It’s coming to that time of the year again, when all the pundits and experts start pumping out their predictions on what to watch for in the year ahead, and how things will change over the coming 12 months.
Which, this year, is going to include a lot of inaccurate predictions about AI.
Generative AI is a transformative tech trend, no doubt, which will have impact in a range of ways. But the conflation between the generative AI tools we have now, and computer systems that can actually think for themselves is significantly overblown.
We’re not close to automated general intelligence (AGI) yet. Just because ChatGPT can pass an IQ test, that doesn’t mean that it’s actually “thinking” independently.
But this is an aside, what we’re looking at here is social media predictions, and how the social media landscape will shift over the next year. And while AI will get the spotlight here as well, I’m tipping that the impacts will be more measured than many expect.
Here’s what I see coming in 2025 from all the major social apps. And worth noting, I’m usually pretty spot-on with my estimates (check my 2024 predictions here).
Still the biggest social platform in the world, despite it losing some of its cool status, Meta’s flagship app continues to host the most active users, by a big margin, and remains a critical connector for many, many communities.
Though its focus has shifted of late, moving away from playing into your social graph, to showing you more and more entertainment-based content. As well as AI, with Meta looking to get people excited about its AI tools by adding in random prompts for you to “Imagine a toga party for animated characters”, or some other rubbish in-stream.
I’m not sure that’s the future of social media engagement, but then again, Meta’s pretty good at capitalizing on rising tech trends.
Here’s what’s likely coming next for Zuck’s social behemoth.
More AI (for some reason)
As noted, Meta has made a big commitment to gen AI, spending billions on infrastructure to support its AI push. Once, it was the metaverse that was Meta’s key focus for the next stage, but the rapid rise of new AI tools seems to have sidelined that to a degree, with Zuck and Co. looking to get on the AI bandwagon, and lead the AI race.
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Which, in fairness, they’ve been working on for over a decade. Meta’s really looking to get in on the latest AI push because it’s put in the work on AI already, and now, with others like OpenAI gaining traction, it sees its opportunity to also stake its claim.
The only problem, at this stage at least, is that most of Meta’s AI tools serve no purpose in social apps, which are built around real, human connection.
Social media is, by design, social, which generally involves interaction between humans. But apparently, Meta’s looking to change the paradigm on this, and encourage the use of AI bots to engage within its apps.
Indeed, Meta’s already looking to help creators make AI versions of themselves, while as noted, it’s also prompting users to generate random AI images that they can share with their friends.
These aren’t real, human experiences that Meta wants you to share, but computer-generated slop. Which are already causing problems across Meta’s networks more broadly, as AI-generated images, presented as real depictions, continue to generate huge engagement among seemingly unaware users.
It’s deceptive, it’s spammy. And yet, Meta, seemingly, wants more of it.
In a recent interview, Zuckerberg said that he expects more and more Facebook and IG content to be increasingly AI-generated, while again, Meta itself is encouraging this, by pushing users to incorporate AI into their posts and attachments.
Meta also recently hired Michael Sayman, the developer of a social app populated entirely by AI bots, which is another indicator that this is likely the direction that Meta’s leaning.
As such, you can expect more gen AI prompts to clog your Facebook feed, as Meta keeps pushing people to use its AI tools. I mean, it’s spending billions to create them, so it needs to justify that with increased usage, and Meta’s seemingly hoping that people will eventually come to love its fake, AI-created content.
But will they?
I have my doubts, and again, I don’t see how this aligns with the central premise of its core apps. But expect Meta to keep pushing you to use its AI tools, in any way that it can, as it leans harder into the gen AI trend.
