Snapchat founder and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel outlined the company’s priorities — including the next stage of Snap ads — in a staff letter marking its 15th anniversary. He took aim at “ruthless competitors who have ripped us off” and sought to separate Snapchat from the broader social media category and its harms. Citing studies showing positive associations between Snapchat use and friendship closeness, friend support and wellbeing, he wrote: “These studies do not prove causation, but you can be proud that unlike social media, the service we’ve built is associated with a measurably positive impact on the world.”
Spiegel acknowledged that Snapchat’s strength — friend connections — hasn’t always been easy to monetize. But multimodal AI models can now sequence user actions to recommend what someone might want to do or buy next.
“Today, digital advertising relies heavily on explicit intent signals, like searching for a product or visiting a website and adding something to your cart,” he wrote. “It is difficult for advertisers to generate incremental demand instead of competing to convert intent that already exists. I believe Snapchat can change that with generative advertising by starting with our community, understanding what matters to them, generating recommendations for what they might want next, and then finding the businesses that are the best match.”
In short, Snap wants AI to read inherent interest from interactions and match it to relevant products, rather than waiting for explicit signals.
Social Media Today noted there’s no definitive product clarity yet, but the letter signals where Snap’s ad business is heading.
Search and retargeting compete over intent that already exists. If Spiegel’s vision works, Snapchat becomes a place to connect brands before intent forms — relevant for upper-funnel budgets, with measurement designed around incrementality rather than last click.
Because Snapchat’s value lies in friend connections, ads must fit around conversations and plans. Snapchat Plans and the Commerce Power Pack’s product ads in Chat are part of that experiment.
Using AI to infer interest from user interactions, recommend what people might want next and match them with businesses — creating incremental demand instead of competing for existing intent.
Spiegel said creator ads played 25% longer and drove 16% more active attention than standard branding ads, with more than 300,000 creators eligible for brand work.
By making products easier to find and share and organically boosting product content. Specific products haven’t been announced.
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