Customer behaviour has changed drastically, and so have their expectations. Customers expect instant responses, but no team can be everywhere at once. This means small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must leverage technology to effectively and easily engage with their customers.
As consumer behaviour changes, businesses need to become more adaptable to ensure they keep their core customer base. This adaptability will also lead to SMEs being able to capture new customers and get ahead of their competition.
To help SMEs and businesses of all sizes improve their customer engagement, Meta introduced Meta Business Agent. The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool enables businesses to engage with customers at any moment, without a large team.
According to the statement, more than one million businesses are already using a Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp and Messenger to respond to customers. The company has also expanded these agents to Instagram.
What Does the Meta Business Agent Do?
The business agent can do the following:
- Answer questions specific to your business
- Make product recommendations from your product catalogue
- Book appointments and qualify incoming leads
- Close sales
- Let you decide when a team member can step in to provide additional support
Features of Meta Business Agent
This is what SMEs can expect from the Meta business agent.
Automation
Drive better performance, improve efficiency and find growth opportunities by automating your campaigns. Through Advantage+ you can drive campaign performance by using AI to optimise all or parts of your campaigns in real time and match ads to the people most likely to act.
Creative
Generate, enhance and optimise your creative with AI tools built straight into Ads Manager. You can create and optimise your ad images, videos and audio to help you appeal to a larger number of customers.
Conversations
Engage, convert and support your customers everywhere they need you with AI chat and ad tools. Set up Meta Business Agent on Messenger or WhatsApp in minutes to deliver instant, personalised replies. Your AI agent collects customer details, handles repetitive questions and alerts you when it’s time to step in – so you can focus on what matters most.
Guidance
Get help making more strategic decisions and seamlessly completing complex tasks – from your Meta ads to end-to-end workflows. Get personalised campaign recommendations and instant account support, using insights unique to your business. Access Meta AI business assistant directly in your ad account – including Ads Manager and Business Support Home.
Manus is the autonomous AI work partner designed by Meta. It researches, creates, builds and executes – delivering finished results, such as websites, apps, reports and creative content. Manus connects your business tools, automates workflows and runs multiple tasks at once.
Meta Business Agent Platform
As part of the launch of Business Agent, Meta also introduced the Business Agent Platform. It is a new agentic platform that gives businesses the infrastructure to build, customise and deploy their Business Agent at scale. It allows businesses to connect to a growing suite of hundreds of systems like Shopify, Zendesk and Shopee, giving Business Agents the ability to act on behalf of the business. The platform provides larger businesses with enterprise-grade controls, guardrails, and measurement built in so they can define rules and offer personalised experiences, starting within the messaging apps their customers already use.
Benefits of Agentic AI for SMEs
Agentic AI acts as a scalable digital workforce for SMEs, automating multi-step tasks from start to finish without constant human intervention. Benefits for SMEs include:
- Autonomous task execution: AI agents move beyond basic prompt responses to actively execute complex, multi-step workflows like processing customer refunds, managing inventory, and running marketing campaigns.
- Cost and headcount efficiency: By automating repetitive and operational work, SMEs can scale their revenue-generating capacity without a proportional increase in human headcount.
- 24/7 customer support: AI agents can triage, research, and resolve complex customer tickets around the clock, improving customer retention even when business offices are closed.
- Data-driven strategy: AI agents can analyse a mix of structured and unstructured data across your tech stack to forecast cash flow, optimise supply chains, and adapt brand strategy in real-time.
- Levelling the playing field: Smaller businesses can access the same strategic insights, hyper-personalisation, and operational coordination previously only afforded by large enterprise budgets.
Business Processes Automated by Agentic AI
Here are five areas where small businesses can immediately benefit from agentic AI.
Task and Workflow Coordination
Instead of managing everything in a project board, AI agents can assign tasks, adapt timelines and nudge people only when needed. For example, if you decide to change the launch date for a product, your AI agent reschedules prep work, notifies stakeholders and updates your CRM automatically.
Customer Enquiries and Support
AI can respond to and even escalate support tickets or inbound messages, saving time and keeping customers happy. For example, when a customer asks about a shipping delay, your agent can instantly check delivery status, issue a refund if needed and log feedback for the operations team.
Content and Marketing Automation
AI agents can help SMEs with drafting social posts and scheduling campaigns based on engagement trends. A great example of this is during product launches. Rather than hiring extra resources or contracting an agency, your AI agent can build campaign sequences, write copy and socials and post everything at peak engagement times.
Cash Flow and Expense Tracking
AI agents can track expenses, flag issues and recommend cost-saving opportunities in real-time, using real-time data. This saves time for you because you don’t have to use spreadsheets and manual accounting processes.
An example of this is, if your supplier cost increases, your AI agent will alert you, suggest an alternate vendor and adjust your budget forecast.
Hiring and Resource Planning
Agentic AI can match current needs with available talent and, in some cases, even recommend freelance or automation options for short-term gaps. Also, AI can flag gaps in your capacity and recommend vetted freelancers or a template-based workflow alternative, helping you resource projects effectively.
Customer behaviour has changed drastically, and so have their expectations. Customers expect instant responses, but no team can be everywhere at once. This means small… Read More
