'We're seeing brands of all sizes build their own AI muscle'

As many as 8 in 10 Indian shoppers now discover products via social media, and 96% of them do so through Meta platforms, a study has shown.

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As content, commerce, and conversations converge, the pressure on brands to adapt is intensifying. In this interview, Arun Srinivas, director & head of ads business (India) at Meta, speaks with Geetika Srivastava about India's shifting discovery habits, the growing influence of creators, and why AI is key to the next phase of digital advertising.

Edited excerpts:

Retail discovery has increasingly become social first. Does that come with a downside?

We augment discovery on our platforms. In a marketplace, brands are trying to compete to sell offerings. I think the context in our case is very different because you're not competing to sell your pair of jeans versus somebody else's pair of jeans. In our case, our platform is able to give an avenue to each of these brands for a pair of jeans, so they can really talk about who they are and what they have to offer. The transaction happens largely either on their own website or store. Our role is different than that of the marketplace, which can also be the seller of those goods.

India is one of Meta's largest markets in terms of users. From an advertising perspective, where do you see the next big growth opportunity here?