Meta's AI ad tools now speak Arabic: what Gulf brands should check

Meta has been building generative AI into its ad tools for two years, and in 2026 it sped up. On its July earnings call, Meta said more than 9 million small businesses had used at least one of its AI creative tools in the second quarter, and that use of image generation had more than doubled in the quarter. For brands in the Gulf, though, the news that matters most came at Cannes in June: Arabic is now one of the languages Meta's AI can translate a video ad's voiceover into.

Arabic voiceover, and its limits

Video voiceover translation takes the spoken audio of a video ad and produces versions in other languages. At Cannes 2026 Meta added Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic, German, French, Chinese, Italian, Indonesian, Polish, Dutch and Turkish. It also extended translation of the text that appears on images and video to Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Indonesian.

If your creative is in English and part of your audience speaks Arabic, this is an easy way to test an idea in a second language without a second shoot. It is not a replacement for creative made in Arabic. A translated voiceover carries the words, but not necessarily the tone, the dialect or the cultural references that make an ad feel local, and a Gulf audience will notice what is missing. Use it to learn which ideas have earned a proper Arabic production, and have a native speaker check every translated version before it runs.

Organic content is heading the same way. Meta's creator tools already translate Reels with optional lip sync, marked Translated with Meta AI, and in June 2026 Meta said Facebook would add Arabic to those translations.

Brand memory, still in testing

The boldest announcement at Cannes 2026 was an end-to-end creative tool that turns performance data into creative decisions while keeping a brand's identity and tone intact. Part of it is brand memory, which learns a brand's look and voice from its existing ads. Meta said brand memory was in testing, with a wider rollout planned over the coming months, alongside an approval workflow inside the tool and an integration with WPP's platform. Text generation now also covers the words inside image creative.

What Advantage+ creative does today

• New backgrounds for product images in catalogue ads.
• Expanding an image or video to fit other placements, and animating still images.
• Turning several images into a multi-scene video with text and music.
• Generating music, creating images in the style of different audiences, and testing virtual try-on for some products.
• Applying a brand's logo, colours and fonts to generated creative.
• Creating images from a video, a feature Meta highlighted in July 2026. Meta has also said its new Muse image model is coming to Advantage+ creative.

Review before anything runs

Meta's own guidance is to review and approve every preview before an ad is published, and it points out that the previews do not show every version the system might produce. Generated versions can be switched off. Treat that guidance as the floor, not the ceiling. A generated background that puts a product in the wrong setting, or a translated line saying something your brand would never say, becomes your problem the moment it runs.

• Agree, whether in-house or with your agency, which AI features are allowed for your brand, and write it down.
• Switch off any feature that has not been approved, rather than counting on reviewing every variation.
• Have someone who speaks the language check translated versions, Arabic above all.
• Check product claims, prices and legal wording in anything generated, since AI can change them.
• Preview each version in every Meta placement before it goes live, generated or not.

How AI ads are labelled

Meta labels ads created or significantly edited with its AI tools. The AI info label usually sits in the About this ad menu; if the ad shows a photorealistic person generated by AI, the label appears next to the ad label itself. Minor edits such as resizing or colour correction are not labelled. Since June 2026 Meta has also been detecting ads made with other companies' AI tools, through the industry metadata those tools add. Ads about social issues, elections or politics must disclose AI use themselves.

A note on Business Agent

Alongside the creative tools, Meta's Business Agent answers customers on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, recommending products, booking appointments and passing the conversation to staff when needed. Meta says more than a million businesses use it. At Cannes, the retailer Trendyol said it had handled more than 15,000 AI-powered shopping conversations in its first week live in Saudi Arabia. If your ads send people into a chat, it deserves a test, with clear rules about what it may promise.

At ALXO we work on both sides of this question, from AI content generation and chatbots to brand identity and video production. If you are deciding how far to let AI into your advertising, and where a human should stay in charge, we would welcome the conversation.