WhatsApp Business auto-replies with an AI agent: what to automate, what to hand off

Every shop that opens WhatsApp Business starts with the same three settings: a greeting message, an away message, a few quick replies. Two weeks later customers still write "is this still available?" at 10pm, and nobody answers until the morning.

This guide separates what an AI agent can settle on WhatsApp on its own, what it has to pass to a person, and the setup order that avoids the usual surprises.

What WhatsApp Business does on its own

The free app ships three automations, and they are worth switching on before anything else.

• The greeting message, sent on first contact or after 14 days of silence.
• The away message, sent outside your hours.
• Quick replies, prepared texts you insert with a shortcut.

None of the three answers a question. They ask the customer to wait. Someone asking for a size, a delivery date or a price gets a polite sentence and waits.

The 24-hour window, in one paragraph

When a customer writes to you, you can reply freely for 24 hours. After that, only a message template approved by Meta can reopen the conversation. An agent that replies within seconds settles almost everything inside the window; a person replying the next morning often misses it.

What an AI agent settles on its own

The difference from a button chatbot comes down to one thing: the agent reads your data at the moment it replies, not a script written in advance.

• Availability, size and colour, read from your live catalogue through Airtable, NocoDB, a file or your API.
• Delivery times and fees, from your policy, with the source cited.
• Opening hours, the address, parking, booking a free slot.
• Order status, if your system is connected.
• The reply in the customer's language, French, English or Arabic, with nothing to configure.

The right question is not "what can the AI do?" but "what would I let a new hire settle alone on day one?". That is exactly the scope.

What it must hand to a person

• A refund, a dispute, anything touching money already paid.
• A complaint where the tone matters more than the answer.
• A medical, legal or contractual case.
• A customer who asks for a person, full stop.

The handoff has to happen in the same thread, to a named person, with the context: what the customer asked, what the agent already answered, the estimated value. The AI pauses the moment a human writes and resumes when handed back.

Setting it up, in the order that works

• Connect the WhatsApp Business account through Meta OAuth; no number to port, no developer.
• Connect the catalogue before writing a single instruction. An agent with no stock answers like a chatbot.
• Write the instructions in plain language: the role, the tone, the rules, and the cases to hand off.
• Test on your real past conversations. A score per reply, before the first customer sees anything.
• Publish with a version. You will roll back at least once.
• Set hours and caps: the agent at night, the team by day, or the other way round.

What to measure after two weeks

• The share of conversations settled without a person. A well-connected shop passes three quarters.
• The median first reply time, day and night together.
• Handoffs per day, and their reasons. That is your list of instructions to write next.
• Sales closed from a product card sent inside the conversation.

To see how the agent behaves on this channel specifically, read the WhatsApp Business page and the connection docs. If you are comparing tools, the comparisons put the published prices side by side, and the e-commerce page shows the same agent on a live catalogue.