Meta Hopes to Win Back Young Users With AI Chatbot

Meta is reportedly counting on artificial intelligence (AI) to help it entice younger users.

The social media giant could unveil new AI chatbots with distinct personalities across its apps as soon as this week, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (Sept. 24), citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the AI bots are being tested in-house at Meta, with the company expected to debut the first of the chatbots at its Meta Connect conference this week, with the goal of attracting younger consumers.

Sources told WSJ Meta plans to create dozens of AI personality chatbots, and has also developed a product that would let celebrities and creators use their own AI chatbots to interact with fans.

One of the bots being developed is known as “Bob the robot,” a self-described “sass master general” with “superior intellect, sharp wit, and biting sarcasm,” according to internal company documents seen by WSJ.

As WSJ noted, younger consumers have been a priority for Meta, which has seen teenagers flock to TikTok instead of its Instagram.

“We are retooling our teams to make serving young adults their North Star, rather than optimizing for the larger number of older people,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg remarked on this shift two years ago.

“Like everything, this will involve trade-offs in our product, and it will likely mean the rest of our community will grow more slowly than it otherwise would have. But it should also mean that our services become stronger for young adults.”

These younger consumers have shown the greatest interest in AI, as recent PYMNTS intelligence has found.

That data shows that 56% of Generation Z consumers are interested in AI-enhanced communication, 62% are interested in AI-enhanced entertainment and 60% have shown interest in AI-enhanced shopping.

“Although Gen Z is most likely to acknowledge AI can replace some skills, the generation is also most likely to express interest in AI-augmented work,” PYMNTS wrote recently. “Overall, young consumers, those earning more than $100K and those working in an office environment are most aware of AI’s potential.”

A separate WSJ report this month said Meta was working on a new AI system to compete with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company apparently hopes to launch its new AI system next year, and to make it more powerful than its Llama 2 AI model that it debuted this summer.