Alex Schultz on Meta’s Future: “It Might Be The Next Tier of Business For Our Entire Company”

The future of Meta with Chief Data Officer Alex Schultz. Alex Schultz, Chief Data Officer at Meta, joins Sam for a wide-ranging conversation covering why Meta believes agentic commerce could become the majority of its business, why stablecoins are a foregone conclusion, and why human taste and creative conviction matter more in an AI world than ever before. - Timecodes: 0:00 - Cold open: Warren Buffett's "man, machine, and dog" quote 0:29 - Show intro & Alex Schultz background (CMO → Chief Data Officer at Meta) 8:52 - Using data to find non-average insights: Asia trends, shoppertainment, conversational commerce 11:33 - Staying ahead of the puck: Stories, Messenger, missing TikTok's rise 13:32 - Creators, shoppertainment, and human vs. AI balance 18:00 - Bad AI work is bad work: Alex's Claude/Antarctic cruise data project 20:16 - Taste and conviction matter more than ever; Buffett quote revisited 23:07 - Fear-mongering vs. job creation (radiologists, software engineers) 24:39 - Agentic commerce, Meta's Libra history, and business agents on WhatsApp 27:21 - Stablecoins as the future of digital payments 35:42 - Agentic economy's impact on marketing and the funnel 38:56 - The metaverse, AR glasses, and Meta Ray-Bans/Oakleys 44:25 - Closing remarks - This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠ realfi.co⁠. - Ledn provides a secure and transparent way to access liquidity while maintaining your bitcoin holdings. Perfect 8 year track record of keeping clients assets safe. Don't sell your bitcoin. Get a bitcoin-backed loan. Check out your rate by using their loan calculator at⁠ ⁠⁠ledn.io⁠ - JPEG Trading is a global proprietary trading firm specializing in cryptocurrency and decentralized finance markets. From market structure and liquidity provision to quantitative trading strategies, JPEG Trading operates across the full spectrum of blockchain-based assets. Follow @jpegtrading on X to stay ahead of the latest developments in digital asset markets:⁠ https://x.com/jpegtrading⁠ - "Spotlight" features host Sam Ewen.