Meta tests shopping AI chatbot in U.S.

As more discovery behavior migrates to artificial intelligence tools, Meta is looking to better align with commercial opportunities on this front by testing new shopping elements within its AI chat interface.

As reported by Bloomberg, Meta is testing a new shopping research feature within Meta AI, which would provide carousels of recommended products within shopping-related queries.

As per Bloomberg: “The feature, which allows requests for product suggestions, is being rolled out to some U.S.-based users of the Meta AI web browser. The chatbot responds with a carousel of product images that include captions with information about the brand, website, and price. It also offers a brief explanation of its recommendations in bullet-point form.”

OpenAI and Google are testing similar functionality, which looks to build upon the increasing reliance on AI tools as product research and discovery systems, while also providing revenue opportunities through sponsored listings and ads.

Hundreds of billions, and possibly trillions, of dollars are being invested into AI development, and these providers need to demonstrate how their tools are going to make their businesses money, as opposed to simply commanding attention.

The current wave of AI tools is able to provide human-like answers and in-depth responses based on their huge compute power, which enables them to process input data at lightning speed. In order to facilitate that, at scale, AI providers need to build progressively bigger data centers to cater to increased demand. In turn, the cost of AI development has continued to rise.

Meta itself has committed to spending $600 billion on U.S.-based AI infrastructure developments over the next three years. With that level of investment, Meta also needs to map a pathway to profit..

Ads in chatbots seem like a logical choice, though they could risk eroding trust in AI answers, because the responses could be viewed as being skewed towards paying ad partners.

Maybe carousel displays of related content can negate this to some degree, by giving users more choice, as opposed to highlighting a single paid placement.

It’s a risk either way, though it could be the best bet for Meta if the company wants to start making money from rising use of its AI.