Imagine opening your favourite social app and chatting with an AI that already knows your quirks, interests, and friendships.
Last year, I explored Meta's ambitious move to make that vision a reality by integrating its Llama LLM into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, a strategy I examined in-depth in The Marriage of Intent and Psychographics on Meta's Platforms. The goal? To create an AI that lives within the social apps billions of people already use daily.
At the same time, Google reimagined its search experience with AI, shifting how we access knowledge. Together, these moves signalled the start of a profound transformation in how we interact with information and with each other online.
Now, the stakes have escalated.
Just last week, Meta announced it is spinning off its social AI into a standalone app. Meanwhile, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, floated the idea of building an AI-powered social network. Two of the biggest players in AI and tech are converging around a single idea: the future of AI is social.
Social media changed the world by connecting people. AI is changing the world by personalizing information, services, and solutions. Combining the two is inevitable.
We already turn to AI to search, brainstorm, vent, learn, and laugh. But these interactions remain largely transactional. The deeper potential lies in blending AI's capabilities with the nuanced, emotional, and interconnected web of human relationships, the "social graph."
An AI that understands not just what we ask but who we are, who we care about, and how we move through life, could redefine digital life itself.
Meta initially embedded Llama-based AI features into its social apps, hoping users would naturally adopt AI as an everyday assistant. However, feedback revealed a different story: many found the integrations intrusive, confusing, or simply unnecessary.
The lack of clear use cases and meaningful daily value meant the features were often overlooked, reinforcing the challenge that even powerful AI must prove its relevance to everyday life. But adoption was tepid.
As pointed out in TechCrunch, AI assistants risk becoming "just another feature" unless they are truly indispensable.
In response, Meta launched the Meta AI App: a standalone destination where its AI can grow, improve, and build its own user base, unburdened by the complexities of being an "extra" inside other apps.
This move comes at a pivotal moment, as Zuckerberg recently acknowledged during an FTC hearing, time spent on Facebook and Instagram has declined meaningfully, with user engagement increasingly shifting to messaging apps and platforms like TikTok.
Spinning off Meta AI could be a long-term strategic play to maintain and even reclaim screen time share against rising competition, not only from traditional social platforms but also from the growing ecosystem of AI chat experiences.
This is a strategic pivot, not a retreat. Giving AI its own space allows Meta to:
OpenAI is not standing still. As reported by The Verge, Sam Altman and the team are exploring building an AI-native social network. OpenAI already knows how people use ChatGPT: as a therapist, teacher, friend, sounding board, and entertainment partner.
If OpenAI pairs this with a social layer, connections between users, shared AI experiences, and personalized content streams, it could challenge the dominance of traditional social media giants.
The message is clear: social graphs are no longer the exclusive domain of Facebook and Instagram. Whoever builds the most human-centric AI will win.
Meta’s crown jewel is not just its user base, but the depth of its data.
Billions of data points about friendships, desires, fears, buying habits, milestones, and locations. Over years, across cultures, devices, and life stages. This psychographic data offers an unparalleled foundation for building an AI that truly knows its users.
Imagine an AI that doesn't just answer your questions but anticipates your needs based on:
Meta can turn "good" AI into "irreplaceable" AI. An assistant not just for tasks, but for life itself.
When OpenAI, the world leader in foundational models, signals its intent to move into "social," it validates Meta's entire strategic direction.
The future isn't just about smarter chatbots, it is about socially aware, emotionally intelligent AI that seamlessly fits into our daily lives.
The question is not if AI will become social. It is who will do it best, and most responsibly.
Today's AI understands prompts. Tomorrow's AI will understand people.
The upside is immense. So are the risks: privacy, manipulation, dependence.
But the trend is unstoppable. The future of AI is not just generative.
The future of AI is social.
Meta's move to give its AI a home of its own, and OpenAI's ambition to build an AI-first social network, signal a deeper shift: AI is moving from a transactional tool to an emotional companion.
In this changing dynamic, the leaders will be those who design AI to understand relationships, not just queries.
The race ahead is not about better prompts or faster answers.
It is about building AI that genuinely understands human lives—and fits seamlessly into them.