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Meta says AI lifts Facebook, Instagram engagement

Meta said in its first-quarter FY26 results that AI upgrades lifted video engagement and ad performance across Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram ranking changes lifted Reels time spent by 10%, while Facebook video watch time rose more than 8% globally. More than 3.5 billion people used at least one Meta app each day, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta said average price per ad rose 12% year on year and more than 8 million advertisers used at least one generative AI ad tool, while capital spending reached US$19.8 billion and net income was US$26.8 billion.

🔗 Source: The Economic Times

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Meta’s ad engine runs on a three-part AI system

  • Meta’s AI ad system now works as a tightly linked three-part setup that changes how ads reach people 1.
  • First comes Andromeda, an internal ranking system that runs on NVIDIA chips and scans millions of ads to build a candidate pool for each user 1.
  • Then the Generative Ads Model, or GEM, acts as the central model that predicts results and lifted Instagram conversions by up to 5% 2.
  • Lattice makes the final pick for which ad wins, with conversion gains of up to 6% 3.
  • That stack may help explain higher average ad prices by making each placement work harder.

Advertisers give up control as Meta hands more work to AI

  • For advertisers using these tools, success now depends less on manual targeting and more on a steady flow of fresh creative ideas because the system favors variety 1.
  • As automation spreads, marketing teams get less visibility into delivery while Meta pushes broader audiences and gives its systems more say over who sees an ad 2.
  • Those efficiency gains support a huge spending plan, with Meta projecting 2026 capital expenditures of US$125 billion to US$145 billion 4.
  • Meta is cutting jobs while it trains AI agents by tracking employee workflows, a sign that software may take over more internal tasks 5.

Recent Meta developments

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