A New AI‑Powered Era for Meta
Mark Zuckerberg is openly declaring what many have suspected for months: AI is no longer just a tool for Meta — it is the company’s new social platform strategy. During Meta’s late‑2025 earnings call, Zuckerberg told investors that AI‑generated content will soon dominate social feeds, hinting at a sweeping shift toward an “AI corpus” powering recommendations across Facebook, Instagram, and Meta’s emerging apps.
While Meta’s ads business remains strong and user numbers continue to climb, Zuckerberg made it clear that the company views AI as the next foundation for social interaction — one that will eventually surpass creator content, virality, and traditional social curation.
“Social media has gone through two eras… AI will add yet another huge corpus of content.” — Mark Zuckerberg
The Third Era of Social Media: AI‑Generated Everything
Zuckerberg says social media has already experienced two major eras: the Friends & Family era and the Creator era. Now, Meta is moving toward a third era powered almost entirely by AI — where feeds are filled with content created, remixed, or personalised by algorithms. He expects AI to generate a “huge corpus” of posts, images, music, stories, and more.
Meta’s new AI‑powered content app, Vibes, already shows the scale of this shift — users created 20 billion AI‑generated images and videos in its early rollout. It’s a preview of the kind of hyper‑personalised, endlessly generative media that Meta expects to define social interaction going forward.
AI Is Becoming Meta’s Main Engine of Growth
Meta’s Q4 performance shows why Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI. The company reported: • 3.58 billion daily users (+7% YoY) • A 24% revenue jump to $59.9B • A 6% increase in ad pricing driven by AI‑optimised relevance
Zuckerberg highlighted that Meta’s AI‑enhanced ad targeting — especially those powered by smaller, efficient versions of the Llama model — has dramatically improved engagement and advertiser ROI. AI‑driven recommendations led to an 18% increase in ad impressions.
“Meta is going to deliver personal superintelligence, accelerate our business, and shape how the company works.” — Zuckerberg, 2026 investor briefing
AI Assistants Will Replace Algorithms
Zuckerberg told investors that soon, when users open Meta apps, they won’t just see a feed… they’ll interact with their own AI. These AI agents will: • Understand personal context • Generate personalised posts • Surface relevant content • Assist with search, messaging, and creative tasks
The shift transforms Meta’s products from passive recommendation engines into interactive AI companions — capable of creating content for users rather than merely ranking it.
Smart Glasses: The Future of AI‑Driven Social?
One of Meta’s most unexpected success stories is the booming adoption of its AI‑powered Ray‑Ban glasses. Zuckerberg said sales tripled in 2025, calling them “some of the fastest-growing consumer electronics in history.” Future models will be able to see, hear, and respond in real‑time — effectively acting as AI‑enhanced wearable social interfaces.
Zuckerberg compared this moment to the shift from flip phones to smartphones — predicting that AI glasses will soon become the default wearable device for billions of people.
The Metaverse Is on Pause — AI Is the New Bet
In a striking omission, Zuckerberg did not mention the “metaverse” at all during his remarks — marking a major strategic shift. Instead, he placed nearly all emphasis on AI‑driven products, infrastructure, and personalised media. Reality Labs losses remain high ($19.2B in 2025), but Meta suggests 2025 may have been the peak.
Still, Meta plans a massive expansion of AI spending — $115B to $135B in 2026 alone — to support Meta’s “superintelligence” ambitions.
Final Thoughts: Social Media Becomes AI Media
Zuckerberg’s message is unmistakable: AI is not simply improving social media — AI is becoming social media. From personalised feeds to AI‑generated content, commerce assistants, and wearable AI devices, Meta’s vision imagines a world where social platforms are driven not by human creators, but by intelligent digital agents shaping every interaction.
If the first era of social was human‑driven, and the second was creator‑driven, the third era will be AI‑driven — and for Meta, that future has already begun.