Key Takeaways
- Meta Platforms announced an expansion in its generative AI-based advertising features Tuesday, including image and text generation.
- In future versions, Meta said its models will be able to analyze past advertising campaigns to mimic a brand’s tone in newly generated content.
- A number of the features were released to some advertisers in October, with the company saying at the time it hoped to complete a global rollout this year.
Meta Platforms (META) announced a number of new artificial intelligence capabilities on its advertising platforms Tuesday as part of the company’s latest investment into generative AI.
The newly available features allow advertisers to instantly create copy and images for their campaigns inspired by an original image, as well as to create expanded versions of the images and overlay text on them in a number of different fonts.
First Announced Last October
Many of the features were first announced and released to small groups of customers in October 2023, with Meta saying at the time that it hoped to roll them out globally this year. Advertising revenue comprises nearly all of the tech giant’s revenue, meaning the company’s top line could get a boost if products like the ones announced Tuesday work and convince advertisers to spend more on Meta’s platforms.
Meta also said that by the end of the year, it plans to roll out expanded text features like analyzing a company’s past advertising campaigns using the company’s latest Llama 3 large language model (LLM) to mimic a company’s previous advertising tone. The company said some of the generative AI features have been rolled out, with plans for them to be available around the world by the end of 2024.
The owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp said that, based on initial experiments with its Meta Verified for businesses in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada last year, it is confident rolling it out on more platforms and in more countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru, France, and Italy.
Tech Companies Making Massive AI Investments
Meta said it has learned through its experiments that small businesses “value the ability to access more tools that can help build credibility with new audiences to drive more engagement and grow their brand.”
The company also said the subscription package for businesses will include “a core toolkit of a verified badge, account support, impersonation monitoring and more, while testing expanded benefits that help a business build their credibility and grow their brand—like new tools for profile enhancements, more ways to help create connections, and additional ways to access support.”
Meta and other tech companies such as Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) have poured billions into a number of generative AI products and models, with executives saying in recent earnings that while the technology is expensive to invest in, they believe it will pay off down the line.
The AI boom also has buoyed other tech stocks like Nvidia (NVDA), which also has had its revenue lifted by the spike in demand for its components and software that are powerful enough to train and run AI technology.
Two weeks ago when Meta announced, as part of its quarterly earnings release, that it planned to increase spending on AI, the company’s stock fell sharply amid concerns about when the investment would translate into profits. Analysts said that the spending would boost the company’s long-term AI leadership, and the stock has gained 6% since that post-earnings slide.