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

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 - From our sponsors: 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 - #cryptocurrency #digitalfinance #finance #bitcoin #crypto Subscribe to CoinDesk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CoinDesk?sub_confirmation=1 CoinDesk is the leading digital media, events and information services company for the crypto asset and blockchain technology community. Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/coindesk LinkedIn: https://www.din.com/company/coindesk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coindesk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoinDesk Newsletters: https://www.coindesk.com/newsletters CoinDesk Podcast Network: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jyIhkvAQhed8AWDZiPpSP Public Keys: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rqYzRV10nfKfoTpFXZhTE Markets Daily Crypto Roundup: https://open.spotify.com/show/7sDXM8BlxsUqzL2IqmLqwE The Policy Protocol: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Fh8ffulAWcCqMu0uVuwoj