Meta appointed Dhruv Vohra to lead business operations across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The move signals Meta's focus on expanding artificial intelligence and chat commerce—buying and selling through messaging platforms and AI chatbots—in the region.
Shopping features on Facebook and Instagram will increasingly use AI assistants to help users find products and complete purchases. This represents a shift from traditional product browsing to AI-guided recommendations within existing messaging apps.
What changes for families and schools
- Facebook and Instagram shopping will use AI to recommend products, making it harder to distinguish ads from genuine suggestions.
- Children should learn how AI chatbots decide what to show them and what personal data these tools collect.
- Local businesses in the six countries may need to adopt new AI and chat commerce tools to remain competitive.
Prepare your family for AI shopping features
- Review privacy settings on Meta platforms for shopping and personalized advertising features.
- Show children examples of AI product recommendations on Facebook or Instagram and explain how algorithms select what appears.
- Set guidelines for purchases made through messaging chatbots to prevent unexpected transactions.