WhatsApp Business AI Agents
Business AI. An opt-in conversational layer inside a WhatsApp business chat. When the merchant can't respond, AI from Meta handles the routine parts of the conversation on the business's behalf — and the customer chooses whether to engage with it.
Billions of conversations happen between people and small businesses on WhatsApp — confirming hours, asking about a product, sorting out shipping. Most of these questions are repetitive, but answering them quickly is what keeps customers coming back.
Most businesses on WhatsApp don't have a 24/7 support team. Customers send a question and wait — sometimes overnight, sometimes never get a reply. The real-time expectation of a messaging product clashed with the reality of the small team behind it.
When a customer asks a question, the agent surfaces a suggested reply right where the merchant types. Tap to expand, edit if needed, send when ready — the AI never speaks for the merchant without a human nod.
Earlier rounds buried the AI in a separate panel. We moved it into the composer itself — the same place merchants already look — so adoption requires no new mental model.
Anchoring the suggestion next to the incoming message — instead of in a floating tray — made the relationship between question and answer obvious, and brought the interaction closer to consumer AI patterns merchants already recognize.
For repeat questions, merchants can opt the agent into responding automatically — with a clear signal of what's happening and a one-tap off-switch. The goal is to reduce cognitive load while keeping the merchant in the driver's seat.
