Meta poised for AI tipping point, Barclays says
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) may be poised for a new tipping point as it relates to artificial intelligence, investment firm Barclays said on Thursday.
Users may have a new âinteraction layerâ to access information and transact via Metaâs (META) four âmega-apps" - WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook - analysts led by Ross Sandler wrote in a note.
Last week, 
Meta (META) unveiled new generative artificial intelligence tools, including AI image editing on Instagram and new chat stickers for Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. The incorporation of AI could lead to an increase in overall engagement for its 800 million-plus users in 2024. It could boost the company's core ad revenue by $16B, thanks in part to higher CPM rates, though it could also have an impact of $10B (or more) on the company's cost of goods sold, the analysts said.
Barclays, which has an Overweight rating and $410 price target on the stock, said that marrying new services âwith an existing distribution mechanism is the winning combination for meaningful adoption of consumer internet products.â 
Consumer adoption of AI in tech will come in waves and will be focused on use cases including work productivity, information retrieval and services that resemble companionship. 
Barclays pointed to the adoption of MyAi, an AI chatbot, in Snapâs (SNAP) existing distribution to see the potential. 
âThe service is only seven months old, yet has reached 150m+ users,â the analysts said, estimating that that translates to 100M daily active users, or DAUS, or 25% of the total DAUs.
Meta (META) is also building AI agents to address everyday consumer use cases with a celebrity-infused theme around each, including gaming, cooking, workouts, companionship, travel, shopping, etc. 
âThis unique approach might actually resonate with the non-tech-savvy consumers that are on WhatsApp and Instagram every day, and help overcome the barrier that some of the previous AI agent services face in terms of utility,â Barclays said. âWeâd also note that using celebrities faces and fine-tuned expressions was a smart way humanize and differentiate the AI agents from the crowded field.â
Meta (META) shares fell 1.4% on Thursday.

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