Meta Business Agent launches globally to automate customer support across WhatsApp and Instagram

Meta's AI agent for WhatsApp Business is now available globally

For years, WhatsApp has been a communication layer for businesses of all sizes around the world. Meta is now infusing AI into that layer in a bid to turn WhatsApp into a viable piece of workflow software for small and medium businesses. The company on Wednesday said it is making its customer support AI bot, now known as Meta Business Agent, available globally within WhatsApp. The launch comes as Meta has spent nearly two years testing AI agents in WhatsApp Business for customer support in countries like India and Mexico. Meta said the AI agent can answer customer questions, recommend products, book appointments, qualify sales leads, and reroute queries to a person if needed. The company is also making the bot available within Instagram DMs. Meta said it is testing a way for the Business Agent to provide daily briefings of chats that occurred overnight, and provide insights. The company is testing this feature with select accounts on WhatsApp Business, Instagram Pro, Messenger and Meta Business Suite. The company said it's working to add capabilities like doing market research, highlighting product features, managing users' calendars, and connecting with tools to extract competitive insights. Meta said it's also working to enable the Agent to surface businesses when you search for one or share contact details in chat. And, it is building a platform to let larger enterprises create custom agents that can connect to systems like Shopify, Zendesk and Shopee. Meta is planing to charge businesses for using this AI agent by including it in some tiers of its WhatsApp Business Premium subscription. The company noted that large businesses will pay for the agent based on how many tokens they use. This is critical for WhatsApp, which has relied on businesses paying for messaging and click-to-WhatsApp ads.

Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta agents to "run your whole business" - Engadget

The company is bringing AI agents to businesses on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. During Meta's most recent earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg hinted that the company had big plans for AI agents. Now, we're seeing the first part of those plans come to fruition. At the company's Conversations event in London, Meta introduced AI agent tools for businesses that rely on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. Officially called the "Meta Business Agent," the new tool will allow business owners to delegate many of their everyday tasks, including interacting with customers and booking appointments. Meta says that the business agent will have the ability to "close sales" and recommend products, though human business owners are able to jump into interactions at any point. The company has already been testing the agents with small businesses in India, Mexico and Brazil and says that more than a million have already signed up. Now, the agents will be available to any business on WhatsApp, as well as Instagram and Messenger. While it's not the first time that Meta has allowed businesses to automate things like replies to customers, the company clearly has a more ambitious vision for the feature than just another customer-facing chatbot. The ultimate goal, according to Zuckerberg, is for the agents to "eventually help you run your whole business," though he notes this will also require the company's underlying AI models to advance. In the meantime, Meta is working on a set of advanced agentic capabilities that allow agents to get more involved with the behind-the-scenes aspects of running a company. This includes "conducting market research, surfacing product insights, connecting with the tools to manage your calendar and providing competitive intelligence." Those features aren't widely available yet, though there's a waitlist for interested parties. There's also another major caveat. As you might imagine, Meta isn't planning to just give away all of these new AI-powered capabilities forever. While the company says that "getting started" with its new business agent is free, it plans to move the feature behind one of its new subscription offerings "in the coming months."

Meta is trying to sell AI agents to businesses in latest effort to diversify away from ads

Meta's effort to push beyond ads and to make money from artificial intelligence is now targeting the red-hot market of AI agents. The company said Wednesday that a new Meta Business Agent feature can be used across apps like WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram to respond to customer inquiries, recommend products and book appointments. It will be included in a business-focused subscription tier for Meta One, which the company introduced last week as a way to package premium services for creators and companies. Meta also said at the time that it would begin testing subscription services for its Meta AI app and website. "Today, I want to introduce Meta Business Agent, giving every business, of any size, an agent to talk to customers and help run your operation," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in prepared remarks for a company event in London on Wednesday. "Now, a clothing shop in Birmingham or a bakery in São Paulo can offer the same always-on, highly-personalized experience as a major brand." Zuckerberg has run a thriving online ads company since Facebook started targeting users with advertisements in 2007. Meta still counts on ads for about 98% of revenue, having repeatedly struggled to sell digital and physical products over the years. While AI has helped the company bolster its core business, Zuckerberg has bigger ambitions in AI as he tries to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google in developing cutting-edge models and selling services on top. Zuckerberg said Meta is currently "building agentic capabilities" that can do advanced tasks such as "suggesting ways to grow your business, giving you competitive intelligence and real-time insights into what's working and what's not." "As our models advance, your agent will take on more and eventually help you run your whole business," Zuckerberg said in the prepared remarks. In October, Meta released a free, test version of the service, then called Business AI, that was only available in select countries, including Mexico and India. Meta is jumping into an increasingly competitive space. Amazon and Microsoft recently released agent tools, and AI users have swarmed to the freely available OpenClaw AI agent platform that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described as "the most popular, open-source project in the history of humanity." Big businesses that currently use Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform will be charged on a consumption basis for the new AI agent feature, similar to how they pay for every message they send to customers on the app. Customers can also access a new Meta Business Agent Platform that lets them connect third-party data sources from services like Shopify and Zendesk, allowing them to "offer personalized experiences, starting within the messaging apps their customers already use," Meta said.

Meta claims new Business Agent can scale company output by 100X

Meta has unveiled a new AI system designed to help businesses automate customer support, sales, and daily operations across its messaging platforms. The company said the new Meta Business Agent could help companies increase output by "10X or 100X" through AI-driven automation and personalized customer engagement. The rollout expands Meta's push into enterprise AI tools as competition intensifies among major tech companies building AI systems for businesses. Meta said companies can deploy the agent within minutes or connect it directly to existing enterprise infrastructure. Meta said more than one million businesses already use AI-powered agents on WhatsApp and Messenger to communicate with customers around the clock. The company now plans to expand those capabilities globally to businesses of all sizes. The Business Agent can answer customer questions, recommend products from catalogs, schedule appointments, qualify leads, and help close sales. Businesses can also decide when a human employee should take over a conversation. Meta is also extending the service to Instagram. Businesses can activate the tool through Instagram and other Meta business platforms. The company said access remains free for now, though paid subscription tiers will launch in the coming months. The company highlighted localization as a major feature. Business Agents can respond in customers' preferred languages and match a company's communication style. Meta said the system allows businesses to "show up for every customer" without needing to dramatically expand support teams. Meta also positioned the Business Agent as an operational assistant for business owners and employees. The AI tool can generate morning briefings that summarize missed customer conversations and surface insights from ongoing message threads. Meta said it is initially testing those features with select businesses using WhatsApp Business, Messenger, Instagram Pro, and Meta Business Suite. The company plans to expand the assistant's capabilities further. Future versions could support market research, product analysis, calendar management, and competitive intelligence tasks. Meta said the long-term goal is to reduce operational overhead while helping smaller businesses handle enterprise-scale workloads. Alongside the launch, Meta introduced the Meta Business Agent Platform, which provides infrastructure for businesses deploying AI agents at scale. The platform lets businesses customize and manage AI agents while connecting them with external systems such as Shopify, Zendesk, and Shopee. Meta said those integrations will allow agents to perform actions directly on behalf of businesses instead of only responding to messages. The company also added enterprise-grade controls, measurement tools, and built-in guardrails for larger organizations. Meta is additionally working to improve business discovery inside WhatsApp. Users will soon be able to search for businesses directly through the app or share business contact cards in chats. The company believes those discovery features could help businesses attract new customers while maintaining faster response times through AI-powered support systems. The announcement marks another step in Meta's broader effort to expand generative AI across its consumer and business ecosystem as messaging platforms increasingly evolve into commerce hubs.

Meta's AI Business Agent is a small and medium businesses guru - and it is now available directly through WhatsApp

* Meta launches an AI agent to handle customer messages as a first port of call * Automation will mean only the most complex queries get routed to humans * Its tools will connect with third parties and be available across WhatsApp, Instagram and more Meta has finally launched its AI-powered customer support tool, Meta Business Agent, after nearly two years of testing in select markets including India and Mexico. The tool is designed to act as a first point of contact, answering customer questions, recommending products and booking appointments. Under Meta's new way of customer service, consumers will interact with an AI agent first before being routed to a human agent in the case of more complex queries. Meta Business Agent now available Though it's being made available through WhatsApp Business, Meta's tool will also be rolling out across the social media giant's other platforms, including Instagram DMs, Messenger and the Meta Business Suite. Because it uses AI, Meta says its agent can be highly customizable to any user, reflecting things like brand voice, products and services accurately. In the future, the company also envisions agentic AI helping across market research, product feature analysis and more. And for the humans that remain in the loop, Meta is also planning summaries for chats that happened out of hours, daily briefings and other interaction insights. Additionally, in an era of increased interoperability and regulatory scrutiny, Facebook's parent company says businesses will also be able to create custom agents connected to software like Shopify, Zendesk and more. The availability of customer service tools on the platform is noteworthy, because WhatsApp now claims to have more than three billion users and 200 million businesses on its platform. And of course, this is all happening while those existing customer support and ecommerce platforms are building their own tools, with systems like MCP serving to bridge the gap between previously disconnected systems. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Meta launches AI business agents on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger

Mark Zuckerberg announced during Meta's latest earnings call that the company is launching AI agents designed to assist businesses via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. The initiative was unveiled at the Conversations event in London, where the new tool was officially named the "Meta Business Agent." This agent enables business owners to delegate tasks such as customer interactions and appointment bookings. The Meta Business Agent has the capability to "close sales" and recommend products. Business owners can join interactions at any point, allowing for seamless transitions between automated tasks and human oversight. Meta has been testing these agents with small businesses in India, Mexico, and Brazil, reporting over one million sign-ups before the rollout. Now available for any business operating on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, the agents represent a significant step beyond Meta's previous efforts at automation. The company aims for these AI agents to eventually handle comprehensive business operations, but Zuckerberg noted that achieving this vision will depend on advancements in AI technology. Meta is also developing advanced functionalities for the agents to engage in behind-the-scenes business tasks. These capabilities include conducting market research, providing competitive intelligence, and integrating with calendar management tools. However, these advanced features are not yet broadly accessible, and interested businesses must join a waitlist. While initial access to the Meta Business Agent is free, Meta indicated plans to introduce subscription fees for its AI services in the coming months. The specifics of these fees have not yet been disclosed.

Sick of slow customer service? Soon you'll be able to get help 24 hours a day on Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger

Lots of us use smartphone apps like WhatsApp and Messenger to get responses from customer service people. And more and more companies are also been using AI to triage interactions with customers and - hopefully - point you in the right direction for help. Also read: WhatsApp Plus arrives on iPhone - will you pay for it? Now Meta is launching a 'Business Agent' feature. Boring name, but what it means is that even small companies will be able to use Instagram DMs as well as WhatsApp and Messenger to help you with queries 24 hours day a, 7 days a week thanks to AI. You'll no longer have to wait for a human to come online at 9am, have your message go unread for days or to go through an automated step-by-step system only to find out you can't get an answer to what you wanted. The idea is that companies can easily get started with the agent with just a few clicks for smaller and Meta says that it will also interact with other systems that larger companies use. The system can even book appointments in Google Calendar as well as accept payments. And you can even leave it voice notes rather than having to type out long messages. Meta adds that it is also improving discoverability of companies in WhatsApp directly, so you won't have to go somewhere else first as you can see here: Of the launch, Mark Zuckerberg said during Meta's Conversations event in London that "whether you're a clothing shop in Birmingham or a bakery in São Paulo you can offer the same always-on, highly-personalized experience as a major brand." Meta demonstrated on stage how easy it was for a company to set up the system - although you do need to spend time inputting information such as services you offer and what they cost. The system is also able to pass you off to a human where it is required. You can also share your past chats with the system so it can better understand how you interact with customers. Meta added that there are now over a billion messages per day globally between customers and businesses on its platforms and over one million companies using the apps to interact with customers. Zuckerberg added that the system would be able to take on more responsibilities in future, with abilities such as "digesting what came in overnight and surfacing what your customers are asking for. As our models advance, your agent will take on more and eventually help you run your whole business."

Meta launches business agent AI to automate customer service, sales and business operations

Meta has unveiled Meta Business Agent, an AI-powered assistant designed to help businesses automate customer support, sales, scheduling and other operational tasks. The launch signals Meta's growing ambitions in enterprise AI and highlights the rise of agentic AI, where intelligent systems move beyond chatbots to manage workflows, customer relationships and business operations autonomously. Meta has a new idea for businesses: what if an AI assistant could handle customer conversations, answer questions, recommend products and even help make sales, all without human intervention? That is the idea used for Meta's Business Agent, the company's latest push to bring AI deeper into everyday business operations. The company has introduced Meta Business Agent, an AI-powered assistant designed to help businesses manage customer interaction, answer queries, recommend products, schedule appointments and even close sales across its platforms. The launch marks Meta's most pivotal push into the enterprise AI market, taking it beyond consumer chatbots. In simple terms, Meta is trying to give every business a digital employee that can talk to customers around the clock. Instead of hiring large customer support teams or manually responding to every message, businesses can rely on AI to handle routine conversations and only involve human staff when needed. The assistant can be customized to reflect a company's products, services and brand voice, making interactions feel more tailored rather than generic. More than a billion interactions take place each day between businesses and customers across Meta's family of apps. Meta says over one million businesses are already using earlier versions of its business AI tools, providing the company with a substantial base of potential adopters for its latest offering. What makes this launch particularly important is that Meta is not positioning the tool as just a customer support chatbot. The company envisions AI agents becoming a core part of how businesses operate. Over time, these agents could help with lead generation, market research, appointment management, sales activities and other operational tasks that traditionally require human effort. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also suggested that AI agents could eventually become as essential to businesses as websites or email addresses are today. Alongside the business agent, Meta has also introduced a broader platform that allows companies to connect the AI assistant with external business systems and enterprise software. This means the AI will not only answer questions but also take actions using business tools and customer data, making it significantly more useful for larger organizations. The announcement also portrays a broader shift taking place across the technology industry. AI is moving beyond generating text, images and code. The next phase is agentic AI, systems that can complete tasks, make decisions and execute workflows with minimal human intervention. Meta's Business Agent is one of the clearest examples yet of how AI companies are trying to turn that vision into a commercial product. For Meta, the move is about more than technology. It is also about creating new revenue streams beyond advertising. While the service is initially being offered for free to many businesses, Meta plans to introduce subscription-based and usage-based pricing models in the future, potentially turning AI-powered business operations into a major new business line for the company. The bigger takeaway is that AI assistants are rapidly evolving into AI coworkers. Meta's latest launch suggests a future where businesses may not just use AI to answer questions, but to manage customer relationships, drive sales and run parts of their operations autonomously. Whether that future arrives quickly or gradually, Meta is betting that the next generation of business software will look less like traditional tools and more like intelligent agents. Nominate now for ET Most Innovative AI Awards 2026 Disclaimer Statement: This content is authored by a 3rd party. The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). ET does not guarantee, vouch for or endorse any of its contents nor is responsible for them in any manner whatsoever. Please take all steps necessary to ascertain that any information and content provided is correct, updated, and verified. ET hereby disclaims any and all warranties, express or implied, relating to the report and any content therein.

Meta Targets Business AI Market With Agents That Close Sales | PYMNTS.com

The new Meta Business Agent is based on one that is already being used by businesses on WhatsApp and Messenger. Now, it's being expanded to businesses of all sizes globally and to Instagram, the company said in a Wednesday (June 3) press release. Meta Business Agent responds in customers' local languages and can answer questions, make product recommendations, book appointments, qualify incoming leads and close sales. The agent can also let the business decide when a team member should step in to provide support, according to the release. The agent can also provide businesses with a briefing that will summarize its recent chats and provide insights. Meta plans to expand the agent's capabilities so that it can conduct market research, surface product insights, connect with tools to manage the user's calendar and provide competitive intelligence. Meta Business Agent is free to businesses at launch but will become a paid subscription offering in the coming months. Meta also announced Wednesday that it is introducing an agentic platform that helps businesses build, customize and deploy Business Agents at scale; connect to Shopify, Zendesk, Shopee and other systems so the agents can take action on behalf of the business; and, for larger businesses, use enterprise-grade controls, guardrails and measurement. The Meta Business Agent Platform works alongside WhatsApp's Business Platform and supports Messenger and Instagram, per the release. Clara Shih, who was Meta's head of business AI at the time and is now senior advisor, told CNBC in March 2025 that Meta was planning a major expansion of its AI offerings for businesses that use its social media and other platforms. "Very soon, each of those businesses are going to have these AIs that can represent them and help automate redundant tasks, help speak in their voice, help them find more customers and provide almost like a concierge service to every single one of their customers, 24/7," Shih said. The Meta Business Agent arrives at a time when Meta is targeting enterprise AI as it seeks to add new revenue streams.

Meta expands Business Agent globally across WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, introduces Business Agent Platform

Meta has announced Meta Business Agent, a new AI-powered assistant designed to help businesses manage customer interactions and operations across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. The announcement was made at Conversations 2026 in London. Meta says the Business Agent is designed to help businesses engage with customers across its messaging platforms. Businesses can set up the agent in minutes or integrate it into existing enterprise infrastructure. Over 1 million businesses use Meta Business Agent Meta says more than one million businesses are already using a Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp and Messenger to respond to customers around the clock. The company also noted that there are more than one billion active conversations between businesses and customers every day across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. According to Meta, the Business Agent can use these interactions to provide more relevant and personalized customer experiences from the first interaction. What Meta Business Agent can do Meta Business Agent is designed to support a range of customer-facing activities. The AI assistant can: * Answer questions related to a business * Recommend products from a business catalog * Book appointments * Qualify incoming leads * Close sales * Transfer conversations to human team members when additional support is needed The agent can also communicate with customers in their local languages while adapting to a business's preferred tone and communication style. AI assistant for business owners In addition to customer support, Meta says the Business Agent can assist business owners and teams with managing customer conversations. The AI assistant can provide morning briefings that summarize conversations missed overnight and offer insights into ongoing customer interactions. Meta says future updates will expand the agent's capabilities to include functions such as conducting market research, surfacing product insights, connecting with calendar management tools, and providing competitive intelligence. Meta Business Agent Platform introduced Alongside the Business Agent, Meta has introduced the Meta Business Agent Platform, a new agentic platform that provides the infrastructure for businesses to build, customize, and deploy Business Agents at scale. The platform supports connections to a growing suite of hundreds of systems, including Shopify, Zendesk, and Shopee. Meta says these integrations allow Business Agents to take actions on behalf of businesses through connected tools and services. According to the company, the platform includes enterprise-grade controls, guardrails, and measurement capabilities that allow organizations to define rules and deliver personalized customer experiences. The platform is designed to operate within messaging applications already used by customers, including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. For businesses using WhatsApp, the Meta Business Agent Platform works alongside Meta's existing Business Platform. The platform also supports Messenger and Instagram. New business discovery features on WhatsApp Meta is also introducing new ways for users to discover businesses powered by Meta Business Agent directly through WhatsApp. The company says users will soon be able to find businesses by searching for their name within WhatsApp's search bar. Businesses can also be shared through phone numbers and contact cards in chats with friends and family. Meta says these discovery features are intended to make it easier for users to find and contact businesses on WhatsApp. Availability Meta has outlined a phased rollout for Meta Business Agent, with free access, platform expansion, and additional features planned over time.

Meta launches AI-powered Business Agent By Investing.com

Investing.com - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) announced Wednesday the launch of Meta Business Agent, an AI-powered tool that enables businesses to automate customer interactions across WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. The company said more than one million businesses already use a Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp and Messenger to respond to customers. The tool can answer business-specific questions, make product recommendations, book appointments, qualify leads and close sales in customers' local languages. Meta is expanding Business Agent to Instagram and making it available to businesses of all sizes globally. Businesses can activate the agent for free initially, with paid subscription offerings planned in the coming months. The company also introduced the Meta Business Agent Platform, which provides infrastructure for businesses to build, customize and deploy agents at scale. The platform connects to systems including Shopify, Zendesk and Shopee, allowing agents to take action on behalf of businesses. Meta said the Business Agent will deliver morning briefings to catch up on overnight chats and provide thread insights. The company plans to expand capabilities to help run daily operations including market research, product insights and calendar management. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Meta dives into enterprise AI race with new business agent

STORY: Shares of Meta rose more than 3% in morning trading on Wednesday, after the social media giant unveiled an AI agent designed to help businesses carry out day-to-day operations. The move marks Meta's latest push into the fast-growing enterprise AI market. Mark Zuckerberg's company said the new product expands on existing business messaging services by enabling "agentic" capabilities in which the assistant can, for example, book calendar appointments and close sales on behalf of businesses. It said more than 1 million businesses were already using earlier chatbot versions of such agents on WhatsApp and Messenger. The new version will be added to Instagram as well. The move hints at Meta's ambitions to compete with rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google in the market for enterprise applications of its AI tools, leveraging the reach of its WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook apps. The company is also launching a broader "Business Agent Platform" aimed at giving businesses the tools to build custom AI agents to help them manage their operations elsewhere. That platform is connected to hundreds of non-Meta systems, including Shopify.