At FICCI FRAMES 2026, Meta India head Arun Srinivas said Instagram’s AI-led recommendations are helping creator content travel beyond existing followers, while regional creators and AI tools reshape how audiences are built. 

Follower count is becoming less of a gatekeeper on Instagram as Meta leans more heavily on AI-led recommendations. Speaking with creator and entrepreneur Kusha Kapila at FICCI FRAMES 2026 in Mumbai on September 29, Arun Srinivas, Managing Director and Head of Meta India, said the platform now operates with both the traditional follower model and a discovery model that can push creator content to people who do not already follow the account. 

Srinivas said Meta is seeing creators with roughly 20,000 to 30,000 followers draw around 3 million views. His point was that a large follower base is no longer a prerequisite for reach if the content can hold attention and find the right audience. 

AI-led discovery is reducing the follower-count advantage

Kapila asked Srinivas how discovery on Instagram was changing as reach moved beyond the accounts people already follow. He did not offer an algorithm shortcut, instead telling creators to keep checking their analytics and insights as performance patterns change. Kapila pointed to Instagram’s breakdown of follower versus non-follower reach, skip ratio and like ratio as useful signals for understanding how a post is performing. 

That sits alongside Meta-commissioned Ipsos research published in June. The study, based on more than 4,000 respondents across 23 Indian cities and rural markets, found that at least 97% of surveyed users watched video on Meta platforms daily, while 89% of surveyed Gen Z users engaged with Reels every day. Meta also said Reels delivered nearly 60% higher creator engagement than other short-form video platforms covered in the study.

Tier 2 and Tier 3 creators are part of the growth story

Srinivas also pointed to the amount of content now coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 India. Kapila said creators outside the metros can stand out by drawing from their own lives rather than copying established formats, citing creators such as Life of Pooja and Renu Devnath during the discussion. The conversation also turned to micro-dramas, short episodic series designed for mobile viewing. Kapila said she was launching a 14-episode micro-drama on Instagram, while Srinivas described the format as part of a wider trend already visible in markets such as China, Korea and Japan.

AI agents could take on creator-business messages

Srinivas also described how AI agents could eventually help creators and creator-led businesses handle large volumes of direct messages. He gave the example of an agent scanning 50,000 to 100,000 DMs and separating content-related messages from customer or order queries, allowing it to act as a sales or support layer for a small business. The example was framed as a possible use of AI agents, not as an Instagram feature currently available to creators. For Instagram creators, the more immediate change is distribution: follower count still matters, but Meta’s recommendation system can now take a piece of content well beyond the audience that already follows the account.