A WhatsApp AI chatbot for your business: what it can handle and what it should not 

Most of your customers would rather send a WhatsApp message than fill in a form or wait on a call. So the messages pile up at night, on Sundays and during the lunch rush. A WhatsApp AI chatbot answers the routine ones straight away and passes the rest to your team.

How is an AI chatbot different from the old menu bots?

The old bots sent a menu. Press 1 for prices, press 2 for timings, and anything else got "Sorry, I did not understand". Customers learned to ignore them and type "talk to human" until somebody gave up and replied.

An AI chatbot reads the message the way a person would. "Is the blue one back in medium and can you send it to Pune by Friday" is one question with three parts, and the bot can now handle all of them if it has access to your stock and delivery details. It also copes with spelling mistakes, short forms and messages that mix Hindi and English.

We build this kind of system for real use. Our work includes AI front desks that pick up enquiries for busy offices, and AI customer support for an eCommerce business. The lesson from both is simple - the AI is only as good as the information and the hand-off rules behind it.

What can a WhatsApp chatbot handle well?

• Opening hours, location, prices from your list and stock questions.
• Order status, if it can look up the order.
• Collecting details for a booking, quote or return.
• Sending a catalogue item or brochure the customer asks for.
• Answering the same ten questions your staff answer fifty times a day.

What should go to a person?

• Complaints and anything where the customer is upset.
• Discounts, credit and special pricing.
• Refunds and disputes about payments.
• Any question the bot cannot answer from the information it has.

The hand-off matters more than the bot. Send the chat to a named person with the whole conversation, and tell the customer when they will hear back. A bot that loops a frustrated customer around the same three answers does more harm than no bot at all.

What are WhatsApp's opt-in rules?

WhatsApp sets rules for businesses that message people through its platform. Its developer documentation says a business must clearly state that a person is opting in to receive messages, must clearly state the business's name, and must comply with applicable law.

The business decides how it collects opt-in. WhatsApp lists examples such as SMS, a website, a phone call using an interactive voice response flow, or in person on paper. Keep a record of who opted in and how, and give people an easy way to stop messages.

How do you set one up well?

1. Read a month of your WhatsApp chats and list the ten most common questions.
2. Write a clear, correct answer for each, in the words your customers use.
3. Connect the bot to the places it needs, such as your price list or order system.
4. Set the hand-off rules and name the person who picks up each type of chat.
5. Test it with your own team for a week before customers see it.
6. Read a sample of real chats every week and fix the weak answers.

Step six is the one people skip, and it is the one that makes the bot better every month. A short weekly read of twenty chats shows you exactly where customers get stuck.

What does it look like in a typical shop?

Take a small clothing store that sells in person and on WhatsApp. At 11 at night a customer asks whether a jacket is available in a size and how long delivery takes. The bot checks stock, gives the delivery estimate from the store's own rules and offers to hold the item. In the morning the owner sees a list of held items and two chats marked for a person.

This is an illustration, not a client result. The point is that the owner starts the day with decisions to make, not a pile of unread messages.

Tell us what is giving you headaches. If we are not the right people, we will try our best to find who is, and connect you to them.

Frequently asked questions

These are the questions business owners ask most often about putting an AI chatbot on WhatsApp.