WhatsApp AI chatbots for business: how they work and what they cost

What a WhatsApp AI assistant can do

• Answer product, price, stock and opening-hour questions from your own data
• Collect the details needed for a quotation and send them to your team
• Book or reschedule appointments
• Reply in English, Malay, Chinese and other languages your customers use
• Hand the chat to a person when the customer asks or the question is unusual

How it connects

The assistant uses Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform rather than an unofficial app, which avoids the bans that unofficial tools often trigger, as long as you follow WhatsApp's messaging policies. Messages go to a small server that looks up your information and asks an AI model to draft the reply.

What it costs

There are three costs to plan for: building the assistant, Meta's WhatsApp charges, and AI model usage. Since July 2025 Meta charges per delivered template message, with rates that depend on the message category and the recipient's country; replies to customers inside the customer service window are free. For most small and medium businesses the running costs are modest compared with the staff time saved, but they grow with volume, so ask for an estimate based on your current chat numbers.

Limits to be honest about

AI assistants can be confidently wrong if they are not grounded in your data. A good build only answers from approved information, says when it doesn't know, and passes anything sensitive, such as refunds or custom pricing, to a person.