Meta’s AI Assistant Crosses 1 Bn Users as Company Restructures AI Operations

Meta’s AI assistant has reached a major milestone, now serving 1 billion monthly active users across platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during a recent shareholders meeting.

In comparison, Google’s Gemini AI app has 400 million monthly users, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT now has 500 million weekly active users, highlighting intense competition in the AI assistant space.

Meta's AI assistant benefits from deep integration into some of the world’s most popular apps—WhatsApp and Instagram alone have 3 billion and 2 billion monthly users, respectively.

During the meeting, Zuckerberg also hinted at a potential paid tier for the assistant, allowing users to access more computing power, according to CNBC.

In parallel, Meta is restructuring its AI division. According to an internal memo obtained by Axios, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox announced the creation of two new teams: the AI Products team, led by Connor Hayes, and the AGI Foundations team, co-led by Ahmad Al-Dahle and Amir Frenkel.

This move is intended to streamline development and clearly define responsibilities across Meta’s AI projects.

The AI Products group will focus on consumer-facing tools like the Meta AI assistant, AI Studio, and generative AI features embedded in Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The AGI Foundations team, on the other hand, will spearhead the development of Meta’s Llama models and innovations in reasoning, multimedia, and voice technologies.

Meanwhile, Meta’s core research arm, FAIR (Fundamental AI Research), will continue independently, though some multimedia researchers from FAIR will transition to the AGI Foundations unit.