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Meta is moving forward with plans to develop artificial intelligence products for enterprises as social media platforms roll out new AI tools internally aimed at improving productivity.
The AI software, called “Metamate” after the group’s employees’ internal name, is built on the tech giant’s large-scale language model Llama and is used to code, conduct research and draft internal and external communications. has been done.
Prashant Ratanchandani, vice president of engineering who is leading Metamate’s development, said that while there are no plans to release the software externally, the project provides valuable insight into enterprise AI applications. He told the FT that Meta wants to create “the world’s best enterprise assistant”.
The move comes as technology groups such as OpenAI and Google race to offer AI-powered assistants to consumers and businesses in an effort to cash in on the rapidly evolving technology.
The market for so-called AI agents, which can reason and complete complex tasks on behalf of humans, is expected to grow from $5.1 billion to $47 billion by 2030, according to data from market research firm MarketsandMarkets.
This comes as Meta looks for ways to monetize AI through its enterprise products. Last month, the company hired Clara Shih, Salesforce’s former chief executive of AI, to lead its new “Business AI” group. Shih said her vision in her new role is to “make cutting-edge AI available to every enterprise.”
Analysts welcomed the move as an opportunity for the company to monetize Llama by leveraging its open source model and building off-the-shelf applications.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said he wants to quickly integrate AI capabilities into Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook and provide AI agents to users, creators, and businesses using the platform to create an overwhelming He made it clear that he wanted to become an AI player.
But Metamate is not as advanced as similar products from rivals Microsoft and Google, which are used internally by its own staff and sold to businesses.
Unlike most consumer-facing chatbots, Metamate is primarily a text-based interface and does not currently support videos or images.
It also lacks the more autonomous, agent-like features of its competitors, such as joining and summarizing meetings, scheduling items in a calendar, and performing actions on your behalf.
Meta employees, including executives, said they regularly use the tool for a variety of tasks, including coding, retrieving internal information from the company’s intranet, and preparing for customer calls and follow-ups. . The company also uses other models internally, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Ratanchandani said Meta is looking at ways to improve the product, including making it more like an AI assistant. He said it was too early to measure the impact on productivity.
There has been limited adoption of this technology across the market. A recent report by Goldman Sachs suggests that AI tools are unlikely to see widespread adoption or improve productivity until at least 2027.
“It’s a very common strategy to develop something in-house and then ‘dog-food’ it (employees test it),” said Oren Etzioni, a computer science professor at the University of Washington.
However, he added: “(Just because) it works well within Meta doesn’t mean it’s easy for Meta, which is very focused on ad-based social networks, to become an enterprise vendor. Who will win in this space? They wouldn’t be at the top of my list.
