Snapchat Plans to Invest $1.5 Billion Annually in AI

According to the CEO of Snap, the company that created Snapchat, the messaging app is investing more money in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

The report said that Snapchat has had to deal with big changes in both the way people use social media and the kinds of ads that advertisers want to buy on Snapchat. Once upon a time, the platform was all about messaging, and advertisers were more interested in telling stories about their brands than trying to get people to buy right away. Bloomberg said that the company is now spending money on AI, machine learning, and augmented reality (AR) features that use Snap’s ads business and user feeds.

“We have never worked on anything as deep and important as augmented reality,” Spiegel said last month on an earnings call. AR makes it possible for digital experiences to appear naturally in the world around us. This changes how we use computers every day.

When it was first written, PYMNTS said that the company’s AR tools are used by advertisers, creators, and users of the platform. The company’s earnings presentation says that more than 70% of people who download Snapchat use AR on their first day of using the app. During the call, Spiegel said, “Our AR products and services are driving major impact at scale today,” Every single day, on average, more than 300 million people use augmented reality on Snapchat.

Strategic Partnerships and Infrastructure Investments

As Bloomberg said, the company is not making its own AI tools. Instead, it is forming partnerships with Amazon and Google to use their clouds. The report said that this lets Snap focus on new products and Snapchat experiences. However, the company still plans to spend 84 cents on infrastructure for every daily user every quarter, which Bloomberg says is about $1.5 billion a year. PYMNTS looked at how social media influencers are using AI to connect with and grow their audiences last month.