Zuckerberg predicts that billions of people will have Their own AI agents in five years

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is making a bold prediction. He believes billions of people will have their own personal AI agents within five years. Let’s hope power-hungry data centers can keep up without fueling more climate disasters.

“I think that it’s extremely unlikely if you look out five years from now… that you don’t have billions of people with a personal agent,” Zuckerberg said. He shared this on Wednesday’s earnings call with investors.

He said these agents could assist with finances, health, relationships, and household tasks.

“As we move toward a future where we’re all interacting with multiple agents… WhatsApp and our other messaging surfaces are going to become increasingly important,” he added. WhatsApp is already the top platform for Meta AI interactions.

Meta isn’t alone in this race. Google pushed custom AI agents in its Search overhaul. Many users pushed back, frustrated by constant AI results. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Claude has seen a surge in subscriptions. Engineers love its agentic coding tool, Claude Code.

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Still, investors seem less confident in Meta. The company keeps investing heavily in unproven projects. After this quarter’s earnings, Meta’s stock dropped nearly 10%.

Reality Labs — Meta’s division for AR glasses and VR headsets — lost $4.6 billion this quarter. That’s consistent with losses since 2021. Total losses now sit near $88 billion.

Meta’s AI spending is expected to grow further. That’s a growing concern. Free cash flow dropped sharply — from $8.55 billion last year to just $784 million this quarter. That’s a 91% decline, driven largely by AI infrastructure costs.

This week, Meta partnered with BlackRock to build a $14 billion data center in El Paso, Texas.

“We believe that there will continue to be a significantly higher margin on selling intelligence rather than selling compute directly,” Zuckerberg explained. “But we think there’s a big opportunity to sell compute as well.”

He believes personal AI agents will become “the foundation for our next wave of products and revenue lines.”

So far, Meta’s business agents—launched globally on WhatsApp and Messenger—have been adopted by over one million businesses. Winning over everyday consumers may prove tougher. But reaching “billions” has to start somewhere. Meta can’t rely on enterprise agents alone.