In its latest move to supercharge AI innovation, Meta has acquired PlayAI, a rising startupknown for building hyper-realistic, human-like voice technology. Though the financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg confirms that the full PlayAI team will join Meta as early as next week.
The acquisition is more than just a talent grab-it’s a strategic play. The memo states that PlayAI’s expertise is directly aligned with Meta’s growing ambitions across several verticals, including AI-powered characters, Meta AI, wearable technology, and audio content creation. With the integration of PlayAI’s capabilities, Meta is clearly signaling its intent to double down on voice as a key interface of the future.
The PlayAI team will report to Johan Schalkwyk, who recently joined Meta from Sesame AI, another voice-focused startup. Schalkwyk’s background in voice tech and conversational AI positions him to lead what appears to be a major push into intelligent, natural-sounding digital assistants-likely to be embedded in Meta’s ecosystem of AR glasses, VR environments, and AI chatbots.
This isn’t Meta’s only high-profile AI move in recent weeks. The company recently picked up a 49% stake in Scale AI, a major player in data annotation and model training. As part of that deal, Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, joined Meta to lead its newly formed superintelligence team-a move that raised eyebrows across the AI world.
The fallout was immediate. OpenAI, previously a partner of Scale AI, announced it would officially wind down its work with the company. However, a spokesperson noted that the disengagement had been underway even before Meta’s involvement was made public.
As competition in the generative AI space intensifies, Meta appears to be quietly building one of the most formidable teams in the industry-piecing together talent, tools, and infrastructure to fuel everything from voice-enabled assistants to emotionally intelligent digital personas.
With PlayAI now in the mix, Meta isn’t just acquiring a startup-it’s adding a crucial voice to its evolving AI narrative.
