Big move to retain users? Meta is trying to integrate AI into various products as quickly as possible.
Meta will launch a series of AI-driven chatbots with different personality traits as early as next month.
According to three sources, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been designing prototypes for chatbots. He hopes that these chatbots with different “personality traits” can engage in more human-like conversations with Meta’s nearly 4 billion users.
Some of these chatbots are referred to by employees as “characters” and present different character images. Meta is exploring the introduction of a chatbot that expresses itself similar to Abraham Lincoln; as well as a chatbot that is similar to a surfer and can provide travel advice.
The purpose of Meta’s rapid integration of AI into various products
Meta’s new lineup of chatbots may go live as early as September. The purpose of Meta’s rapid integration of AI into various products is clear: AI can make search more interesting and help Meta retain users.
Social media platforms, including TikTok, are constantly grabbing Meta’s market share. The introduction of chatbots is not only able to improve users’ entertainment experience value and provide more personalized services.
More importantly, it can increase “human care.” This will be a new experience for user experience, including emotional connections such as user identity and loyalty, which can increase user loyalty and daily active time.
The challenge of maintaining user loyalty for Meta
Currently, for Meta, maintaining user loyalty has become one of the most critical issues. After all, Meta faces the bottleneck of user growth and the battle for short video users. Once the number of monthly active users declines, it is easy to lose the favor of advertisers.
Just like Threads, which peaked after going public, the number of active users has begun to decline. The future advertising revenue will be a problem.
After Meta’s Q1 2023 financial report, Zuckerberg said on a conference call that the company is exploring how to use new AI technologies in products that can cover billions of global users.
“The Great War” of social platform chatbots
In early June, mobile developers and whistleblower Alessandro Paluzzi tweeted that Instagram may be developing an AI chatbot.
According to the picture displayed, users can choose from 30 different AI personalities to answer questions or provide advice–including inappropriate responses and limited functionality. The AI model used and the actual functions of the chatbot have not yet been discussed.
Snapchat’s introduction of “My AI”
Meanwhile, Snapchat, a social platform popular among teenagers, introduced “My AI” based on OpenAI’s latest version of GPT technology. Released in February this year, Snapchat hopes to make chatting more interesting with the addition of chatbots.
The success of My AI on Snapchat
After My AI opened the test version function for Snapchat+ subscribers, for more than a month, My AI received nearly 2 million chat messages every day on average. These conversations cover different topics such as movies, sports, pets, etc., The AI chatbot is making a clear impact on their social experience on the Snapchat platform.
At the Global Ecological Partner (SPS) conference in April this year, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced that Snapchat’s global monthly active users have reached 750 million, and Snapchat+ subscribers have exceeded 3 million. As a result, their intelligent chatbot, My AI, was opened to all users, including group chats.
The customization options for My AI on Snapchat
Users can customize the name and appearance of My AI. This alone can make many users truly interact with AI.
It can be seen that Snapchat, with a large number of young users and a familiar network platform, has been actively exploring new commercial forms in the face of challenges from competitors like Instagram and TikTok.
Driven by the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence technology, the field of social media will usher in a new era of greater personalization and intelligence. How to vigorously layout artificial intelligence chatbots to obtain continuous user favor is undoubtedly the current focus of Meta.
(Image from TS2 Space)
