For years, WhatsApp has been the go-to platform for businesses of all sizes to communicate with customers. Meta is now infusing AI into that experience in a bid to transform WhatsApp into a more comprehensive workflow tool for small and medium-sized businesses. On Wednesday, WhatsApp announced that it is making its AI-powered customer support bot, now called the Meta Business Agent, available globally through WhatsApp.
The launch comes after Meta reportedly spent nearly two years testing AI agents within WhatsApp Business for customer support in markets such as India and Mexico. According to the company, the AI agent will be able to answer customer questions, recommend products, book appointments, qualify sales leads, and route queries to human representatives when needed. Meta is also making the bot available through Instagram DMs.
The Business Agent is being developed to provide daily summaries of customer conversations that took place overnight and deliver competitive insights to businesses. Meta also plans to add capabilities such as conducting market research, highlighting product features, managing calendars, and integrating with a broader range of business tools.
Meta said it is also working on features that would allow the agent to surface relevant businesses when users search for them or share contact details in chats. In addition, the company is building a platform that will enable larger enterprises to create custom AI agents capable of connecting with systems such as Shopify, Zendesk, and Shopee.
Meta plans to monetize the AI agent by including it in select tiers of its WhatsApp Business Premium subscription. Larger businesses will be charged based on token usage, according to the company. The move represents an important step in Meta's efforts to expand WhatsApp's business offerings and create new revenue opportunities beyond messaging services and click-to-WhatsApp advertising, which have become key contributors to the platform's commercial growth.
