WhatsApp Business Gets AI Tools, Meta Verified And More

WhatsApp is one of the most popular social media platforms and the most popular instant messaging apps in the world, with over 2 billion users.

The platform is used by individuals for personal communication and by businesses for professional communication.

In fact, it’s so popular among businesses that it has its own application – WhatsApp Business, which itself had over 280 million business users as of 2023.

Coming up to today’s accelerated use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools by the top tech companies globally, Meta, the company behind WhatsApp, revealed a series of updates and features that’s set to enhance the platform even further.  

So, what did Meta and WhatsApp Business announce? Let’s explore!
 

What Is Meta Bringing To WhatsApp Business?

 

• At its annual business messaging event, Conversations, which was held at Sao Paulo in Brazil, Meta announced it was bringing in numerous updates to WhatsApp, aimed at enhancing how businesses function on the platform.

• One of these updates includes AI tools, which will help businesses on WhatsApp improve how they assist their customers on the platform and help them discover new products they might be interested in.

• “We’re training AI to respond to the most popular questions businesses receive on WhatsApp, so they can quickly help customers find the answers they’re seeking,” read the news release highlighting the updates.

• This will also include integrating AI to help businesses create ads on Facebook and Instagram easily, as well as other functions such as reminding them of items left in the cart, offer discounts to complete purchases etc.

• Ahead of this, Meta is bringing Meta Verified to the WhatsApp Business app in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia.

• This allows businesses to gain a badge of verification from Meta, meaning that they have registered their information with the company.

• Furthermore, the verification badge will also see them receive enhanced account support and impersonation protection, while enabling their employees to use WhatsApp across multiple devices.

• These badges will also appear on the business’s WhatsApp Channel and custom WhatsApp page.

• Another new addition will see users being able to call larger businesses on WhatsApp with one tap. Currently in testing, the feature will be expanded to more businesses in the coming months.

• “We hope you enjoy these new ways of chatting with businesses on WhatsApp,” concluded WhatsApp’s release.

 

What Did Mark Zuckerberg Say?

 

• Speaking at Meta’s Conversations conference, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Now, our vision is not just to build a single AI assistant, but also to enable lots of different AIs that can serve different purposes, including for businesses.”

• [Contd.] “Any business should be able to quickly stand up an agent that can talk to your customers, provide support, and facilitate commerce.”

• Zuckerberg added, “Those AIs need to be aligned with your products and services ... Getting this right is going to be a huge unlock for businesses' ability to scale.”

• [Contd.] “Up until now, businesses would typically message all customers who asked to receive updates on WhatsApp but now you can use Ads Manager to deliver messages to those customers who are most likely to be interested, with our AI system able to recommend them to the right subset of recipients.”

• [Contd.] “This means businesses will see better ROI and people will see more relevant messages.”

Do you think this move by Meta will help users, businesses and their customers? Do you Meta’s competitors need to make similar moves?

Let us know in the comments below!