Meta unveiled new AI advertising tools at Cannes Lions 2025 in light of a $14-15 billion investment for a 49% stake in Scale AI, appointing Scale’s 28-year-old CEO Alexandr Wang to lead Meta’s “superintelligence” unit.
New AI Advertising Features Focus on Automation
The tech giant is expanding its Advantage+ suite to include brand-consistent automation features that maintain logos, fonts, and color palettes across campaigns. Meanwhile, the new image-to-video tool stitches together up to 20 product photos into multi-scene clips with music, overlays, and text, eliminating the need for external editing assistance. The company refers to this as “Video Generation 2.0,” which utilizes generative AI models to transform multiple images into dynamic, multi-scene videos.
Conversational Commerce and Language Tools
Meta introduces AI agents that can be embedded directly into advertisements, allowing users to interact with branded bots when clicking an ad. The company is also piloting voice functionality in these AI agents, enabling customers to speak naturally with bots. These Business AIs are now being tested across additional ad formats, including Instagram and Facebook Reels, as well as Instagram Stories ads. New AI-powered language translation automatically converts ad content into top global languages, with coverage set to double by year-end.
Personalization and Performance Metrics
Using brand assets and historical ad data, Meta’s AI now generates different messaging tones for various audience segments. According to Meta’s announcement, these tools “tap into existing brand assets – from website content to previous ads to product information from integrated platforms like Shopify” to ensure consistency across touchpoints. The company reports that Advantage+ Sales Campaigns deliver an average 22% boost in return on ad spend, while Meta GEM, its generative recommendation model, improves conversions by up to 5%.
Enhanced Creative Tools and Engagement Features
Meta is testing “Creative Sticker call-to-action” buttons that enable brands to create customized stickers for Facebook Stories and Reels, with plans to expand to Instagram Stories later this year. The company is also expanding its virtual try-on feature, which utilizes generative AI to showcase clothing on virtual models of various shapes and sizes. Another new feature in testing, “Video Highlights,” extracts short phrases and thumbnails from key scenes that reflect a brand’s value proposition.
Shifting Narrative on AI’s Role
Following earlier comments from CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggesting that AI could eventually replace creative teams, Meta executives have adopted a more nuanced position. Meta’s VP of Product Management, Helen Ma, told The Drum that AI will “unlock new avenues for creative expression,” while Global Business Group Head Nicola Mendelsohn described AI as scaling creativity rather than replacing human input. Mendelsohn noted that while creatives once produced a few ads annually, AI now enables the creation of tens of thousands of variations daily.
