WhatsApp and AI for business: what you can automate and what you can’t

The WhatsApp Business app or platform

There are two ways to use WhatsApp in a business, and the difference matters:

Automating with AI needs the platform, also called the WhatsApp Business API. It is used directly through Meta or through an authorized provider, and it usually asks you to verify your business.

The 24-hour window and templates

The platform has one central rule: when a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens in which you can reply freely. Outside that window, you can only message them with templates: messages approved by Meta in advance, such as a shipping notice or an appointment reminder.

• Answering questions and taking orders almost always happens inside the window.
• Letting someone know days later that their order shipped, reminding them of an appointment or sending a promotion requires templates.
• To message a customer first, Meta requires that they agreed to receive messages from your business.

Meta’s policies and prices for WhatsApp Business change. Before building the flow, check the current terms: which messages are charged and which kinds of automation and assistants are allowed.

What is worth automating

• Frequent questions: opening hours, shipping, payment methods, sizes, with your business’s information.
• Taking orders: understanding what the customer wants, confirming product and quantity, and asking for what is missing.
• Order status: checking your system and answering where it is.
• Payment links: sending the payment link once the order is approved.
• Appointments and bookings: offering free slots and booking them.
• Sorting what comes in: telling questions, orders and complaints apart, and sending each to the right person.

When a person has to step in

A good assistant knows when not to answer. It has to pass the conversation to a person, with all the context, when:

• The customer asks for it, or is upset.
• It is a complaint, a return or anything involving money.
• The question is not covered by the information it has.
• It is unsure: better to ask than to guess.

And the customer has to know when they are talking to an assistant. Besides being the right thing to do, it avoids misunderstandings when a person replies afterwards.

An example: orders on WhatsApp

This is how a typical flow works, like the one the example dashboard shows in online stores and apps:

1. A customer writes: “can you send me 2 black tees in medium?”.
2. The AI turns it into an order and checks your system for stock.
3. If something is missing, such as the address, it asks.
4. You get the order ready to approve, from your phone too.
5. Once you approve it, the customer gets the payment link and, after paying, the confirmation.

The AI does the understanding; the checks and the approval stay with rules and a person. We explain it in more detail in AI or automation?

Where to start

1. Look through a month of chats and write down the ten most repeated questions.
2. Write, or review, the right answers: hours, shipping, payments, exchanges.
3. Start with drafts: the AI proposes the reply and someone sends it.
4. When it gets them right almost every time, let it answer those questions on its own and pass the rest to a person.

To pick the first task with a method, read getting started with AI in your business. And if you want to see it for your case, tell us how you use WhatsApp today.