iWorld
Meta Rolls out its first generative AI-powered ad features
Mumbai: Meta has announced that rolling out its first generative AI-powered features for ad creatives in Meta’s Ads Manager, with global rollout complete by next year. These unlock a new era of creativity that maximizes the productivity, personalization and performance for all advertisers. The new features – Background Generation, Image Expansion, and Text Variations – will add to the AI-powered experiences and tools Meta continues to build for businesses.
Background Generation: Creates multiple backgrounds to complement the advertiser’s product images, allowing advertisers to tailor their creative assets for different audiences.
Image Expansion: Seamlessly adjusts creative assets to fit different aspect ratios across multiple surfaces, like Feed or Reels, allowing advertisers to spend less time and resources on repurposing creative assets.
Text Variations: Generates multiple versions of ad texts based on advertiser’s original copy, highlighting the selling points of their products/services and giving them multiple text options to better reach their audience.
What Meta learned from advertisers
Earlier this year, Meta announced the AI Sandbox where they have been testing these generative AI features with a small and diverse set of advertisers. These advertisers have been providing Meta with valuable feedback, including helping it ensure these products are built responsibly. Here’s what they’ve said about Meta’s generative AI for ads:
Generative AI can save time and resources while spurring productivity – According to a survey of advertisers that participated in early testing, most advertisers expect saving time and half of them estimate that generative AI will save them five or more hours a week – the equivalent of one month per year – noting they’ll be able to create multiple asset variations with the click of a button, reducing time spent between creative and media teams on time-consuming editing tasks and allowing for more strategic work.1 Nearly all advertisers also agreed that the products being tested in AI Sandbox will eventually help marketers drive campaign performance by enabling quicker development of more ad creative variations at scale.
“As an early adopter of Meta’s AI Sandbox, Publicis is excited to experience how it will apply to important client use cases,“ said Publicis Media Content Innovation EVP – head of innovation Keith Soljacich. “Ad creative development that is faster, smarter and integrated into the larger Meta ad platform will be a game changer.”
Generative AI eases creative fatigue, but there is still room to customize – Creatives have a large impact on the performance of an ad,2 and yet advertisers find it challenging to identify the best-performing creative at scale. Generative AI enables advertisers to introduce new ad creative faster, yet there is still work to do on delivering outputs customized to every brand’s unique voice and visual style. Meta will need to define new ways of partnering with brands and agencies to help train these models on brands’ unique perspective.
What’s next
Meta’s generative AI investments are focused on helping marketers to do their best work, by allowing them to launch & test ad creatives faster and easily reach the audiences they care about.
Today’s generative-AI powered ad features are just a start. Meta plans to offer advertisers more ways to generate ad copy to highlight product selling points or generate background images in minutes with tailored themes, like outdoor images for an athleisure brand. And as Meta shared at Connect, businesses will soon be able to use AIs for business messaging on Messenger and WhatsApp to engage with customers – helping with commerce, engagement, and support, unlocking instant conversational responses. Meta is testing with a small number of businesses in Alpha and plans to scale it further next year.
With millions of businesses advertising on Meta’s platform, it will continue to take a collaborative approach in developing these features and experiences so that they provide value to businesses and people.
iWorld
Telcos push for unified rules as spam shifts to OTT platforms
Over 80 per cent fraud moves online, operators seek common framework.
MUMBAI: The spam may have left your phone network but it hasn’t left you alone. India’s telecom operators are once again dialling up the pressure for a unified regulatory framework, warning that fraud is rapidly migrating to internet-based platforms where oversight remains far looser. According to industry communication, a leading operator has written to multiple arms of the government including the Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance arguing that tighter controls on traditional telecom networks are inadvertently pushing bad actors towards over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms.
The concern is not new, but the framing has sharpened. What was once an industry grievance is now being positioned as a consumer protection issue. Operators say that tackling spam in silos no longer works, as fraudsters seamlessly shift across platforms, exploiting regulatory gaps. The result: a moving target that traditional safeguards struggle to contain.
Executives point to a clear shift in fraud patterns. OTT platforms are increasingly being used for phishing links, impersonation scams and bulk unsolicited messaging, with industry estimates suggesting that over 80 per cent of spam activity has now migrated online. In this environment, the lines between telecom networks, messaging apps and financial fraud are blurring fast.
At the heart of the industry’s demand is a call for a technology-neutral regulatory framework, one that applies consistently across telecom and internet-based communication services. Operators argue that the absence of uniform safeguards, such as sender verification systems, robust spam filters and clearly defined accountability mechanisms, has created enforcement blind spots that fraudsters are quick to exploit.
The proposal is straightforward but far-reaching. Telcos are pushing for baseline anti-fraud measures across all communication platforms, alongside faster response systems and deeper coordination between ministries. Given the interconnected nature of telecom networks, digital platforms and financial systems, they argue that fragmented oversight only weakens the overall defence.
The broader issue is regulatory arbitrage, the ability of bad actors to hop between platforms based on which is least regulated at any given time. Without harmonised rules, operators say, efforts to curb fraud risk becoming a game of whack-a-mole.
As digital communication continues to expand, the debate is shifting from who regulates what to how consistently it is regulated. For now, telecom operators are making their case clear: in a world where spam travels freely, regulation cannot afford to stay fragmented.
