WhatsApp Introduces AI Agent to Help Businesses Serve Customers 24/7

WhatsApp has introduced the Meta Business Agent, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based agent that can help business operators serve customers 24 hours a day through conversations on WhatsApp.

Meta Vice President for India and Southeast Asia Sandhya Devanathan said that users in Indonesia can use WhatsApp as a messaging application as well as a means to order food, plan trips, or communicate with various businesses.

“Meta Business Agent helps businesses in Indonesia be present in every one of those moments through AI-based conversations that are fast, personal, and available 24 hours a day, both for companies serving millions of customers and small and medium-sized business owners who manage their businesses directly from their mobile phones,” Sandhya said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

According to her, the use of WhatsApp to communicate with businesses is quite high in Indonesia, with around 71 percent of application users recorded as sending messages to businesses every day. In addition, she said, the majority of application users in Indonesia believe AI agents can help them obtain information or fulfil needs more quickly and efficiently.

Sandhya stated that the high use of messaging services to communicate with businesses shows that Indonesians are increasingly open to the use of AI in daily activities. Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) operators can activate the Meta Business Agent directly through the WhatsApp Business application to support their ventures.

Business operators can train the AI agent to answer customer questions, provide product recommendations based on catalogues, and help schedule appointments. The AI agent can also help business operators identify potential customers and support the sales process. When a customer needs further assistance, the conversation can be transferred to a member of the business team.

For large-scale companies, Meta provides the Business Agent Platform. This platform allows companies to create and customise AI agents based on business needs and connect them with systems already in use. The Business Agent Platform works together with the WhatsApp Business Platform to provide the ability to manage, measure, and operate AI agents on a larger scale according to company requirements.