At the third edition of its India Business Summit in Mumbai, WhatsApp unveiled Meta Business Agent, an AI-powered tool built to help businesses manage customer interactions and operations around the clock. The tool can handle tasks such as answering queries, recommending products from catalogues, booking appointments, qualifying leads and supporting sales, with businesses retaining control over when a human takes over the conversation. It also gives business owners conversation summaries, customer insights and updates on missed interactions.
Arun Srinivas, managing director and country head, Meta India, said messaging has become the preferred way for people and businesses to connect, and described the launch as the next step in helping businesses use AI to strengthen customer relationships and drive efficiency and growth.
Alongside this, Meta introduced the Meta Business Agent Platform, aimed at large enterprises needing infrastructure to build and deploy AI agents at scale, integrating with systems like Shopify, Zendesk and Shopee, and working alongside the WhatsApp Business Platform.
Early adopters include Swiggy, which is using the tool for delivery partner onboarding, Madhulika Enterprises, which reported a 25-30% rise in conversions and reduced repetitive workload, and Kaizen Adventours, which uses it to manage travel inquiries and peak-season volumes. Executives from all three companies highlighted faster response times and improved customer experience as key benefits.
Meta also announced new WhatsApp discovery features, letting users search for businesses by name within the app and share business contacts with friends and family.
