Meta Transforms Instagram: An AI to Automate Your Shopping

Meta is poised to revolutionize the online shopping experience with a new AI capable of shopping on Instagram on your behalf. Imagine the satisfaction of knowing that a package is already on its way without lifting a finger. This is precisely what Meta aims to offer with this technology.

For years, Meta has perfected the art of presenting you with products you hadn't planned to buy. Today, the company wants to go further by entrusting your shopping directly to an agentic AI. This AI, acting autonomously, could search for products, compare prices, interact with various services, and finalize purchases. In short, your cart could fill up without you even touching the screen.

How Meta Plans to Automate Shopping on Instagram

Meta is currently developing a new tool based on the Muse Spark model. At the same time, an internal project named Hatch is undergoing testing. This AI agent would be capable of using multiple applications and services, behaving like an advanced digital assistant.

The idea goes beyond simple tasks like summarizing text or writing a message. These new agents aim to take control of certain everyday digital tasks. Instagram, already a massive shopping mall disguised as a social network, appears to be the ideal ground for experimenting with AI-driven shopping at Meta.

With its influencers, algorithmic recommendations, integrated shops, and targeted ads, Instagram is already strongly pushing for consumption. Adding an AI capable of finding the best headphones under 200 euros or the dress seen in a video seems to be the logical next step.

Meta is also testing Hatch with several third-party platforms like DoorDash and Reddit. The goal is to create an agent capable of navigating between different services without constant user intervention.

Between Ultimate Comfort and Recommendation Machine

The idea of delegating shopping to an AI can be appealing. Saving time, avoiding endless comparisons, or delegating certain searches seems practical. After all, many already use Instagram as a discovery engine for their purchases. The platform knows what you’re looking at, what you like, and sometimes even what you’re considering buying before you do.

However, entrusting your shopping to a company fueled by targeted advertising raises questions. Could an AI tasked with buying on your behalf really remain neutral in its recommendations? It’s hard not to imagine a system favoring certain products, partners, or sponsored content.

The context surrounding Meta adds an additional layer to the discussion. The company recently attempted to acquire Manus, a startup specializing in AI agents, for nearly 2 billion dollars. This deal was blocked by Chinese authorities. As a result, Meta seems to be accelerating the development of its own solutions in-house.