Meta, the social media giant and parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, has unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) agent to help small and large businesses operate around the clock.
Speaking at Meta Conversations in London on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta said the agent will learn and eventually reach a point where it can “handle everything from the first question to the final sale”.
“Today, I want to introduce Meta Business Agent, giving every business of any size an agent to talk to consumers and help run your operation. So now, a clothing shop in Birmingham or a bakery in São Paulo can offer you an always-on, highly personalised experience like a major brand,” Zuckerberg said.
The Meta CEO added that more than one million businesses already use Meta Business Agents, and the company is “excited to expand to more countries and bring them to Instagram as well”.
According to Meta, the agent takes minutes to set up and can learn a business’s language and processes, enabling it to respond to individual customers in a way similar to a human employee.
For businesses, this means customers can receive assistance even while owners are asleep. For consumers, it means getting tailored responses without interactions feeling overly automated.
Top Features
24/7 Service & Intelligent Handoff
The agent can handle most customer queries using information learned from a business’s knowledge base and previous chats. It can also determine when a conversation should be transferred to a business owner or customer service representative, providing a summary of the discussion before the handoff.
Dashboard & Morning Report
While the agent may engage with tens or thousands of customers daily, it compiles reports highlighting key insights from conversations. These reports summarise the number of interactions, common customer inquiries, conversations requiring personal intervention, and include a chat interface where owners can ask questions about any interaction.
Business Discovery
Fred Leach, Vice President of Product at Meta, told journalists that discovering businesses on WhatsApp had previously been difficult. With the launch of the new business agent, he said, it is now much easier to find businesses.
Meta has also implemented “fuzzy search”, allowing users to see relevant results before completing a search query.
In-App Payments & Connections to More Than 150 Apps
The agent integrates with existing business tools such as Shopify Salesforce, [Google Calendar, and custom APIs. This enables access to real-time stock levels, pricing, availability, promotions, and booking information.
Because the agent pulls live data rather than cached information, responses remain up to date. Customers can also complete purchases directly within WhatsApp without leaving the conversation.
Voice Notes With Businesses
Meta said the business agent can also communicate through voice messages, making interactions more natural for customers who prefer speaking instead of typing.
Businesses can receive and respond to voice notes through the agent, which understands spoken requests and provides relevant answers based on the company’s knowledge base and connected systems.
The feature is particularly useful in markets where voice messaging is a common communication method, allowing customers to make inquiries, seek support, or place orders more conversationally.
Meta Business Agent became available globally on June 3, 2026, and will also be included in the subscription tier for Meta One.
