Yes, you should probably use Meta AI in 2026.
But not blindly.
That is the honest answer.
I am not one of those people who thinks every AI feature is automatically good. I am also not someone who thinks advertisers should ignore AI and try to run accounts like it is 2018. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
Meta’s AI tools can be very useful. They can help with creative variation, audience expansion, recommendations, campaign optimization, and ad delivery. Meta is clearly investing heavily in AI across the entire advertising experience, including ad creative, business assistant tools, ad ranking, and performance recommendations.
So the question is not really, “Should you use Meta AI?”
The better question is, “Where should you use it, and where do you still need human strategy?”
That distinction matters.
Meta AI Is Helpful When the Inputs Are Strong
The best way I can explain Meta AI is this: it is an accelerator.
If you give it strong data, strong creative, clear objectives, and a clean funnel, it can help you move faster. If you give it bad data, weak creative, unclear conversion events, and a messy customer journey, it can help you waste money faster.
That is why I do not judge AI features in isolation. I judge the account around them.
For example, Advantage+ creative can automatically create different versions of an ad and show customized variations based on what people are likely to respond to. That can be a good thing. But if the original creative is weak, off-brand, unclear, or built around the wrong message, then all we are doing is making more versions of something that was not strong to begin with.
Same thing with audience automation.
Meta has a massive amount of platform data. In many accounts, broader targeting and AI-assisted delivery can work extremely well. But that does not mean we stop thinking about the customer.
I still want to know:
Who are we trying to reach?
What do they already know?
What do they believe?
What problem are they trying to solve?
What objection stops them from buying?
What proof do they need?
What conversion event actually matters?
AI can help find the right person, but it does not automatically understand the full business context.
That part is still on us.
Where I Like Using Meta AI
There are a few places where I generally like using Meta AI, assuming the account foundation is solid.
The first is creative variation.
In a saturated feed, creative fatigue is real. You need new hooks, new formats, new messages, and new ways to explain the same offer. AI can help speed up that testing process, especially when paired with a strong creative strategy.
The second is audience expansion.
I am a big believer in using the data a business already owns. Customer lists, website visitors, purchasers, lead quality data, engagement audiences — all of that can help guide the platform. When you combine owned data with Meta’s AI, that is where things can get powerful.
It is not just “let Meta do everything.”
It is “give Meta better signals so it can make better decisions.”
The third is placement and delivery optimization.
Manual placement control still has its place in some accounts, but in many cases, Meta is better at finding efficient delivery across placements than we are if we are just guessing. I do not need to manually force every dollar into one placement because I personally like it. I want the account to follow performance.
The fourth is faster learning.
AI tools can help identify patterns faster. They can help test combinations faster. They can help optimize based on behavior happening in real time.
That is valuable.
But none of this means I stop managing the account.
Where I Would Be Careful
The biggest risk with Meta AI is giving up too much control too early.
This usually happens when a business owner hears that AI can “run the campaign” and assumes that means strategy is no longer needed.
That is not how I see it.
I would be careful with Meta AI when:
Conversion tracking is not reliable
The pixel and Conversions API are not properly set up
The business does not know what a qualified lead or customer is worth
Creative is generic or off-brand
The offer is unclear
The funnel has not been tested
The account has very little data
The reporting is not tied to actual business outcomes
In those cases, AI can still be used, but I would not let it take the wheel completely.
Another thing to watch is brand voice.
AI-generated creative can be helpful, but it can also become generic fast. The more businesses use the same tools, the more important it becomes to have a real point of view. If every ad starts sounding the same, the brands with actual personality are going to stand out.
This is especially important for founder-led businesses, premium brands, local service businesses, and companies where trust matters.
AI can generate options. It cannot replace knowing what your customer needs to hear.
The Bigger Shift: Meta AI Is Becoming Part of the User Experience
This is not just about advertisers using AI inside Ads Manager.
Meta has also said that, starting after December 16, 2025, interactions with Meta AI can become another signal used to personalize content and ad recommendations across its platforms, with certain sensitive topic restrictions.
That tells me something important: AI is not just a campaign feature. It is becoming part of how Meta understands user behavior.
For advertisers, that means the platform may continue getting better at reading intent, interests, and behavior in ways that are not as manually visible to us.
That can be good for performance.
But again, it raises the bar on inputs.
If Meta is getting smarter, then our strategy needs to get sharper. The lazy version of advertising — generic ads, broad claims, weak landing pages, bad tracking — is not going to become magically better because the platform has more AI.
My Recommendation
My recommendation is simple: use Meta AI, but do not use it as a substitute for strategy.
Use it to test faster.
Use it to expand intelligently.
Use it to optimize delivery.
Use it to improve creative variation.
Use it to support the account.
But keep humans involved in the things humans are still better at:
Understanding the customer
Building the offer
Interpreting the data
Protecting the brand
Mapping the funnel
Knowing when the platform is optimizing for the wrong thing
Connecting ad performance to real business performance
That is the balance.
At SQRD, we are not anti-AI. We are also not blindly pro-AI. We are pro-performance. We are pro-data. We are pro-strategy. And we are big believers that the best accounts in 2026 will use both: smart automation from the platforms and real expertise from people who care about the outcome.
If you are wondering whether your business should be using Meta AI more aggressively, talk with our expert team. We can look at your account, your data, your creative, and your funnel, then help you decide where AI should help and where you still need more control.
