Snap Inc. has placed a massive bet on artificial intelligence. Its co-founder and chief executive, Evan Spiegel, calls the technology probably the best thing that’s ever happened to the company. He says AI now writes two-thirds of its code. The numbers tell a story of speed and efficiency that smaller teams can achieve.
Yet Spiegel doesn’t stop at praise. In recent interviews he cautions fellow tech leaders. They underestimate the societal pushback ahead. People won’t blindly adopt every new tool. And that resistance could reshape how companies roll out AI features.
Snap’s AI Transformation Delivers Real Results
The shift shows up in operations. In April 2026 Snap cut about 1,000 jobs, or 16% of its full-time workforce, and closed more than 300 open roles. Spiegel told employees the moves would slash annualized costs by more than $500 million by the second half of the year. He pointed directly to rapid AI advances that reduce repetitive work and increase velocity.
“While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers,” Spiegel wrote in a memo reported by Variety.
The efficiency gains extend further. Forty percent of all new code at Snap comes from AI generation, according to updates shared across executive appearances. AI agents now operate across the enterprise. My AI, the company’s chatbot, handles millions of conversations daily. Users create and edit images and videos through generative Lenses at astonishing scale. Lenses fire more than 8 billion times per day, per an internal memo covered by Snap’s own newsroom.
But. This isn’t just internal tooling. Snap rolled out AI Sponsored Snaps in May 2026. The advertising product lets users chat with brand-powered AI bots inside the app. Early tests suggest higher engagement than traditional formats. Advertisers gain new ways to connect without forcing scripted content. Spiegel sees the entire ad business evolving because of these capabilities.
Competition presses hard. Meta, Google and ByteDance pour billions into similar features. Spiegel acknowledges a hard truth. “There’s no moat in software,” he said in one discussion highlighted by Yahoo Finance. Anyone can copy models. Success depends on distribution, user habits and constant iteration. Snap’s 850 million monthly users give it scale. Yet retention and monetization remain challenges.
And the product bets go beyond chat. Spiegel has doubled down on Spectacles, the AR smart glasses. He envisions a post-smartphone world where AI and augmented reality merge in wearable form. Appearances at events like Augmented World Expo and multiple podcasts in 2025 and 2026 hammer this message. Early adopters will become evangelists, he predicts. The company calls 2026 a crucible moment. Everything accelerates.
Recent partnerships add firepower. Snap struck a $400 million deal with Perplexity AI to power search inside its chat interface starting in 2026. Perplexity pays in cash and equity. The arrangement brings advanced answer-engine technology to Snapchat users while creating a new revenue stream for Snap. Bloomberg reported the shares jumped on the news.
Generative tools keep expanding. Snap released AI Video Lenses powered by its own in-house model in March 2025. Text-to-image Lenses followed. Sponsored versions for brands arrived soon after. Each release builds on the last. The company now ranks among the world’s largest providers of AI-based video and image generation on mobile, according to its internal assessments.
Spiegel’s tone mixes confidence with caution. On “Lenny’s Podcast” in late April 2026 he delivered a blunt assessment. “I think technology leaders think that folks will just blindly adopt new technology as it comes out. And I think we’re going to enter a period of time where there’s going to be a huge amount of societal pushback on a lot of the changes that are coming with AI.” The Fortune article captured the full context. Executives risk alienating users if they ignore privacy fears, job displacement worries and general fatigue with constant change.
So far user response to My AI remains mostly positive. Teens and young adults chat with it for homework help, entertainment and advice. Yet schools and regulators watch closely. Reports of AI-generated misinformation or inappropriate responses surface occasionally. Snap adds safeguards. The question is whether those steps satisfy a skeptical public.
Financial markets have taken notice. Snap’s stock reacted positively to the Perplexity deal and efficiency announcements. Analysts see potential for ad revenue growth as AI improves targeting and creative production. Still, the company must prove it can reach the ambitious targets Spiegel outlined internally. He spoke of $6 billion in revenue and 1 billion users by the end of 2026. Those goals require flawless execution.
Former Snap executives have spun out their own AI ventures. One startup founded by the ex-head of generative AI at Snap reached a $1.3 billion valuation earlier this year, TechCrunch reported. Talent flows both ways. The broader industry benefits even as Snap fights to keep its edge.
Spiegel’s message to his own team and the wider tech community carries weight. AI delivers genuine productivity lifts. It reshapes how small groups accomplish what once required armies of engineers. Yet the technology arrives amid broader questions about trust, employment and human connection. Companies that ignore those questions court trouble.
Snap continues to ship new AI experiences. It integrates them into core products rather than bolting them on. The bet looks smart on paper. Real-world adoption will decide whether Spiegel’s optimism proves correct or whether the societal pushback he predicts slows everything down. For now the code keeps flowing. Two-thirds of it, at least, comes courtesy of machines.
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