
Meta is expanding ecommerce opportunities within its AI
chatbot, testing new shopping features designed to suggest relevant products to a limited number of U.S. users on the Meta AI web browser.
Aligned with offerings from OpenAI and Google,
Meta’s new shopping tool responds to users with a carousel of product images featuring descriptors of the brand, as well as prices and a direct link to the brand website.
“It also
offers a brief explanation of its recommendations in bullet-point form,” Bloomberg explains in a recent report, adding that no immediate checkout or payment option is integrated in the
chatbot's response.
According to a Meta spokesperson, Meta AI's automated product recommendations stem from any information the chatbot has collected about the user's identity, including
location and gender.
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Monetarily, Meta has not yet revealed a commission breakdown or whether the chatbot prioritizes advertising partners across its family of social-media apps over
unaffiliated brands.
The unnamed chatbot feature is reminiscent of an AI-powered shopping product Meta is currently testing on Instagram called “Shop the Look,” which has caused creators to feel deceived as it undermines
their personal curation aesthetic.
However, by integrating a product recommendation tool into a chatbot experience, Meta is avoiding creator-led feedback due to the complete absence of a
creator presence. Which makes this Meta AI feature align closely with the company's push toward “personal superintelligence” and fully automated ad creation.
The tool also mimics Meta's “Show
Products” feature, which automatically turns single media partnership ads and Reels ads into a shoppable ad format.
To power its enhanced shopping-centric AI offerings, Meta has
committed to spending $600 billion on U.S.-based AI infrastructure developments, including millions of AI chips and multiple multi-gigawatt data centers.