At its Meta Connect 2024 developer conference in Menlo Park on Wednesday, Meta announced it will expand its AI-powered business chatbots to brands on WhatsApp and Messenger with click-to-message ads.
Meta said businesses can now set up ad-embedded chatbots to converse with customers, provide support, facilitate orders, and more. “From answering general customer questions to discussing products and completing purchases, these business AIs help businesses engage with more customers and increase sales,” the company wrote in a blog post provided to TechCrunch.
Image credit: Meta
Meta continues to incorporate AI into more of its advertising products and tools. In May, it enabled advertisers to use AI to create new ad images entirely and insert AI-generated alternate versions of their headlines. And in June, Meta began testing AI-powered customer support for businesses that use WhatsApp, which automatically answers customer queries related to frequently asked questions.
Meta claims that over one million advertisers are using its AI advertising tool, with 15 million ads created with it last month.
According to Meta, AI ads increase click-through rates. But there's also evidence to suggest that customers might not like ads that use chatbots: A study commissioned by customer experience platform Callvu earlier this year found that the majority of people would prefer to wait at least a minute to speak to a live customer agent rather than instantly chat with an AI.