WhatsApp Business AI agent for customers, dealers and engineers

What is a WhatsApp Business AI agent?

It is an agent that receives and sends WhatsApp messages through the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta's API for businesses. It reads the question, looks up the answer in your systems, asks for what is missing and either closes the conversation or hands it to an employee. The number stays yours; the agent is one of its users.

Inbound messages are free, the customer sees a verified business name, and photos of a fault or a type plate arrive with the conversation. For a manufacturing company that makes WhatsApp the shortest route from a dealer's question to an answer from your ERP.

What is the WhatsApp Business API, and how does it differ from the app?

The WhatsApp Business app is a phone app built for the small business owner: one number, one phone, greetings and away messages. The WhatsApp Business Platform is the API version for messaging at scale: several users, approved templates, automated flows and integration with your CRM or back office. An AI agent needs the platform.

• App: free, one number on one phone with a limited number of linked devices, catalogue and quick replies, no API.
• Platform: the Cloud API hosted by Meta, used directly by your developers or through a partner. Business phone numbers send up to 80 messages per second by default.
• The On-Premises API is end of life: the final version expired on 23 October 2025 and Meta directs everyone to the Cloud API.
• A number can be registered for the app or for the platform, not both. Moving a number to the platform is part of the setup.

Meta's own AI, a self-service tool or a managed agent: which fits?

Meta offers its own business agent inside the app, priced per token. Self-service platforms let you build flows and chatbots on the API yourself. A managed agent from BeeManaged connects WhatsApp to your ERP, CRM and website agent, with handover to a person and monitoring. Choose by how many systems a conversation touches.

Three routes compared (as of October 2026)

What does a WhatsApp AI agent do in a manufacturing company?

It picks up the conversations that now interrupt your inside sales and service desk: quote and information requests, fault reports with a photo, appointment or test ride requests, dealer questions about delivery times and stock, and follow-up of leads with approved templates. Five examples below.

Five processes on WhatsApp

• AI lead qualification on your website and WhatsApp
• Internal AI agent: ask your own systems in plain language

What does WhatsApp cost per message or conversation?

Since 1 July 2025 Meta charges per delivered message, not per conversation. The rate depends on the category (marketing, utility, authentication or service) and the recipient's country; Meta publishes rate cards per currency and may change prices only on the first day of a quarter. Inbound messages are free. On top of that BeeManaged charges from €0.35 per conversation.

• Customer service window: when a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens in which you may send free-form messages. Outside the window only approved templates can be sent.
• Service messages: the free-form replies inside the window. Each business phone number gets 1,000 delivered service messages free per month; from 1 October 2026 Meta charges from the 1,001st message. Unused messages do not carry over.
• Utility messages inside an open window, free since July 2025, are charged at the regular utility rate from 1 October 2026.
• Free entry point: when a customer starts the chat from a click-to-WhatsApp ad, replies in that window are free.
• Volume tiers lower the rate for utility and authentication messages as monthly volume grows. Rates for the Netherlands and Germany are on Meta's EUR rate card; we quote them in the intake with the date.

May I message customers on WhatsApp, and how do templates work?

Only after opt-in. Meta requires that a person has agreed to receive messages from your business, with your business name stated clearly; the opt-in can be collected on your website, in a form, by SMS or in person. Messages you start, outside the 24-hour window, must use a template that Meta has approved.

• Templates are reviewed automatically when created or edited; review can take up to 24 hours. Only templates with status APPROVED can be sent.
• Each template has a category: marketing, utility or authentication. The category sets the price, and Meta can reject or recategorise a template.
• Messaging limits: a new business portfolio may reach 250 unique customers per 24 hours outside open windows. After business verification or a scaling path that becomes 2,000, and then 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited when quality stays high and you use at least half of the limit.
• Replies from customers always open a free window, so a well-timed template and a good answer keep most conversations in the service category.

Can an employee take over the conversation?

Yes, at any moment. The agent hands over when the customer asks for a person, when a question falls outside its rules, or when a process needs a decision. Your employee sees the whole conversation and the data the agent found, in app.beemanaged.com or in your CRM, and replies from the same number.

• Handover rules are set per process: price negotiations, complaints and anything the agent cannot verify go to a person.
• Write actions such as a lead, a ticket or an order wait in the approval queue until a colleague approves.
• Every message and action is logged, and we review conversations monthly to improve the agent.

How does the WhatsApp Business API connection work technically?

The agent uses the Cloud API hosted by Meta: it sends messages through the Graph API and receives them through webhooks. You need a Meta business portfolio, a WhatsApp Business account and a number registered for the platform. We set this up, directly with Meta or through a solution partner, and connect your CRM, ERP and service desk through their official APIs.

• Direct with Meta or via a partner: a Solution Partner onboards you under its own credit line and invoices you; with a Tech Provider or direct access you add a payment method and Meta bills you for messages. We advise per situation (as of October 2026).
• Throughput: up to 80 messages per second per business phone number by default, with upgrades available.
• Media: photos and documents arrive with the conversation and are stored under your retention rules.
• Message content passes through Meta's platform, outside the EU where Meta processes it; the agent itself and your data in app.beemanaged.com run in the EU under a data processing agreement. No training on your data.

How we set it up, in four steps

1. 01

   Choose one process

   For example dealer questions about delivery times, with the rules for verification and handover.

2. 02

   Connect number and systems

   Register the number on the platform, connect ERP or CRM read-only, submit the first templates.

3. 03

   Go live with handover

   The agent answers, qualifies and hands over; leads and tickets wait in the approval queue.

4. 04

   Monitor and improve

   Conversation review, Meta's quality rating, audit log and a monthly report, then the next process.

• How BeeManaged works, step by step

Pricing for a WhatsApp agent

Customer-facing agents cost from €0.35 per conversation. Setup is quoted up front (development €175 per hour), monitoring and the dashboard cost €250 per month, and a consultation package is €1,750. Meta's message rates come on top and are billed by Meta or your solution partner. Internal agents and ticket processing are custom work, priced in consultation.

• All BeeManaged prices

When don't you need BeeManaged for WhatsApp?

If one person answers a handful of chats a day, the WhatsApp Business app is enough. If your team builds simple flows itself and has no systems to connect, a self-service platform is cheaper. BeeManaged makes sense when conversations need ERP or CRM data, when several people share the number with the website agent, and when you want handover and monitoring arranged.