India crucial to how we see future of AI on Meta platforms: Arun Srinivas

Arun Srinivas reveals 92% of businesses on Meta are SMBs, details AI-driven features for creators, and a strategic rethink for WhatsApp Pay

Arun Srinivas, managing director and head for Meta in India, is bullish on the company’s offering to businesses, especially small and medium businesses (SMBs), and their artificial intelligence (AI)-powered offerings, which he says have started giving returns on every rupee they spend. In an in-person interview with Shivani Shinde, his first since he took over the mandate, he talks about the growing significance of SMBs in WhatsApp messaging, a rethink of the WhatsApp Pay strategy, and innovation from India. Edited excerpts: 

It’s been six months into the new role. How has the ride been so far? 

It’s very exciting and energising as well. It is also a continuation of the journey. India has been at the forefront for us. 

First, because it is a country on a digitisation journey, and the sheer scale of the population and the diversity plays out very well for our ecosystem. We have a good size of users on WhatsApp and Instagram, Meta AI, etc. 

Second is the creator ecosystem we have. India is home to a significant chunk of our global creator ecosystem. A large part of the content that is put up on the platform originates in India. We are seeing that play out very well. When both these exist, businesses will choose this as a vehicle to talk about. It is really building on the momentum that is already there. India is very pivotal and important to Meta. How we take this ecosystem across all these constituents — users, creators, and business — is what I am focused on. 

For the past few years, business messaging and the creator economy have been the big focus. Will you continue to focus on that?

 

They continue to be our focus. They are much bigger now than what they were three years ago. Outside of these, what’s more exciting at this point in time is the AI focus. I think AI is playing out in every one of our apps — whether it’s the user experience or creator experience. We have launched a host of features that are being adopted.

 

We have ‘House of Instagram’ where we launched more regional language support. So if you are putting out a Reel, you could earlier dub the content in four languages — Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, and English. We are using Meta AI and now we have added Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, and Telugu. This will allow creators to reach audiences in many parts of India. What is underpinning all this is the technology in AI.

 

India is not just an important market — it is at the forefront of how we imagine the future of AI on our platforms.

 

What trends do you see in the WhatsApp business messaging segment?

 

On WhatsApp, our first priority is always the user experience. More than 200,000 SMBs are already using Click-to-WhatsApp to run their day-to-day operations. These businesses typically generate 20–25 leads a day. Simple tools like catalogues and quick replies have made WhatsApp their primary storefront. As one business told us, “I don’t need a website developer anymore; I can do everything here.”

 

Given that India has close to 70–80 million small businesses, WhatsApp essentially puts technology and customer engagement capabilities directly in their hands. Many of them use Instagram ads to target customers in a small radius and then funnel the entire conversation to WhatsApp.

 

On the large business side, two big drivers are emerging. The first is marketing messages. Almost every large e-commerce platform or bank uses WhatsApp to announce sales, new features, or offers.

 

The second big driver is utility and authentication. We’re also seeing strong utility use cases beyond banking. Address discovery has always been a problem in many Indian cities.

 

Our broader objective is twofold: double down on existing communication behaviours — like sale announcements — and unlock new use cases that didn’t have solutions before.

 

The third major area we’re focused on is simplifying daily life for citizens. We’re working with multiple Metro systems so users can get a quick-response ticket on WhatsApp before boarding.

 

Overall, the WhatsApp business messaging ecosystem is expanding on three fronts: empowering small businesses, driving marketing and utility for large enterprises, and simplifying everyday services for citizens.

 

How significant is the SMB focus for Meta in India?

 

The SMB segment is hugely significant for Meta. According to government data, India has 65–70 million SMBs. On our platforms, 92 per cent of all businesses present today are SMBs. That gives you a sense of how deeply they rely on Meta as their storefront or shopfront to engage with customers. We intend to double down on this segment. Many of these businesses never had access to sophisticated tools — whether it’s ad creation, creative tools, or AI-driven solutions. Now, through Meta’s platforms and WhatsApp, they can use AI-powered capabilities that were earlier available only to large enterprises.

 

Businesses too have seen the impact of our platforms. Advertising businesses in India earned, on average, ₹3.15 in revenues for every ₹1 spent on ads on Meta’s platforms. And this went up to an average return on ad spend of ₹3.94 when advertisers used AI-powered Advantage+ Sales Campaigns. About 200,000 small businesses per month in India use Click-to-WhatsApp ads.

 

What about WhatsApp Pay? Is there a rethink on how the company wants to take it ahead?

 

With the growth we’re seeing across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, we are actively evaluating what the next phase should be for WhatsApp Pay. Even today, users can pay each other directly within the app. I can send you money instantly using the rupee icon. We’re already seeing meaningful traction in peer-to-peer payments.

 

Yes, we haven’t really pushed WhatsApp Pay so far. We had certain constraints earlier, but those were lifted sometime last year. Since then, we’ve been re-examining our approach.

 

The market has changed dramatically from the time when everyone was racing for early land grab in digital payments. India today is one of the world’s biggest digital payments hubs, and Unified Payments Interface itself is a “made in India” success story with massive global visibility. So the question for us is: in a market that is now mature and well-established, what should our role be?

 

We are reassessing that thoughtfully. The constraints are gone, the environment is different, and we want to define what the right play for WhatsApp Pay looks like in an ecosystem of this scale.

 

How is AI changing user browsing habits on various platforms?

 

There are three or four clear shifts.

 

First, AI has always been the backbone of our company, going back to the News Feed days. But with the rise in compute capacity, our technology has significantly leapfrogged compared to pre-2022 or pre-2023. Take a simple example: two years ago, if I wanted to see updates from any cricketer or Bollywood actress on Instagram, I had to follow each of them individually. Today, around 50 per cent of the content users see on Instagram is AI-recommended. So even if I don’t follow Kareena or Alia, or every Indian Premier League cricketer, I still get their content because the algorithm knows what I’m interested in. That directly increases engagement time.

 

AI also adapts dynamically to what the user is consuming. If I shift from watching cricket content to content on fitness or running, the feed automatically starts surfacing more creators, videos, and products related to fitness — protein powders, training routines, whatever is relevant. That’s driving higher engagement across the platform.

 

The same applies to creators. With 50 per cent of content being AI-recommended, creators can reach audiences who don’t yet follow them. It expands the universe of discovery for both sides.

 

For businesses, the impact is similar. They can now target more accurately because the underlying AI understands user interests in real time. As a result, we have seen return on investment improve across every cohort of advertisers.

 

AI is reshaping the entire ecosystem: how users discover content, how creators find audiences, and how businesses drive outcomes.

 

A lot of players have entered the digital ads space. Quick-commerce platforms have also become ad platforms for brands. How does this impact Meta’s ad business?

 

If you look at it from a user’s perspective — because all of us are users — we typically do two things online: we browse, and we search. Meta largely sits in the browsing or discovery stage, when the user has no shopping intent. That is why we describe ourselves as a full-funnel platform. You may be scrolling through Reels and suddenly see a D2C beauty brand. It sparks curiosity, though you may not take action immediately. But after the second or third exposure, you often do.

 

Because of this, we end up driving traffic from our platforms to quick-commerce and e-commerce destinations. The reason is our user base is way larger. Even the biggest e-commerce players spend heavily during their annual sales to bring traffic from Meta to their platforms or to announce their promotions. So, I don’t see us competing with other platforms. We rather complement them.