WhatsApp Unveils AI Tools to Empower Businesses

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Meta has launched its first AI-driven ad targeting program for businesses on WhatsApp, marking a significant step in its efforts to monetize the popular messaging service. The announcement was made on Thursday at a conference in Brazil, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the new tools via a video presentation.

This move represents a notable shift for WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging platform known for its strong emphasis on privacy. Historically, WhatsApp has avoided the kind of targeted advertising strategies that are central to Meta’s other platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.

For several years, Meta has been gradually adding commerce and payment features to WhatsApp. These include “business messaging” tools that allow companies to conduct customer service interactions and send marketing materials to users who have shared their phone numbers. However, these tools were previously somewhat basic, enabling companies to send messages to all users who had opted in to receive communications.

The newly introduced AI tools will leverage user behavior data from Facebook and Instagram to more precisely target messages to customers who are most likely to respond positively, assuming these customers use the same opted-in phone number across their accounts. WhatsApp’s head of strategic markets, Guilherme Horn, emphasized the value of these tools, stating that they would help businesses optimize ad delivery to users most likely to engage. “This is very important for businesses because they are paying for those messages,” Horn told Reuters.

Meta has been intensifying its efforts to generate revenue from WhatsApp, which remains its largest app in terms of daily users. Despite WhatsApp’s widespread popularity and the staggering $22 billion acquisition cost in 2014, it has so far made only a minimal contribution to Meta’s overall revenue.

In addition to the AI-driven ad targeting program, Meta also introduced a new AI chatbot at the conference, designed to handle business inquiries directly within the chat. This chatbot is part of Zuckerberg’s broader vision to encourage businesses to adopt automated communication tools. The AI chatbot will assist users with common requests, such as locating catalogs or checking business hours, similar to other AI-powered customer service platforms.

Moreover, Meta announced the integration of Brazil’s PIX digital payment system into WhatsApp’s payment tool. PIX, developed by Brazil’s central bank, accounted for approximately 39% of transactions in Brazil last year and offers services similar to WhatsApp’s payment features, including money transfers between individuals and purchases from companies. This addition mirrors a similar move by WhatsApp in India last year, where it began offering payment services from competing providers.

These developments underscore Meta’s strategic push to transform WhatsApp into a more robust platform for business and commerce, leveraging AI to enhance its capabilities while navigating the challenges of maintaining user privacy.