Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes businesses will soon have the ability to use AI technology to better target audiences, to produce creative and help advertising and “make advertising a meaningful larger share of global GDP than it is today”.
Zuckerberg laid out Meta’s vision for the future of advertising on an analysts call where the social media company revealed its Q1 results were stronger than expected, with year-on-year sales up 16 per cent to $41.4 billion and net income climbing 35 per cent to $16.64 billion. APAC revenue was $8.22 billion.
This beat Wall Street predictions by nearly $1 billion, leading Meta’s stock price to increase by 4 per cent in after hours trading.
Just as interesting as the results, is Meta’s vision to go “all in” on AI and how the company plans to redefine advertising using the technology.
Speaking on analysts call, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “Our business is also performing very well, and I think we’re well positioned to navigate the macroeconomic uncertainty.”
“AI has already made us better at targeting and finding the audiences that will be interested in products. I think that this is really redefining what advertising is — into an AI agent that delivers measurable business results at scale.
“Our goal is to make it so any business can tell us what objective they are trying to achieve, like selling something or getting a new customer, and how much they are willing to pay for each result and we do the rest.
“Businesses use to have to generate their own ad creative and define what audiences they wanted to reach, but AI has already made us better at targeting and finding the audiences that will be interested in their products than many businesses are themselves, and that keeps on improving.
“And now AI is generating better creative options for businesses as well. I think this is really redefining what advertising is into an AI agent that delivers measurable business results at scale. And if we deliver on this vision, I think over the coming years there will be increased productivity from AI will make advertising a meaningful larger share of global GDP than it is today.”
Meta has invested heavily in AI advertising products. In the past quarter, a new recommendation model for reels has increased conversion rates by 5 per cent, while more than 30 per cent of Meta customers are using AI tools for their creative. The company said that Meta AI has more than one billion users.
“It has been a strong start to 2025 with Meta’s Family of Apps continuing to grow and be an integral part of the Australian community. Our ongoing investments in AI continue to help advertisers connect with their audiences more effectively to drive growth, making us a leading choice for businesses looking to expand into markets both here and overseas,” Meta ANZ managing director Will Easton said.
“We continue to launch new innovative products for our users in Australia and New Zealand, such as yesterday’s release of the Meta AI app built with Llama 4, along with more natural voice interaction. We’ve also expanded our retail footprint for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Australia and seen increased use of the built-in AI features.”
At yesterday’s Meta Festival, the first held in Australia, Meta’s outgoing APAC chief Dan Neary spruiked a number of AI tools that its says can help advertisers, creators and users, including the new Meta AI app, an Instagram editing app called Edit and the roll out of marketing messages which should arrive in Australia later this year.
“Our vision is that every business should have an AI agent. We think about it, where email, you gotta have a phone number, you gotta have a website, you should also have an AI agent. Think of the possibilities where that AI agent is what represents your business and interacts with your customers and potential customers,” he said.
AI advertising agents might be great news for Meta, but media and creative agencies will be keen to see how the technology involves and impacts their respective roles.
With additional reporting by Arvind Hickman
