Alex Schultz on Meta’s Future: “It Might Be The Next Tier of Business For Our Entire Company”

Summary

Alex Schultz, Meta's Chief Data Officer, discusses Meta's view that agentic commerce could become its next major business line, stablecoins as inevitable digital money, and the enduring role of human taste in an AI-augmented world. He highlights trends like conversational commerce and shoppertainment, and outlines Meta's investments in AR glasses and WhatsApp business agents.

• Meta sees agentic commerce as a potentially majority segment of the economy, with over a million businesses using WhatsApp business agents.
• Stablecoins and digital payments are viewed as a foregone conclusion, with Meta likely to partner on financial services.
• AI tools augment but do not replace human creativity; taste and conviction remain crucial for high-impact work.
• AR glasses (Meta Ray-Bans, Oakleys) are the ultimate form factor for augmented reality, complementing AI assistants.
• Meta missed TikTok's rise during the pandemic but uses data from Asia to spot early trends like shoppertainment.
• Marketing spend is shifting lower in the funnel, with agents pushing further toward need-based matching.