• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 5, 2024

AI agent advertising revenues on two leading social media platforms -- Meta and Snap -- will top $1 billion this year and will surpass $7 billion next year, according to estimates published this morning by Wall Street equity research firm New Street Research.

"We estimate Snap will generate $234 million from 'My AI' sponsored links in 2024, growing 194% to $686 million the following year, or 11.2% of total 2025 ad revenue," New Street's Dan Salmon writes in the report, entitled "How Much Ad Revenue Could Consumer AI Agents Generate, adding: "We assume Meta begins testing ads in its AI agents in July 2024, and estimate the company can generate $6.7 billion in ad revenue from them in 2025, or 4.0% of total 2025 ad revenue."

While the report does not project what the total potential of ad-supported consumer AI agents currently is or ultimately could be, New Street's analysis of the two publicly traded social platforms indicates that it could scale fast.

The report notes that Meta and Snap face competition from AI agents being developed by Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, "as well as bespoke agents (e.g., BMBL’s BFF agent)."