New Delhi: Meta, the social media giant is introducing a host of services for WhatsApp’s business version, the popular messaging platform. A company official said that it will first be introduced in the emerging economies that are the largest markets of the messaging platform and then elsewhere.
Meta’s vice president of business messaging, Nikila Srinivasan, said in a media interaction, that Meta introduced services ranging from verifying and authenticating businesses to integrating its AI into customers’ chats with businesses on Thursday. First, the features are being tried out in India and Brazil. Then, they will be extended to other countries in the coming months.
The Anti-Spam Feature
Even spam messages are rising on chat platforms, including WhatsApp, Srinivasan said that Meta’s AI tools will be used for better marketing optimization, and, ultimately help businesses move away from spamming potential customers.
“We hear from businesses that they are not going to really achieve their business outcomes by spamming people,” said Srinivasan. “They want to be able to reach people who are actually going to engage with the messages and who want to actually receive those messages. So, for us, continuing to invest in all of the things that are going to make user experience top-notch in WhatsApp continues to be a huge priority.”
What is Meta Verified?
Meta Verified is aimed at reducing fraud and ensuring that users are talking to genuine businesses. It was announced at Meta’s Conversations 2024 on Thursday in Brazil’s Sao Paulo.
The feature will be live in India, followed by Brazil, Indonesia and Colombia, and then to other countries gradually.
Srinivasan added that a robust verification process will be adopted for granting the Meta Verified badge to businesses. This will be visible on their channel and custom WhatsApp page. These businesses will receive enhanced account support from Meta and will be able to use WhatsApp across multiple devices for their employees.
AI in Your Chat
As Meta doubles down on WhatsApp conversations for driving businesses, it will also introduce AI into chats for conversation with consumers that can be activated by the business. This is aimed at enabling businesses to utilise their resources more efficiently. Consumers will be made aware that they’re chatting with AI. The WhatsApp Small Business App will also get an AI assistant. This will help businesses create ads that can run on Instagram or Facebook.
Small businesses will be able to use an ‘Ad Manager’ tool to ensure that relevant messages reach the right subset of users, instead of businesses messaging users that opt-in to receive messages. This is expected to lead to better returns on investment made by businesses. This particular feature is being tried out in several countries, including Mexico and Indonesia.
The AI tools will also enable businesses to follow up with customers on their purchases, help them find products or services, or even offer discounts.
Many Assistants, Not One
“Our vision is not just to build a single AI assistant, but also to enable lots of different AIs that can serve different purposes, including for businesses. And those AIswill align with your products and services. Getting this right is going to be a huge unlock for businesses’ ability to scale, so we’re testing it with a small number of English language businesses in India and Singapore to start. And we’re going to bring this to Brazilian businesses soon,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said at the event in Sao Paulo.
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