How are businesses supposed to grow when technology is moving faster than regulation, customer expectations keep shifting, and AI is changing the rules in real time?
In this episode, I sat down with Derya Matras, Vice President of EMEA at Meta, to talk about what growth really looks like for businesses operating in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa right now.
This was a fascinating conversation because it went far beyond the usual talking points around AI and advertising. Derya brought a broader view of the pressure many businesses are under today, from macroeconomic uncertainty and political complexity to changing consumer behavior, tighter margins, and the need to adapt to a world where AI is now part of everyday decision-making.
What really stood out to me was her point that this moment is about far more than adopting new tools. It is about culture, leadership, and having the discipline to know what you are actually trying to achieve.
Derya spoke about the importance of having a clear North Star goal, getting the foundations right, and making sure businesses are not simply adding AI into broken systems or unclear strategies. Because as she put it, AI can make everything more powerful, but it can also amplify mistakes. That is such an important point, especially at a time when so many companies are racing to show they are doing something with AI without always knowing what success should look like.
We also explored how Meta sees its role in supporting growth across Europe's digital economy. Derya shared insights into how Meta's platforms are helping businesses of all sizes reach customers in ways they simply could not do on their own.
For large companies, that may mean better measurement, faster optimization, and more personalized engagement. But for smaller businesses, the stakes can be even higher. She shared examples that brought those numbers to life, including entrepreneurs using Instagram and WhatsApp to reach global markets, support their families, and create jobs in ways that would have been out of reach just a few years ago.
Another part of the conversation I found especially interesting was the tension between innovation and regulation in Europe. Derya was honest about how complicated and fragmented the environment has become, and how that complexity can slow progress or delay the rollout of new products.
At the same time, she made a strong case that Europe still has a real opportunity ahead if it can find the right balance. That balance matters not only for big tech companies, but for startups, small businesses, creators, and the wider economy that increasingly depends on digital tools to compete and grow.
We also talked about creativity, measurement, AI assistants, wearables, and even how these technologies are beginning to shape life at home as much as at work. It all made for a conversation that felt very current, but also deeply practical.
As AI becomes woven into advertising, business operations, and everyday life, are organizations truly building the foundations they need to benefit from it, or are they still chasing the next shiny thing? And what do you think Europe needs to get right to make sure innovation and opportunity can keep moving forward?
Useful LInks
[00:00:04] What does growth look like when every business is being pulled in multiple directions at once? That is what makes today's conversation such an interesting one, because my guest is joining me from Meta, and we're going to get into the very real tension that so many business leaders are feeling right now. Because on one side, there's this huge excitement around all things AI, new digital tools, new ways of working and reaching customers.
[00:00:34] And on the other side, there's economic pressure, changing consumer behaviour, rising expectations, and the very real challenge of building the right culture and the right foundations that are all required to make any of it work. So today we'll talk about how they're helping small businesses compete in global markets, to using AI in everyday life in ways that save time, reduce friction,
[00:01:00] but also more important than any of the technology, is the fact that there's a very human side to our conversation today. And I think that's one of the things that will make today's episode so relatable. Because we're going to get into creativity, regulation, measurement. Why businesses that win in this next chapter won't be the ones chasing every shiny new tool, but they'll be the ones with the clearest tools, the strongest foundations,
[00:01:26] and the courage to test, learn, and adapt, and improve the culture within an organisation. So, how do you embrace the speed of change without losing sight of what really matters? Well, hopefully we'll get a few answers today. So enough from me. Let me introduce you to my guest. So, thank you for joining me on the podcast today. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Thanks, Neil. And it's great to be here with you today.
[00:01:55] So, I have the pleasure of leading our Europe, Middle East, and Africa business at Meta. And I've been with the company for a bit more than 10 years now, which you can imagine it feels like a lifetime in tech. And I'm originally Turkish, but I live in London for the last decade. And before Meta, I spent most of my career in management consulting, mostly at McKinsey, and advising companies across diverse industries. And there was a point when I realised I want to move from advising
[00:02:24] to actually building and executing, and that's what brought me here. And what really drew me to Meta was the mission of connecting with people and helping businesses grow. And right now, there are really three things in mind. First, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, my region, which is an extraordinary one with enormous economic potential. And I do believe that we are the pivotal moment for what, you know,
[00:02:52] digital tools can unlock for the businesses here. My second hat in the company is being a bridge between the businesses that we serve and shaping and designing our product roadmap together with our product teams, both on the ad side and also business messaging and agentic AI tools. So that's also a big priority to make sure that businesses are getting more value from our solutions.
[00:03:16] And lastly, especially over the last year or so, it's a big priority is how do we transition to an AI native organisation. And it means not just adopting tools, but how do we change fundamentally the way we work and how we serve our clients and how we grow. So that's all about me. Love it. And I would imagine working at Meta and having access to so many cutting-edge technologies would feel incredibly cool. We've been doing that for a decade now.
[00:03:46] But I would also imagine what makes it even more exciting is working across such a diverse region. And I'm curious, from what you're seeing here and the conversations you're having, how is the pace of technology changing and reshaping how businesses think about growth and customer connection and everything in between? It feels like everything's moving so fast right now. But what are you taking away from the conversations you're having right now? You are absolutely right.
[00:04:15] And I'm having lots of conversations with businesses of all sizes, from the smallest startups and founders to largest multinational traditional companies day in, day out. And there are a few things that's really top of mind for pretty much everyone. First one is about the disruption. And I want to be clear, when I say disruption, it's at the broadest sense.
[00:04:40] It's not only the pace of technological change, but it's a combination of pressures that businesses are navigating simultaneously. So it's things like macroeconomic uncertainty, political uncertainty, shifting customer, consumer behaviors, rising costs, of course, putting a pressure on the margins. And on top of all of that, cherry on top of the cake is a rival of AI transforming the entire categories almost overnight.
[00:05:08] So businesses need to think fundamentally rethink their models. And not because one thing has changed, it's everything is changing at the same time. And it's genuinely hard. And I think it could be a real opportunity as well. Like everything that is complex and hard can be sold through technology.
[00:05:30] And I think this environment is really going to benefit the businesses that are actually agile and more in a culture to embrace this change and trial and error and optimize. And that's the second thing that I'm hearing from these businesses. It's the culture change, not the technological change that is creating real tension, particularly between the CFOs, CEOs and the CMOs.
[00:05:56] Because today, CFOs want to drive business outcomes. They want to see incrementality and causality in their marketing decisions. And doing all of that at once is very hard. So we need to leverage AI. Businesses need to leverage the latest technology to do that. But then there is a debate around how much to trust AI-driven tools and how much control is needed.
[00:06:20] And that requires a real cultural shift, not just a technical one. How do we step into testing, learning, and optimized mindset? And our AI tools show that businesses who do this see, on average, 25% improvement in their return on ad spend. Maybe lastly, I also want to touch about the foundations.
[00:06:45] That's also, I see executives, businesses, practitioners that are realizing how important is to get the basics right and have strong foundations. Because we always talk about technology and innovation, and everybody is after this big idea and wanting to do it first. But then we need to have strong foundations because AI makes everything more powerful, but it also amplifies the mistakes.
[00:07:09] So businesses that invest in those strong foundations, for example, setting the North Star goals right, having the right set of signals and information, having the good creatives, sound measurement and attribution systems. Those are the businesses that are getting things right because they're leveraging the technology to create most value for them. Wow, you made so many great points there.
[00:07:32] And I, for one, have seen so many businesses throughout my career, and particularly the last couple of years, that they invest so heavily on AI or any technology, any new shiny tech solution. But, of course, having the right foundations in place, having the right culture that will accept and adopt these new solutions is paramount, isn't it? But it's so often neglected. Absolutely. And so one of the foundations is, I think, having a clear North Star.
[00:08:00] Our CMO, Alex, Alex Schultz, wrote a book, Click Here, and we published it last year. And he talks about the concept of having a clear North Star goal. And he says that the biggest enemy of your North Star goal is your second goal. Because if you're trying to do too many things at once, that you're not going to, there's less likelihood of you reaching your North Star goal. And how do you measure for that? Right.
[00:08:26] So I think those are, I mean, technologies come and go, they change, but those foundations never, never change. So I think when businesses picking their battles and what they want to optimize for and how they want to measure and having clear discipline about the foundations are definitely going to be the ones that are going to be leveraging the most out of these technologies.
[00:08:47] I think if we all scroll down our news feeds on LinkedIn or wherever we consume our professional content, I think we often hear conversations and talk about AI and innovation in somewhat abstract terms. But entire industries, the reality is they're being reshaped in real time. And it can feel incredibly overwhelming for businesses trying to make sense of everything.
[00:09:09] So where are you seeing the most tangible shifts in how people live, work and connect because of the new digital platforms that are coming along now? What are you seeing? I can talk about my personal experience. And I think about this in two buckets. I'm a working mom. I'm trying to juggle a lot of things. I have three teams at home and I usually have a day shift in the office. And then I go back home and I have the mom shifts.
[00:09:36] And then after everything is over around 11 p.m., I start my, okay, so now let me work and get things done. So it's a lot, right? So what I've done is, actually, even before going into what I've done, how I'm thinking about this is personally, what am I trying to do? What is my North Star goal? It's freeing up time so that I can spend on the things that really matter, spending time with my kids, with my family and the things that give me energy.
[00:10:05] So that's my personal goal. My professional goal is how do I allow myself to focus on high quality work? How do I create more value with my unit time? So what I've done is on the personal side, I built a personal agent. Actually, it's a family agent. His name is Sebastian. I don't know. Don't ask me why one of my kids wanted to name him Sebastian. So it's a family assistant. We can engage with him on WhatsApp.
[00:10:33] And it can pull things like homeworks for each of the kids and their athletic schedules. And if they need something, if they need a shirt, I know which brands I usually shop from. So it brings me options. And I can tell Sebastian to tell my kids if it's okay. And then I can just go and buy it. Instead of just navigating through 100 websites, I have one point of contact that can organize most of the work that I do manually.
[00:11:02] And that's some of the ways that I'm trying to minimize the work that I have to do logistically so that we can actually have a family moment. So just go see a movie or plan a weekend together. But it's usually family calendars are so busy. We don't even like finding the right time takes a lot of effort. So I'm trying to think of creative and smarter ways of organizing all of the logistics so we can really enjoy life together.
[00:11:30] On the professional side, I'm trying to push myself in two ways. One is creating some level of mindfulness on I won't do anything without AI. So I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone and challenging myself not to do things in the old ways. And after a few repetitions, it gets much faster. Initially, it's slower.
[00:11:56] And the second way that I'm pushing myself to learn deeper the capabilities of different tools and technologies is pick a complex problem and just try to solve it end to end. Yes, sometimes working with engineers and really trying to understand how everything works and sometimes even vulnerable enough to ask the questions. Like, I don't know, teach me that. So in the beginning, I found it challenging.
[00:12:19] But now I feel quite proficient and native in the way that I engage and I think about business problems. So I think this is just like one person's example, but it's really, I think eventually it's reaching to a position that are these tools and AI agents. They know our higher order goals and objectives. Having access to our resources and remembers the history of conversations and debates, decisions, etc.
[00:12:48] It's like having a brilliant colleague who's always available, never judges you for asking a stupid question. And really, you know, bringing that personal super intelligence. And I believe it's super exciting, particularly to think about the future and which form factors this technology is going to be embodied in. Glasses come across as the most natural way to experience this.
[00:13:13] So because glasses, you know, lets you stay in the present and you can, you know, talk with your friend and also get things done at the same time. And this morning, actually, I was giving a keynote speech for International Women's Month. And, you know, having gone to bed at 2 a.m. last night, I couldn't prepare as much as I wanted because I had the kids with assessments, etc. And in the taxi, I uploaded my talking points to my meta display glasses.
[00:13:42] And I stepped on stage and literally my prompter was in my display glasses. And then I shared with the crowd that, you know, this is what I did. But it's just like gave me so much comfort. I think I already knew what I was going to say, but just having them already in my teleprompter really helped me, helped increase my confidence. So I think these are going to be the ways that how we are going to be engaging more naturally with these devices in the future. Oh, wow. That is incredibly cool.
[00:14:12] As someone that does some moderating and things on stage, that sounds next level. And I'd love to ask you something about going into mom mode there because you're someone that works with some of the most creative and smartest people in the world at Meta and with business leaders all around the world about AI and how they use it, etc. But as a parent, when you go home and you enter mom mode, do you see how your kids and how their friends are using technology?
[00:14:40] Does that give you any different ideas of how the next generation are using it and maybe think completely different to what you see in the workplace? Yeah, I think this generation. So I have teens. I have three teens. And it's really fascinating to see how they are engaging with technology. And I think education policies are going to be very important on how we embed the capabilities of these tools in education.
[00:15:06] But, for example, our kids' school allows them to use AI. And when they give homeworks, they give answers together with the homeworks. And so you can have the answers and do your homework if you want. You can cheat. But then in the exam, you're going to be on your own. So they are encouraging the kids to use AI to learn and to question and debate, but not to cheat. And I think that it's really interesting to see how they are native to this.
[00:15:36] And sometimes I'm telling my kids like, oh, like, why don't we, you know, come up with such and such idea and maybe we can do this. And then their response is like, mom, but there's an easier way to do it. So it's just like our brains being wired potentially 40 years ago and we're trying to adapt to the AI native word. And they are just born into this, right?
[00:15:57] And I think they are going to experience the capabilities of this technology in much smarter ways that we will never experience. So I think they will be empowered to work on more complex things and create more value for their unit time. And in the future, when they join the workforce and hopefully, yeah, make the world a better place. Love it.
[00:16:23] And elsewhere, if we look at advertising, businesses are operating under growing regulatory pressure while also being asked to adopt AI driven tools. So how are you seeing these forces changing what innovation looks like in practice around this area? Anything you're seeing here? Neil, this is a topic I feel so passionate about because we all love Europe. We all want to live in Europe.
[00:16:49] And it's a pivotal point right now on how Europe in general strikes the balance between innovation and regulation. Because if we do the right thing, this could be our moment to do a leapfrog jump to unlocking the potential of this beautiful continent. So let me start with the opportunity first, because I think sometimes it gets lost in the regulatory conversation. Europe is an extraordinary market.
[00:17:15] And the businesses I work with here from founders to, you know, multinationals are sitting on a genuine growth opportunity. And I honestly believe that AI can turbocharge that opportunity in ways that we are just beginning to understand. For example, our meta AI, you know, business assistant, we integrated in the ads manager, giving businesses, you know, lots of capabilities to do personalized, more relevant, real-time recommendations. And we see the impact.
[00:17:44] I mentioned it before, it's 25% improvement in every dollar they spend. So that's great. But then, this is also where I want to be honest, the regulatory environment in Europe is so fragmented and complicated. And the whole promise of EU was giving a single access to 450 million people, 27 member states.
[00:18:09] But where we ended up is having 270 different digital regulators over more than 100 tech-focused laws for any business who want to navigate within Europe. And large companies, big multinationals, big tech can navigate that because they have the resources. But if you're a smaller business today, you want to expand to Europe, you need to. This is the environment you need to navigate, right?
[00:18:35] So I think it's, and also, honestly, talking to founders, Unicorn, Decacorn founders, I work very close with this community. Significant majority, I'm going to say more than 90% of the founders, whenever it is time to IPO their businesses, they go to the U.S. Because it's so complicated. Everything from competition, from, you know, digital markets, financial markets, like everywhere you look at, left, right, and center, they need to navigate regulations.
[00:19:04] And I'm just thinking, what is a better balance and better approach to capture the opportunity while, again, protecting the customers and the competition, all of that? I think we should look at the world around us, to Asia, to U.S., and really find the best balance in order to not fall behind.
[00:19:27] And looking a little bit closer at Meta's platforms across Europe, they've been linked to hundreds of billions of euros in economic activity right across the EU. So from that side of things, a huge figure. What's that figure tell us about the role that digital advertising is playing in the wider European economy? We run this research in 2024, and just to understand what kind of economic activity our platforms are driving.
[00:19:55] And it's 213 billion in economic activity that is linked to 1.4 million jobs. And sometimes when you hear numbers like this, it just feels, yeah, it's just a narrative and just a study, etc. But then if you're stepping in and out of these conversations, it's so real because there are real people behind these numbers. I remember being in a roundtable with some small businesses in Qatar.
[00:20:25] This was right after COVID, I think a year after COVID. And one of the ladies, a small business female founder, she cried in the meeting to say, if it wasn't for WhatsApp, I couldn't provide for my family during the pandemic. And you hear stories like this. I mean, I still put goosebumps. Just brings me back to that moment. Or when, you know, one of our platforms gets shut down. I mean, just the amount of like creators, small business reaching out to me personally.
[00:20:53] I just realized how critical these platforms are for their livelihood. Because in the past, you could, you know, advertise in a big newspaper or, you know, a TV channel, but small business can't do that, right? So you have very limited resources and you need to think about what is the best use of my limited resources to reach to the customers that are actually more likely to buy my products. So you are looking for relevancy and personalization. That's the value for the small businesses more than for the larger ones.
[00:21:24] And smaller businesses often lack access to advanced tools and large-scale computing power. But AI just seem to level the playing field somewhat. So how do you think, or how does Meta think about leveling that playing field so companies of all sizes can compete and grow? Because it feels like a real opportunity here. Absolutely.
[00:21:44] And this is something that Saviynt feels really strongly about because big businesses have the resources, legal teams, compliance departments, technical infrastructure to absorb all the complexity. And small businesses don't. And the asymmetry is getting worse, right? So both in the regulatory environment, but also in the technology landscape. And we are trying to do that, leveling the playing field at Meta by different solutions.
[00:22:10] For example, I mentioned the Advantage Plus suite that automates things like campaign management and targeting, budgeting, all the creative development. And so that a business, you know, maybe a made-of-three-people business can sell their products overseas. I met a lady who is in my home country in Turkey, who's building like fashion items in a village and creating jobs for the people, like the women in the village.
[00:22:39] And they are selling it in the most high-end department stores in London and in New York. And all those handmade leather, luxury leather goods items are being sold. And if it wasn't for Instagram, they couldn't do that. Like, how were they going to sell their products and, you know, open stores, etc. So stories like that are really moving. And I do believe that technology has a big role to play.
[00:23:06] And more so now with the agentic capabilities, you know, things like Meta AI Business Assistant. And we acquired a company recently called Manus, which is an autonomous AI agent that really goes beyond that just answering questions and actually executing very complex, like multi-step tasks without continuous human supervision. So think about it. Like you can have marketing teams or, you know, sales operation teams, finance teams, all in an agent.
[00:23:35] So I think that's going to open even more opportunities. And I'm sure we will see a single person, billion-dollar companies, like thanks to the capabilities of these tools to unlock more value and level the playing field even further. I completely agree with you. And we talked about regulation a few moments ago. And there's a misconception that it's often framed as just a complete break on innovation.
[00:24:00] But from your experience, how can advertising platforms continue to generate that growth while also operating with tighter regulatory frameworks? Because, yes, it is a balance, but it's still more than possible, right? Yes. I want to be honest about this. We can't afford to fall behind.
[00:24:18] And in the last 18 months, Apple, Meta, OpenAI, Google have all had to delay their AI product launches in the EU or launched with quite reduced functionality because of the regulatory uncertainty. And that's not good for businesses. And it's not good for European consumers either. I mean, when I'm wearing my, I was wearing my glasses, my eye glasses, everybody was asking, oh, when is it going to be available in the EU?
[00:24:47] In the past, it was, you know, one of the first markets that we were able to bring our products. Now, we also always have to think twice about rolling out these products. And I think that's, it's really important that we are not falling behind and always, you know, as I mentioned, they're trying to find a balance between innovation and regulation.
[00:25:09] And as AI inevitably becomes more deeply embedded in advertising, how do you think businesses or business leaders listening should be rethinking creativity, how they measure it and the performance in this new environment? Because we hear a lot of stories around ROI, but it's very often because the correct measurements have not been put in place. But any advice that you would offer there for people listening? Yeah, this is one of my favorite topics. Creativity, right? Creativity is definitely being redefined.
[00:25:38] And I'm an engineer by education. And so I've always been a bit more puzzled with creative space than other technicals. And I found it so fascinating to see that creative diversification was one of the biggest things driving performance, right? So it's this AI-powered tools enable businesses to generate, test, optimize lots of creative assets at scale.
[00:26:08] So that those creative assets can talk to people, to more people in a more relevant way and hence drive more business results. So it's also freeing up teams' time to focus on big ideas and storytelling while the automation is handling the heavy lifting. So it means that it's also iterating faster and personalizing content. That means that, you know, marketeers can play with more concepts.
[00:26:35] So I think it's that creative maybe can be automated, but creativity cannot be. And that's always going to be one of the differentiators of human beings. And it's fascinating to see how technology plays an important role to make creativity even more important in this environment. And you also mentioned measurement, which I think is where I think a real discipline should come in.
[00:27:03] And honestly, even in Europe, in the UK, a lot of businesses are still getting it wrong. Because it's hard, it's not an easy thing. First of all, it requires alignment within the company executive leadership on what are the North Star goals that we are going to optimize for and create that internal alignment. And then it's about building the foundations as we talked about.
[00:27:29] But then I see many businesses experiencing with AI solutions, but then not measuring them properly. They are running tests without a clear hypothesis or optimizing without knowing what they are optimizing for or whether the company leadership is aligned. So I think it's really important to build intentional learning agendas. So when I say learning agenda, what I mean is here are the X many things that we are going to test over the next three months.
[00:27:59] And then we will test if it actually works, we will do more. If it doesn't, we will kill it and then test something else. So it's a clear and well-framed, structured learning agenda that helps the company learn in a systematic way. And then through that learning process, they're optimizing their marketing strategies and business strategies. So that's a real muscle. And that requires a cultural shift that I mentioned rather than a technical capability shift.
[00:28:28] And if we look ahead, how do you see Meta's role in supporting the right growth, the right to growth for Europe's digital economy as technology regulation and market expectations all continue to evolve? There's so much going on here. It's still unclear on how it's going to evolve. But what role do you see Meta playing here? Well, what I keep coming back is the scale of transformation that is already underway. Yeah.
[00:28:57] And how much more is possible, right? So across industries that I work in, EMEA, retail, financial services, like agencies, app, tech businesses, manufacturing. AI is not a future story. It's already present. And businesses have leaned into these tools, competing differently, growing faster already so many years ago.
[00:29:20] And Meta's role in that is to keep investing in the infrastructure, in the solutions, in the partnership that really help businesses get genuine value from what we build. So we are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the AI infrastructure globally, which is a significant part of that commitment is in this region. So the opportunity I want to be direct about is what really comes next, which is going to be embedded AI.
[00:29:49] The AI that is woven into the physical world, which is the things you wear, the spaces that you move through. So the next phase of this transformation. And I believe it's the potential to reshape industries over the coming decades in the same way that smartphones did for us a couple of decades ago. And Europe is going to play a critical role in that.
[00:30:11] Our partnership with Essilor Luxottica in our AI glasses that started in 2019 and has produced what I generally believe is one of the most exciting AI products in the world today, our MetaRay Band smart glasses. It's like, you know, what I was using this morning with the displays and what's coming later with the holograms.
[00:30:32] And I think variables could really be key to Italy and Europe to what something was to South Korea and a genuine AI power build on European strengths, fashion, European ambition behind it. And the opportunity is real. Wow. Exciting times ahead. And before I let you go, I always ask my guests or give my guests an opportunity to lay to rest any myths or misconceptions that they may be reading when they're scrolling through.
[00:31:01] Will it be LinkedIn or anywhere where they're seeing things that might be misleading or even untrue or just general myths in the industry from their area of expertise. So I'm going to pull out a virtual soapbox. The floor is yours. Anything that people misunderstand most about your industry or area of expertise we can lay to rest today. What would you say? Yeah, I think I alluded to it a little bit on the creativity side. Yeah.
[00:31:30] The myth that I hear most often and I want to push back on is AI is replacing creativity, especially when it comes to marketing agencies. And I understand where the fear comes from. But what I actually see is when I talk to marketeers and agents, the leaders I work within the region, it's exactly the opposite.
[00:31:51] The teams that are using AI well are not producing less creative work because they're spending less time on the things that were never really creative things in the first place. I mean, all the production, resizing, reporting, you know, all the optimization loops. They actually have more time for creative and strategic tasks. Right. So this is what I find so exciting about this moment.
[00:32:15] And we are not automating creativity, maybe creative like the asset, but not the creativity. We're freeing it up. And for millions of small businesses that we talked about that rely on our platforms and other digital platforms, and the ones that who don't have the resources to work with an agency, who are running their marketing between everything else they do in a day, AI is doing something different but equally important.
[00:32:43] And it's giving them the access to the tools and capabilities that used to be reserved for big organizations in the past. So I believe advertisers, including our marketing teams at Meta as well, by the way, we're a tech company and we work with agencies, right? So we rely on their capabilities and their decision making and intuition because they see the industry.
[00:33:07] If we wanted to do everything in-house at Meta, we would only be relying on our experience, but the agencies see other tech companies, how they are also thinking about their marketing. So even for a tech company, there's a huge value in working with the agency ecosystem. So I think in general, the only constant, if you think about the last several decades, the only constant in marketing has always been the change.
[00:33:32] And the marketeers that I know, and agencies, brands, you know, small and big businesses, they're brilliant at adapting. And what I want people to take away from this conversation is not that AI is something to fear or even something to manage, it's something to lean into because the opportunity is real. And I think that is a powerful moment to end on.
[00:33:54] And finally, for anyone listening wanting to dig a little bit deeper on anything we've talked about today, follow you, your team, ask any questions or just keep up to speed with announcements. Where would you like me to point everyone listening? Well, for business solutions, I would say visiting Meta for Business. That's our official online hub where you'll find all the latest updates, resources, trainings, all the insights about our products and services.
[00:34:19] And you can find me on Instagram and LinkedIn, where I'm often sharing updates on how we help other EMEA businesses to grow as well. Well, thank you so much for sitting down with me today, talking about the acceleration that you're seeing in technology and innovation, how advertising businesses are innovating in the face of regulation and also sharing that broader vision to support the right to growth of the digital economy in Europe. And I'm also going to have to check out those glasses that you mentioned too.
[00:34:47] But more than anything, thank you for joining me today. Thank you, Neil. I think there was so much to take away from this conversation. But the thing that stayed with me most was the reminder that AI on its own, that's not the answer. The real opportunities come when businesses know what they're trying to achieve, building the right foundations underneath it, and then using these tools to make people more effective, more creative and more focused on the work that actually moves the needle.
[00:35:16] The first goal, not getting distracted by the second goal. And I think this applies whether you are running a global brand, a startup or simply trying to get through a busy week with a little more clarity and a little less chaos. And I loved her comment today that AI is not replacing creativity. It's freeing people from the repetitive tasks around it so they can focus on ideas, storytelling and better decision making.
[00:35:42] All this feels like such an important distinction, especially at a time when so many conversations around AI are seemingly framed in fear. So if this episode got you thinking about digital platforms, AI and better measurement, how they can reshape your growth, or maybe you've had an epiphany today that you keep getting distracted by goal two and not goal one. I'd love to hear from you.
[00:36:07] If you want to hear more from my guest, head over to Meta for Business and you can also follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram. I will add links to all those things. But I'd love to hear your thoughts. Are you in your business doing enough to build the cultural foundations for AI? Or are you still treating it as a tool problem rather than a leadership one? Let me know your thoughts. Lots of you to take away and think about that. I'm certainly going to be thinking about a lot, including looking up those Meta glasses and how they can help me on stage.
[00:36:38] But thank you so much for listening today. I'll be back again tomorrow with another guest. You're all cordially invited. So I will speak with you all then. Bye for now. Bye. Bye.