WhatsApp chatbot

You need a WhatsApp Business number connected to Meta's official platform (the WhatsApp Business API), usually through a provider that gives you the dashboard to build the bot, and to connect that bot to an AI that answers with your business's information. The WhatsApp Business app on its own only allows simple automatic replies, not a real chatbot.

There are two kinds of chatbot: button-and-menu ones, which only offer fixed answers, and AI-powered ones, which understand what the customer writes in their own words. What usually takes people by surprise are Meta's rules: since January 2026 it doesn't allow general-purpose AI assistants on its platform, although it does allow bots that serve a business's customers, like bookings, orders or support (checked in September 2026). And beware of unofficial tools that promise to connect anything: they can end up getting your number blocked.

How I built my first chatbot, what failed and what it replies when it doesn't know the answer I explain in "My first chatbot". Before you get into the technical part, I recommend writing down for a week the questions people ask you on WhatsApp. That list is the best starting point for knowing what the bot has to answer and, while you're at it, for finding out whether you really need one.