How to add AI to WhatsApp Business

Adding an AI that actually answers customers on WhatsApp takes about an afternoon, and almost none of it is technical. The part that trips people up comes before any of the steps below, so start there.

The app and the Platform are two different products

Most people searching for this have the green WhatsApp Business app on a phone, and they are looking for a setting inside it. There isn't one. The app gives you a greeting message, an away message and quick replies, and every one of those is fixed text that somebody wrote in advance. They can acknowledge a message. They cannot answer the question inside it. If a customer asks whether you deliver to their area on a Sunday, an away message tells them you are closed, which is not what they asked. We covered those settings and when they are still worth turning on in the guide to WhatsApp auto-reply.

An AI that reads the question and answers it needs your number on the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta's Cloud API. That is a different product with the same name on the front of it, and it is what Replio and every other AI support tool connects to.

So the honest version of "add AI to WhatsApp Business" is: move the number onto the Platform, then point an AI at it. The rest of this page is how.

Before you start: choose the number

This is where most first attempts fail, and it fails halfway through rather than at the beginning, which makes it feel worse than it is. A phone number can only live on one WhatsApp at a time, either the app or the Platform. Before you begin, check all three of these:

• The number must not be signed in to the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app. If it is, open that app on the phone and go to Settings, then Account, then Delete my account. Uninstalling the app does not release the number. If you use a two-step PIN, turn it off first. Back up the chats you want to keep, because they stay in the app and are not carried across.
• The number must be able to receive an SMS or a phone call right now, on a device somebody is holding, because Meta sends a verification code to it during the connection.
• The number must not already be connected to another WhatsApp API provider. If it is, that is a migration rather than a fresh connection, and you start it from the old provider's side.

Because the number becomes a business line that no longer works in the normal app, most businesses connect a dedicated number and keep their personal WhatsApp where it is. If you run more than one line, sales and support, or one per country, you can connect several numbers to one Replio account at no extra Replio fee, and replies always go out from the number the customer wrote to.

Step 1: write the knowledge first, connect second

The order matters more than it looks. If you connect the channel first, the AI is live in front of real customers with an empty brain, and the first thing it learns to do is apologise. Do the knowledge first and the connection becomes the last, boring step.

Paste your information straight in, or import a PDF, a Word or Excel file, a Google Doc, or a link to your own website and let Replio read it. What earns its place, roughly in order:

1. Your twenty most-asked questions, with the real answers. Not the polished website version. The answer you would type at 9pm, including the awkward ones about delivery times, refunds and what you do not offer.
2. Prices, and what changes them. "From $40" is worth less than "$40 for a standard clean, $65 with the oven, plus $10 outside the city."
3. Policies with their edges. Returns within 14 days, unopened, receipt or order number needed. The edges are what customers argue about, so the AI needs them.
4. Hours, locations and how to reach a person. Including what happens on public holidays.

One practical note on size: a knowledge base over 28,000 characters has to be re-sent to the model on every message, so a reply drawn from one counts as three AI replies against your plan's allowance. Tight, well-organised knowledge is cheaper to run as well as more accurate, so trim rather than dumping every document you own.

Step 2: connect the number

In Replio, open Channels and choose WhatsApp. The standard path is Meta's own Embedded Signup, which has been live for every Replio account since 5 August 2026: a Meta popup opens, you sign in with the Facebook account that owns your business, pick or create the business, enter the number, and type the verification code Meta sends you. That is the whole thing. There is no Phone Number ID to find, no access token to paste and no callback URL to configure, because Replio wires the webhook up behind the popup.

Two alternatives exist if you need them. You can still paste Cloud API credentials by hand if you already have a Meta app set up, and you can connect through a Business Solution Provider with an API key. Neither is the recommended route for a business starting fresh, and both take longer.

WhatsApp is included on any paid plan, so the trial is enough to get through this step and see it working.

Step 3: decide what happens when the AI does not know

Skipping this is the difference between an AI that helps and one that embarrasses you, and it takes five minutes. Set the rule for when a conversation goes to a human: a complaint, a refund request, anything about a specific order, anything legal or medical, and anything the AI is not confident about. Those chats get flagged in the shared inbox, where anyone on your team can take the conversation over mid-thread and type normally. Replies your own team sends are free and unlimited on every plan, so handing over costs you nothing. The same rule needs a different line after dark, when nobody is there to correct a wrong answer for hours, which is covered in how to answer customers 24/7.

Write the handover sentence yourself too. "Let me get a colleague to check that for you, they will reply here shortly" sets an expectation. "I am unable to assist with that" ends the conversation.

Step 4: test it like a customer, not like the owner

Owners test with questions they already know the answer to, phrased the way the documentation phrases them, and everything passes. Customers do not do that. Message your own number from a different phone and try these five:

• A question answered nowhere in your knowledge base. You are checking that it hands over rather than invents something.
• A badly typed question with no punctuation, the way people actually message. "how much delivery lusaka"
• A question in another language. The AI detects and replies in the customer's own language across 50+ of them, so check yours.
• A voice note. Replio transcribes it and answers it like any other message.
• A photo, a receipt or a screenshot of an order. It reads images, and this is how a lot of real complaints arrive.

Then go live.

Step 5: read the first week

The version you launch is not the version worth keeping. Set aside twenty minutes at the end of week one and read real conversations, in order, including the boring ones. You are looking for two things: questions that came up repeatedly and were answered badly, which belong in the knowledge base tonight, and questions that came up repeatedly and were answered well, which tell you what your customers actually care about. Replio also proposes answers it learned from real conversations for you to approve with one tap, so the base improves without a rewrite.

What it costs, honestly

Two separate bills, and it is worth separating them before you budget. Replio starts at $49 a month on Starter, which covers one of WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger plus Telegram and the website widget, with two seats and a free 7-day trial you can cancel anytime. Scale at $149 adds WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger together with five seats, and Pro is $349 with fifteen. Messages are unlimited on every plan, including replies typed by your team; what each plan includes an allowance of is AI replies. Meta charges its own per-message rates for WhatsApp, billed directly to you at Meta's published prices, with no markup from Replio. We break those rates down in WhatsApp API pricing explained.

What this will not do

An AI on WhatsApp answers questions your knowledge base can answer, in the customer's language, at three in the morning. It does not know anything you have not told it, it should not be the last word on a medical, legal or safety question, and it will not fix a product problem that a person needs to own. Handled well it removes the repetitive nine tenths of your inbox so your team can spend their time on the tenth that matters. Sold as a replacement for your team, it disappoints everyone.

Do not stop at WhatsApp

The knowledge base you just wrote is not WhatsApp-specific. The same one answers on Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and a website chat widget, with one shared inbox and one memory of each customer behind all of them. Adding the second channel is a toggle, not another afternoon.

Frequently asked questions

Related

Last updated 2026-09-20. WhatsApp Business app features, Meta's connection flow and Meta's per-message rates are set by Meta and may change, so please check Meta's current documentation and rates alongside this guide.