Kenyan businesses using WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook now eye a sales boost as Meta rolls out artificial intelligence-powered agents that can text customers, recommend products and close purchases on behalf of employees.
The three social media platforms’ American parent firm, Meta, is rolling out the “Business Agents” globally this week, targeting small and medium-sized businesses.
The AI agents will be able to answer customer questions, recommend products, negotiate prices, book appointments and escalate conversations to human staff when necessary.
For now, traders using Meta’s Business tools only get retail chatbots that rely on scripted responses and predefined menus to respond to customer messages.
AI agents can take actions on behalf of users, effectively providing firms with a round-the-clock digital salesperson at no cost.
“We’re expanding our Business Agent to businesses of all sizes, so you can have yours up and running within minutes, responding in your customers’ language using your tone,” Meta said in a blog post.
The tech giant is rolling out the agents for free, but it said it would, “in the coming months", put the service behind a paid subscription model under its Meta One ecosystem.
Meta One, unveiled last month, bundles advanced AI capabilities, creator tools and business services across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
It includes deeper AI reasoning for complex tasks, algorithm priority on social media feeds and advanced post analytics.
Monthly subscription prices range from $7.99 (Sh1,033) to $49.99 (Sh6,466), depending on features and usage levels.
AI agents are powered by the same large language model technology behind AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.
The agents combine chatbots’ conversational abilities with access to third-party applications such as a business’s catalogue, allowing them to plan, reason and execute complex tasks with little human intervention.
For a Kenyan clothes retailer, for instance, a customer could send a question through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Instagram direct message, on which dress sizes are available, whether a specific colour is in stock, what promotions are running and which accessories best complement a particular outfit.
For service businesses like salons, clinics or consultants, Meta’s AI agents will be able to schedule appointments and manage customer enquiries without requiring staff involvement, according to demo videos seen by the Business Daily.
Meta said businesses will be able to define when humans should step into conversations, creating a hybrid model where routine queries are automated while complex issues are handled by staff.
The update comes as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram increasingly become digital storefronts for businesses across Africa.
The Communications Authority of Kenya says more than 68 percent of the country’s adults use Facebook, while about 54 percent use WhatsApp.
Facebook was Kenya’s most visited social media platform in 2025, according to web traffic monitor Cloudflare. It was followed by the Chinese video-sharing site TikTok, and then Instagram and WhatsApp.
In Kenya, thousands of small enterprises use WhatsApp Business as their primary customer communication channel, often replacing websites and dedicated e-commerce platforms.
Many of these businesses depend on basic automated replies that can only answer simple questions, such as when a shop opens and closes, as well as external links to the business’s catalogue.
Many small businesses struggle to maintain customer support outside working hours and often lose sales opportunities when enquiries are not answered.
An AI agent capable of responding instantly, recommending products and qualifying leads around the clock could improve conversion rates while reducing staffing costs.
Meta says future versions of the AI agents will be capable of conducting market research and point out product trends for businesses.
“We will expand its capabilities to help fully run all your daily operations — like surfacing product insights, connecting with the tools to manage your calendar and providing competitive intelligence,” Meta said.
However, the advent of AI agents has raised concerns among cybersecurity experts, who say the virtual tools create new attack surfaces as they can access systems and perform actions autonomously.
An emerging threat "prompt injection attack", is when cyberattackers hide malicious instructions in seemingly harmless content to manipulate an AI system into performing unauthorised actions. Experts say the risk is heightened when AI agents are connected to customer databases, payment systems, calendars or internal business software.
Last week, Meta’s AI support chatbot was tricked into resetting account credentials for high-profile social media pages, including the dormant Obama White House account.
The chatbot was persuaded to reset account credentials without independently verifying identity, locking users out of their accounts.
Meta’s introduction of agentic AI for businesses is part of efforts to diversify revenue beyond digital advertising by turning AI into a standalone product. The firm recently introduced advertising on WhatsApp, marking a shift for the app.
It gave Kenyan businesses an avenue to run campaigns in the Status feed to promote products and services, with ads designed to initiate instant conversations.
