Meta rolled out a suite of artificial intelligence features on Monday that turn Facebook into something that looks a lot like a search engine. The centerpiece is a new option called "AI Mode," which appears alongside familiar Facebook search tabs like "People" and "Marketplace" when users search on the platform, according to The Verge.
Unlike a traditional keyword search, AI Mode generates responses drawn from public Facebook posts — meaning the content users have already shared on the platform becomes the raw material powering the results. Meta is also rolling out content generation tools as part of the same update, per The Verge.
The financial upside could be significant. According to Forbes, at least one Wall Street analyst believes the new AI-powered feature set could generate $10 billion in annual revenue for Meta — though the report did not detail the specific mechanism, whether through advertising, subscriptions, or some other model.
For everyday users, the shift means Facebook is no longer just a place to see updates from friends and family — it's positioning itself to compete with Google and other search engines for the moments when people want answers, recommendations, or generated content, all within an app they're already using daily.
The move matters because it hands Meta a new way to monetize the enormous trove of public user data it already holds, potentially reshaping where people go first when they want to find something online.