WhatsApp unveils Meta Business Agent in India, expands AI push for businesses

WhatsApp has announced Meta Business Agent, an AI-powered assistant designed to help businesses automate customer interactions and manage operations around the clock, as the company deepens its push into conversational commerce in India.The announcement was made at the third edition of WhatsApp's annual Business Summit in Mumbai, where Meta positioned the new offering as a tool that enables businesses to engage with customers at scale while delivering more personalised experiences.Meta Business Agent is designed to handle a range of customer-facing tasks, including answering business-specific queries, recommending products from a catalogue, booking appointments, qualifying leads and assisting with sales conversations. Businesses can also determine when interactions should be escalated to a human representative.Beyond customer engagement, the AI agent is intended to support business owners by generating insights from customer conversations and summarising missed interactions, helping teams monitor operations more efficiently.Arun Srinivas, Managing Director and Country Head, Meta India, said India has become one of the world's most dynamic markets for conversational business."India has emerged as one of the most dynamic markets for conversational business globally, with messaging becoming the preferred way for people and businesses to connect. As AI becomes more central to the transformation of the way businesses operate, Meta Business Agent represents the next step in that journey," Srinivas said.Alongside the announcement, Meta also introduced the Meta Business Agent Platform, aimed at large enterprises that require the infrastructure to build, customise and deploy AI-powered business agents at scale.The platform allows organisations to integrate AI agents with existing systems and tools, including Shopify, Zendesk and Shopee, while leveraging the WhatsApp Business Platform for customer interactions. Meta said the offering provides enterprise-grade scalability, controls and measurement capabilities.Several early adopters have already begun experimenting with the technology.Swiggy is using Meta Business Agent to streamline delivery partner onboarding through WhatsApp."Technology delivers the best value when it simplifies everyday experiences for users. By bringing our delivery partner onboarding within WhatsApp with the Meta Business Agent, we are creating a faster and more intuitive journey," said Rohan Chhazed, Vice President – Product, Rider and Post Order Consumer Experience, Swiggy Food Marketplace.Beauty business Madhulika Enterprises reported strong results from deploying the AI-powered agent.According to founder Madhulika Vikram, the company saw a 25-30% increase in conversions, while the agent now handles 50-60% of repetitive customer interactions related to bridal bookings, beauty products and training programmes.Similarly, travel company Kaizen Adventours said the AI agent helped respond instantly to customer queries around Ladakh tours, itineraries and bike rentals."It reduces response times, handles peak-season volumes, ensures 24/7 accuracy and lets our team focus on operations," said Amit Hooda, Founder, Kaizen Adventours.WhatsApp is also introducing new discovery features aimed at helping users connect with businesses more easily.The company said users will soon be able to search for businesses directly within WhatsApp using a business name and share business contacts with friends and family, making discovery more seamless within the app ecosystem.The rollout reflects Meta's broader ambition to make WhatsApp a central platform for customer engagement, commerce and AI-powered business operations, particularly in a market like India where messaging has become a primary channel for business communication.Also read: Govt gives WhatsApp more time to explain username feature; rollout remains on hold