Meta Pitches AI Chat Service to Third-Party Websites

Meta is offering companies the chance to use its artificial intelligence (AI) chat tool on their own websites.

The Facebook owner on Thursday (Oct. 2) unveiled “Business AI,” an AI assistant designed to help companies offer customers more personalized product recommendations and quicker ways to purchase items through chat conversations. Retailers can employ the tool on Shopify-powered websites and apps such as Instagram and Facebook.

“We are going beyond ads and beyond Meta to help businesses drive impact across their customer experiences and customer operations,” Meta’s head of business AI, Clara Shih , told reporters during a press briefing, per CNBC.

Shih added that the Business AI digital assistant will be free for companies to weave into their Meta ads so customers can ask product-related questions and more easily make purchases by interacting with the ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Companies that wish to use the Meta Business AI assistant on their own websites will have to pay a yet-to-be-determined price that Shih said will cost less than other “market alternatives.”

“We’re entering a new AI product category that makes our ads better,” Shih said.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found that AI-powered shopping adoption is already gaining traction among younger and middle-aged consumers, with around one-third of all respondents saying they either have used or would use generative AI for online purchases.

“Overall, 32% of people surveyed said they used gen AI for shopping,” PYMNTS wrote in August. “The use case reporting the highest percentage was work at 40%, followed by creative endeavors and educational purposes.”

In addition to Meta and another recent offer from Google , other companies stepping into this space include Amazon , whose “Buy For Me” feature lets shoppers order merchandise from other websites without having to exit Amazon’s platform.

PayPal has joined forces with Perplexity to act as the embedded checkout option within the AI chatbot, while Visa and Mastercard are also exploring agentic commerce.

More recently, OpenAI announced it would begin permitting ChatGPT users in the U.S. to make purchases from Etsy and some Shopify merchants using its AI chatbot.

In other Meta news, the company this week will use people’s conversations with AI to create personalized ads and content, beginning Dec. 16.

“Your interactions with content on Facebook and Instagram have long shaped what appears in your feed,” the company wrote on its blog.

“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. 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.”