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.
- Global rollout: Meta is expanding Meta Business Agent globally to businesses of all sizes. The company is also extending Business Agent support to Instagram.
- Access and pricing: Businesses can activate Meta Business Agent for free initially. Meta says paid subscription offerings will become available in the coming months, with options for businesses of different sizes.
- Limited availability: Morning briefings and business insights are currently being made available to a select number of businesses using the WhatsApp Business app, Instagram Pro, Messenger, and Meta Business Suite.
- Waitlist: Businesses interested in future capabilities such as market research, product insights, calendar integrations, and competitive intelligence can join Meta’s waitlist.