Meta Enhances WhatsApp with Business Calls & AI Recommendations
▼ Summary
– WhatsApp is introducing voice call capabilities for large businesses, enabling AI-powered voice agents for customer interactions.
– The platform is exploring AI-driven product recommendations to enhance user experience and merchant sales.
– WhatsApp Business, with over 200 million monthly users, generates revenue through click-to-WhatsApp ads and paid messaging features for merchants.
– While AI features are currently free, WhatsApp may monetize them after achieving sufficient scale.
– Voice messaging and expanded AI-powered customer support features are rolling out soon, starting with businesses in Mexico.
Meta is expanding WhatsApp’s business capabilities with new AI-powered voice calling and product recommendation features, marking another step in the platform’s evolution as a commerce and customer service hub. The messaging app, which boasts over 200 million monthly business users, will soon allow larger enterprises to handle customer interactions through voice calls, a functionality previously limited to smaller accounts.
The upcoming voice API integration enables two-way calling between businesses and customers, addressing a key limitation from last year’s tests. Alongside this, WhatsApp plans to introduce voice messaging support for business conversations. These updates open doors for companies to implement AI-driven voice agents from providers like Vapi, ElevenLabs, or Phonic, potentially transforming customer service workflows on the platform.
Beyond voice features, WhatsApp is scaling its AI-powered commerce tools. An experimental chat-based support system, initially trialed in select markets, is now expanding to more merchants in Mexico. The company is also developing AI to generate personalized product recommendations, mirroring functionality offered by specialized startups. After initial suggestions, the system can continue engaging customers with follow-up answers or updates directly in WhatsApp chats.
While currently free, these AI enhancements could eventually become a revenue stream for Meta, which already monetizes WhatsApp through click-to-message ads and premium business messaging services. The features begin rolling out immediately to enterprise clients, with broader availability expected in the coming weeks.
For businesses, these upgrades signal WhatsApp’s growing role as an all-in-one customer engagement platform, blending communication, automation, and AI-driven sales support. As competition intensifies in conversational commerce, Meta appears focused on keeping WhatsApp at the forefront of business messaging innovation.
Image Credits: WhatsApp
(Source: TechCrunch)
