Meta has unveiled an AI tool designed to help grow companies by automating various tasks and services.
The Facebook-Instagram-WhatsApp parent company said in a June 3 release that its Business Agent enables enterprises of all sizes “to increase their output and deliver personalized experiences for customers using AI” by handling an array of tasks, including handling customer inquiries, scheduling appointments and recommending products.
The agent is already in use by around a million businesses on WhatsApp and Messenger in select markets, including Brazil, India and Mexico, but Meta is now making it available to all companies and has extended it to Instagram, too.
Deployment — or connection into existing infrastructure — can be done in minutes, with Meta claiming the agent can easily accommodate a host of different languages and adopt a company’s tone of voice.
While the ability to interact around the clock is important for many small businesses, Meta says this feature is a starting point, with more to come.
Ultimately, the company claims, the goal is for the agent to effectively run all daily operations, including tasks as diverse as conducting market research, surfacing product insights and providing competitive intelligence.
Companies interested in these future services are being encouraged to join a waitlist, but Business Agent, in its current guise, can be activated immediately and for free, although that may not be the case for long.
Meta says that in the coming months, access to the agent will be using paid subscription offerings with options for businesses of all sizes.
In tandem with the launch of the tool, Meta is also introducing a new Business Agent Platform that provides infrastructure for enterprises using AI agents at scale.
The platform connects to what Meta says is a “growing suite” of external systems, such as Shopify, Zendesk, and Shopee, where agents can take actions on behalf of the business. It works alongside WhatsApp’s existing business platform, and Messenger and Instagram are supported too.
Meta’s continued move into enterprise AI is part of a concerted drive to boost revenues, amid concerns about the amount it is spending on AI infrastructure, which has led the company to lay off thousands recently.
