Hands on with X’s new AI-powered custom feeds

X is overhauling how users experience its platform, replacing its Communities feature with AI-curated custom feeds powered by Grok. The shift represents a significant structural change to how content is organized and surfaced on the platform, and it comes bundled with new advertising inventory.

The Details

X's new AI-powered timeline feeds let users build personalized content streams based on topics and interests, with Grok handling the curation logic behind the scenes. Rather than joining a Community around a subject, users now subscribe to dynamically generated feeds that surface relevant posts across the entire platform.

Key points from the hands-on review:

• Communities are being phased out in favor of these Grok-curated topic feeds
• The feeds are algorithmically assembled and updated in real time, rather than relying on user-moderated groups
• New ad placements are embedded directly into these custom feeds, giving advertisers a more targeted placement opportunity
• Feed customization is available to all users, though depth of control may vary by account tier

The move doubles down on X's strategy of using Grok as a central product layer across the platform, rather than positioning it purely as a standalone chatbot.

Why This Matters for Service Providers

At first glance, a social media feature update seems far removed from the MSP world. But the pattern here is worth noting: X is replacing a human-moderated, community-driven structure with an AI curation layer, and it is doing so specifically because it enables better monetization through more precise ad targeting.

This mirrors a broader shift happening across technology platforms where AI is not just added as a feature but used to restructure how the core product works. For MSPs and telecom resellers evaluating how to position AI tools to clients, this is a real-world case study in how AI creates new revenue channels rather than simply cutting costs.

The practical takeaway: AI does not just automate existing workflows. When deployed at the platform level, it unlocks entirely new service or monetization layers. The same logic applies when you consider how MSPs can add AI voice agents to their service stack, where the value is not just efficiency but a new billable service category.

Your clients are watching how major platforms use AI. It shapes their expectations for what AI should do for their own businesses.

Looking Ahead

Watch whether X's ad performance data on these Grok-curated feeds justifies the Community deprecation, since the results will signal how much enterprise confidence the broader market places in AI-driven audience targeting. If the model proves out, expect other platforms to accelerate similar replacements of human-moderated structures with AI layers.

For the full story, read the original article on TechCrunch AI.