an open beta of its Ads AI Connectors, which will let advertisers connect their Meta ad accounts directly to AI agents for automated campaign management.
The AI investments are paying off financially. Meta reported $26.8 billion in profit for Q1, up from $16.6 billion a year earlier. Revenue hit $56.3 billion, representing 33% growth year-over-year. The company’s apps division generated $885 million in quarterly revenue, driven largely by paid messaging on WhatsApp and app subscriptions.
Meta recently started testing WhatsApp Plus, a subscription service offering custom icons, themes, and notification sounds. This move signals the company’s broader strategy to diversify revenue beyond advertising while building AI capabilities that could eventually command premium pricing in the business market.
