Meta launches Business AI

Meta is launching a new Business AI program to drive customer engagement for sales and service.

Led by Clara Shih, former Salesforce AI CEO, this initiative—currently in beta—aims to equip businesses with AI agents to manage customer interactions across Meta’s platforms.

Meta’s scale in AI is undeniable, with Meta AI boasting 700M monthly active users.

The social selling market has already surpassed $1T, with a growing reliance on engagement (vs. just ads). Social networks are also key destinations for customer service inquiries. Meta’s top platforms—Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram—alone facilitate over 600M brand-customer conversations monthly.

Yet, while Meta has dominated marketing solutions for brands, its commerce and service efforts have struggled to gain the same traction.

This isn’t Meta’s first foray into providing sales or service solutions to businesses. The company acquired Wit.ai (conversational AI) in 2015, Servicefriend (AI-powered chat for customer service) in 2019, and later bought Kustomer (digital customer service) in 2021—only to spin it out in May 2023.

With Shih at the helm, Meta’s Business AI could finally crack the code on enterprise sales and service.

One to watch.