Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp: set it up without losing the human handoff

By Jason Sibley

If you run a trade, a salon or a local shop and your enquiries come in on WhatsApp, you already know the problem. Someone messages at half nine at night asking if you do Saturday appointments, and by the time you reply the next morning they've booked with someone else. Meta has built an AI agent for exactly this gap.

What this is for, and who it's for

Meta Business Agent is Meta's AI agent that can represent your business in chats across Messenger, WhatsApp or ads. It answers questions, asks customers for the details you need, recommends products, and helps with sales and support conversations. It learns from what you already have: social posts, a product catalogue, your FAQs, your website.

This is aimed at businesses already using the WhatsApp Business app for enquiries. Think a plumber fielding "are you free this week" messages, a hair sal