Meta to Develop Chatbots with Personas to Enhance User Retention

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is gearing up to introduce a lineup of AI-driven chatbots with distinct personalities for its services including Instagram and Facebook as early as next month, reported Financial Times. The move aims to enhance user engagement on its social media platforms.

Meta has been designing prototypes for chatbots that can have humanlike discussions with its nearly 4bn users, the report added, citing people with the knowledge of the plans. 

According to sources, some of the chatbots, referred as "personas" by the staff, embody distinct characters. Meta has considered introducing personas like Abraham Lincoln, while another one might offer travel advice with a surfer-style approach.

The chatbots are set to debut in September, offering a novel search function, personalized recommendations, and providing an enjoyable interactive experience for users.

This development comes after their new Twitter rival app Threads lost more than half of its users in the weeks following its buzzy launch on July 5.  According to a report by SimilarWeb, the number of daily active users on Threads fell from 49 million on July 7 to 23.6 million on July 14.

In addition to enhancing user engagement, chatbots could gather substantial new data on users' interests. This data could enable Meta to deliver more personalized and relevant content and advertisements to its users.

Meta recently reported its most profitable quarter since 2021. In terms of advertising, ad impressions delivered across their Family of Apps increased by 34% year-over-year in Q2 2023. However, the average price per ad decreased by 16% year-over-year.