During a conference in Brazil, Meta announced on Thursday the launch of its first AI-enhanced program for businesses, aimed at advertising on the "WhatsApp" app.
The company's announcement comes amid efforts to monetize the popular messaging service "WhatsApp."
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, unveiled the new tools in a video presentation shown during the conference.
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This announcement marks a shift for WhatsApp, a messaging service known for its strong emphasis on privacy and encryption, which has long avoided the targeted advertising models that form the backbone of Meta's other apps like Facebook and Instagram.
For several years, the social media giant has offered features related to commerce and payments on the app, including "business messaging" tools that companies can use for customer service chats and sending marketing materials to people who have shared their phone numbers with them.
However, these tools were previously quite basic and often resulted in spam messages being sent to all users who opted in to receive communications from the company.