Meta Expects ‘Every Business’ to Begin Using Agentic AI

Meta is reportedly planning a major expansion of its AI offerings for business users.

The company’s artificial intelligence (AI) is being used by more than 700 million customers, and Meta hopes to offer it to “hundreds of millions” of businesses, Clara Shih, the tech giant’s head of business AI, said in an interview with CNBC Thursday (March 6).

“Not every business, especially small businesses, has the ability to hire these large AI teams, and so now we’re building business AIs for these small businesses so that even they can benefit from all of this innovation that’s happening,” Shih said.

“We’re quickly coming to a place where every business, from the very large to the very small, they’re going to have a business agent representing it and acting on its behalf, in its voice — the way that businesses today have websites and email addresses.”

Although major companies are investing millions in AI models, the 200 small businesses using Meta’s social media platforms don’t have that luxury, added Shih.

“They’re using WhatsApp, they’re using Facebook, they’re using Instagram, both to acquire customers, but also engage and deepen each of those relationships,” she said.

“Very soon, each of those businesses are going to have these AIs that can represent them and help automate redundant tasks, help speak in their voice, help them find more customers and provide almost like a concierge service to every single one of their customers, 24/7.”

PYMNTS examined the role AI agents play in retail last month in an interview with Keith Kirkpatrick, research director of enterprise applications at The Futurum Group. He said that in time, AI agents will affect some retail job functions, but that most of those tasks are digital and not physical.

“As such, many of these functions are still marketing- or commerce-based, and retailers will be looking to companies in adjacent industries to see how well AI agents from Salesforce, Microsoft, and others are delivering value to their customers,” said Kirkpatrick.

He added that the most important question is whether retailers will make the investment in technology that is still relatively new and in many ways, hasn’t demonstrated ROI.

“Margins are thin, and I think there will need to be fairly significant ROI examples that are directly relevant to retailers, in order to drive early adoption. I think pricing will be important, and AI agent pricing will need to be tied to specific metrics or outcomes,” he said.

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