Meta is looking at its messaging apps as a possible route for bringing AI agents to a broad audience. On the company’s quarterly investor call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed AI as a near-term technological wave and pointed to chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger as one way it could reach people.
Messaging apps offer a familiar place for AI
WhatsApp and Messenger already put users in a chat environment, giving Meta a natural setting to explore conversational AI. Zuckerberg described an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that are useful and meaningful, and connected that ambition to these two services.
The idea is still framed as an opportunity, rather than a description of a launched chatbot product. The source does not give a release date or explain how such an assistant would work. It does, however, make clear that Meta sees messaging as a potential way to make AI agents accessible through services people already use.
That starting point matters in a crowded chatbot market. The article contrasts Meta’s position with Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, which it says has to overcome the challenge of getting installed as a smartphone app. WhatsApp and Messenger are already established chat destinations, so Meta would not face that same initial hurdle.
Business messaging is one possible early use
Zuckerberg specifically pointed to AI agents for business messaging and customer support. In his view, interest in those applications could grow once the company gets the chat experience right. That emphasis suggests a practical role for chatbots: helping businesses communicate with customers through messaging channels.
The experience itself remains central. A useful assistant would need to fit into the conversation rather than simply exist as another feature. Zuckerberg’s remarks set the quality of that interaction as a condition for broader interest, without detailing what capabilities the agents would provide.
Meta is also developing generative foundational models that, according to Zuckerberg, could open up new classes of products and experiences. Those models could underpin conversational features, though the source does not specify which models would be used in WhatsApp or Messenger.
AI is already part of Meta’s products
The company is not starting from zero in artificial intelligence. Zuckerberg said AI already supports content recommendations and helps optimize monetization across Meta’s social networks. He also said that 40 percent of what is recommended on Instagram is powered by AI.
Those existing uses provide context for Meta’s interest in generative AI. Recommendations and monetization involve AI working within products; chat agents would create a more direct interaction between people and the technology. The source presents that shift as a possible new product experience, rather than just an extension of behind-the-scenes systems.
Meta has also explored chatbot research before, including BlenderBot 3, described in the source as internet-enabled. It has introduced other AI projects as well, including a chatbot that can create a virtual environment by voice command and a universal translator intended to overcome language barriers in the metaverse.
The metaverse remains part of the plan
Zuckerberg described AI as the first of two major technological waves, with the metaverse as the second, further in the future. He rejected rumors that Meta had put its digital-world plans on hold and said the company had focused on both areas for years. He also argued that the technologies feed off each other.
In the longer term, Zuckerberg said AI could make it easier for people to create avatars, objects, worlds, and code to connect them in the metaverse. That vision links the immediate prospect of AI chat experiences to a broader ambition: tools that help people create and interact in digital environments.
For now, Meta’s comments outline a direction, not a finished product. WhatsApp and Messenger could become channels for AI agents, with business messaging and customer support among the uses Meta is considering. The company’s existing audience and its ongoing AI work give it a starting point, while the success of any chatbot will depend on whether the experience proves useful to the people using it.