Meta plans to broaden its AI image generation services for advertisements.

On Tuesday, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced that it is broadening its range of generative AI advertising products. The new tools will allow for the automatic creation of different image variations with text overlays.

The tool will be launched in test form without the watermarks the social media company applies to all images created by its user-facing Meta AI assistant, which it has touted as a key security feature, executives said at a press conference.

John Hegeman, chief monetization officer at Meta, said the company is still exploring how tagging would work in ads and will share guidelines by the time the tool is rolled out globally, likely at the end of this year.

The announcement comes as Meta pumps billions of dollars into building and supporting its creative AI models while trying to convince advertisers that they can get more bang for their buck by automating the work involved in the creative aspects of their campaigns.

Another digital ad giant, Google, announced a similar expansion of its AI advertising tools in February. Google said ads created with its tools are marked with SynthID watermarking technology developed by its AI research lab DeepMind.

Meta’s image creation tool allows advertisers to upload images of its products and create different versions of them, for example by adjusting the orientation of the products or showing people using them in different settings.

It also expands its text creation offerings to cover headlines and key selling points, while adding the ability to overlay text directly onto created images.

In the coming months, the company will add an option for advertisers to enter text prompts that can be used to customize image variations, it said.

As with previous creative AI tools, advertisers campaigning in regulated fields such as politics are barred from using the products.

Advertisers have rushed to adopt AI advertising tools that automate the placement of campaigns in front of different user groups, but have generally been more hesitant about new creative AI tools.

Some brands have been wary of how tech companies use images they upload to improve designs, wary that their logos or other intellectual property could end up in images created by others.

(Reporting by Katie Paul Editing by Nick Zieminski)