Meta $META announced the global launch of its Meta Business Agent on Wednesday, making AI-powered customer service and sales tools available to businesses of all sizes on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.
More than 1 million businesses are already using the tool, which Meta plans to move behind a paid subscription in the coming months
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Meta $META announced the global launch of its Meta Business Agent on Wednesday, making AI-powered customer service and sales tools available to businesses of all sizes on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.
According to the company, capabilities include fielding customer inquiries, suggesting products from a business catalog, scheduling appointments, vetting potential sales leads, and completing transactions. A handoff mechanism lets the agent escalate to a live employee once conversations reach a point the owner defines. Pilot programs that ran in India, Mexico, and Brazil have yielded an installed base of over one million businesses on WhatsApp and Messenger ahead of the global rollout, according to Engadget.
Another feature being tested would send business owners a daily summary each morning, recapping customer conversations from the night before and pointing out important trends. Right now, only selected accounts on WhatsApp Business, Instagram Pro, Messenger, and Meta Business Suite can try it, but businesses can join a waitlist for access. Meta also plans to add tools for collecting market data, tracking competitors, and connecting with calendar software.
For enterprise customers, Meta is also unveiling the Meta Business Agent Platform, a separate offering through which large organizations can configure their own agents and link them to outside services such as Shopify $SHOP, Zendesk, and Shopee. Rather than charging a recurring flat rate, Meta will price that tier based on consumption, TechCrunch reports.
Access to the Business Agent carries no upfront cost for now, though Meta intends to introduce tiered pricing structured around the scale of each business within the next several months.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the company's Conversations event in London, framed the launch as a step toward a broader ambition. "As our models advance, your agent will take on more and eventually help you run your whole business," Zuckerberg said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This launch is a major move by Meta into enterprise software. WhatsApp now has over 200 million small business users, and its paid messaging revenue reached a $2 billion annual run rate as of December, according to Meta. The Business Agent rollout is part of Meta’s plan to grow revenue beyond digital ads, as the company invests heavily in AI and sees agents as a new way to make money across its apps.
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