WhatsApp AI Chatbot on the Business API That Answers, Tracks Orders and Books Appointments
We connect an AI agent to the official WhatsApp Business API and to your systems: it answers with your real data, checks an order’s status in your ERP or store, books appointments, qualifies leads and hands the conversation to a person with the full history. €8,000-30,000 as a custom project, live in 6-10 weeks.
- €8,000-30,000 Custom project, with WhatsApp as a channel
- 6-10 weeks From the first meeting to production
- ISO 42001 Certified AI management, plus ISO 27001 and ENS
- 01 · Systems Reads ERP, CRM and email
- 02 · Goal Plans the steps
- 03 · Proposal With the evidence
- 04 · Control A person approves
- 05 · Action Acts in your systems
- 06 · Log Everything is traced
- Learns from every approval
Definition
What is a WhatsApp AI chatbot?
A WhatsApp AI chatbot (or AI agent) is an assistant connected to the official WhatsApp Business API (Meta’s Cloud API) that understands what the customer writes, looks up the company’s systems (store, ERP, calendar or CRM) and answers or acts in the same chat: it gives an order’s status, books an appointment or hands the conversation to a person when needed.
Summary
Executive Summary
For leadership.
Your customers already message you on WhatsApp. If someone answers from a phone, questions pile up after hours, nothing gets measured and the answer depends on who picks it up. An AI agent connected to the official API replies instantly, at any hour and in each customer’s language, using data from your store or ERP, and leaves your team the conversations that really need a person.
We build it on the same engine we already run in production on the web: the assistant we built for La Salve replies in 1-9 seconds and turns what it cannot solve into tickets that are already classified, and the one for Loviux answers in 18 languages and checks orders after verifying identity on the server. WhatsApp is another channel for that engine, with its own rules: approved templates, the 24-hour window, customer consent and a per-message fee that Meta charges separately. If you only need a chatbot on your website, see AI chatbots.
- €8,000-30,000 Custom customer service agent
- 6-10 weeks To production
- 24 h Free-reply window set by Meta
What's included
What the Agent Does on WhatsApp
What it handles on its own with your data, and what it passes to your team.
- Customer service: opening hours, shipping, returns, pricing and product questions, using your real policies and catalogue
- Order status: checks your store or ERP and says where the order is, after confirming the person asking is its owner
- Bookings and appointments: checks availability in your calendar, books, changes or cancels, and sends the reminder with an approved template
- Lead qualification: asks what your sales team needs to know and creates the contact in your CRM with the conversation
- Handoff to a person with the full history, when the customer asks or when the agent should not decide alone
- Messages outside the 24-hour window using templates approved by Meta: order shipped, appointment tomorrow, invoice ready
- WhatsApp buttons and lists so customers can choose quickly when there are only a few options
- Consent and opt-outs: opt-in records and immediate opt-out when a customer wants no more messages
- Conversation dashboard showing what was solved, what was handed off and what each conversation costs
Why
WhatsApp’s Rules, Built Into the Design
The 24-hour window, approved templates and consent are not details: they are how the channel works.
When a customer writes, a 24-hour window opens in which the agent replies normally. After that, the business can only start a conversation with a template approved by Meta (an order update, an appointment reminder), and only with people who have given consent. We build the agent with those rules inside: it knows whether the window is open, picks the right template, stores the opt-in record and processes opt-outs. And because Meta charges separately for messages under its current rates, the dashboard shows what is sent and why, so the bill never surprises you.
- 24 h Window
- Approved Templates
- Recorded Opt-in
Key points
What Businesses Use It For
Four common uses. One agent can cover several from the same number.
- 01
Online stores: “Where is my order?”
The most repeated question. The agent checks the customer’s identity, looks up the order in your store or ERP and replies with the status and the carrier’s tracking. If there is a problem (damage, delay, change of address), it logs it and passes it to the right person. We connect the systems the same way we do in ERP and ecommerce integration.
- 02
Clinics, workshops and appointment-based services
Books, moves or cancels appointments against your real calendar, with no double bookings, and sends the reminder the day before with an approved template. Anything that needs professional judgement (a diagnosis, a special quote) goes to a person.
- 03
Lead generation through WhatsApp
Ads or a website with a WhatsApp button: the agent asks what your sales team needs (what they are looking for, when, how much), creates the contact in your CRM with the conversation and passes it to a salesperson when it fits.
- 04
After-sales and support
Warranties, manuals, usage instructions or technical issues, answered from your documentation. If that documentation is large and scattered, the agent searches it with enterprise RAG and cites where each answer comes from.
How we work
How We Launch It
From the first meeting to the agent answering on your WhatsApp number: 6-10 weeks.
- 01
Real Conversations and Scope
We read what people ask you today on WhatsApp, email and phone, and decide with you what the agent solves alone and what always goes to a person. We also review your number and your Meta account.
- 02
Official API Setup and Templates
WhatsApp Business account on Meta’s platform, business verification, number connected to the Cloud API and templates submitted for approval. If you already work with a WhatsApp provider, we connect through it.
- 03
Agent and Integrations
We connect the agent to your store, ERP, calendar or CRM, with identity checks and permissions enforced in code. We load your policies and catalogue and test it with real conversations.
- 04
Testing With Your Team and Go-Live
Your team tries it before customers do. We tune answers, handoff thresholds and templates, and open it to all traffic once it works.
- 05
Post-Launch Tuning
We review conversations, fix what fails and add what keeps coming up. Three months of tuning are included.
Who it is for
Is It Right for You?
It fits when WhatsApp is already a real channel for your business and the answers depend on your data.
Who it's for
- Online stores that get the same questions about orders, shipping and returns every day.
- Appointment-based businesses (clinics, workshops, academies, home services) losing time booking by phone.
- Companies generating leads on WhatsApp from ads or their website that cannot reply fast enough.
- Support teams that want the agent to filter and solve repetitive requests and pass the rest on with context.
- Companies serving customers in several languages or outside office hours.
Who it's not for
- If you get only a few messages a day: the free WhatsApp Business app with quick replies is enough.
- If you want to send mass messages to lists without consent: WhatsApp does not allow it and neither do we.
- If the answers do not depend on your data (just opening hours and address): an off-the-shelf tool is cheaper.
- If nobody in your company can take the conversations the agent hands off.
Investment
How Much a WhatsApp AI Chatbot Costs
The same prices we publish for chatbots and agents. Excluding VAT.
WhatsApp is one more channel within a custom project, not a separate product. After the first meeting, with your conversations and systems in front of us, we give you a fixed figure. The general breakdown is in <a href="/en/ai-chatbot-cost">how much an AI chatbot costs</a>.
- WhatsApp customer service agent Most common
€8,000-30,000
Customer service with your data, on WhatsApp and, if you want, on your website. 6-10 weeks.
- Connection to the official WhatsApp Business API and approved templates
- Answers from your real policies, FAQs and catalogue
- Order or appointment lookups with identity verification
- Handoff to a person with the full history
- Conversation dashboard with resolution and cost
- 3 months of post-launch tuning
- Agent that acts in your systems
€25,000-50,000
An agent with 2-3 tools on one of your systems. 4-6 weeks to production.
- Everything in the customer service agent
- Actions in your ERP, CRM or calendar, not just lookups
- Autonomy limits and human approval for high-impact actions
- Log of every action and monitoring
- 30 days of support after deployment
What Meta charges for messages is separate: your WhatsApp Business account pays it under Meta’s current rates, which vary by country and message type. AI model usage is also separate; at Loviux, AI customer service costs less than €0.01 per conversation.
Deliverables
What Is Included and What Is Not
So you know what you pay to whom.
Included
- Account setup and configuration on the official WhatsApp Business API
- Template writing and submission for Meta’s approval
- Agent connected to your store, ERP, calendar or CRM
- Handoff to a person with history, and a conversation dashboard
- Consent records, opt-outs and configured data retention
- Technical documentation and training for your team
Not included
- What Meta charges for messages (paid to Meta, under its rates)
- Mass marketing sends to lists without consent
The proof
The Engine Is Already in Production
We do not have a published WhatsApp case study yet: what is running in production today is the same engine on the web, and what changes on WhatsApp is the channel and its rules. At La Salve, the Bilbao brewery owned by the Mahou group, the assistant is connected to WooCommerce, verifies the customer’s identity on the server, looks up real orders, replies in 1-9 seconds, 24/7 and in each person’s language, and turns what it cannot solve into tickets already classified into 8 categories with automatic routing. At Loviux, the chatbot answers in 18 languages, recommends only real catalogue products and checks orders after verifying identity, for less than €0.01 per conversation. And in-house, the kiwop.com assistant runs on Claude, and Nexo, our platform, operates 27 AI agents with human approval and a log of every action.
- 1-9 s La Salve assistant response time
- 18 Languages of the Loviux chatbot
- 27 Active AI agents in Nexo
- 5.0 Clutch rating
For the CTO
Technical Summary
For the CTO.
The agent receives messages through the Meta Cloud API webhook, verifies the signature of each call and replies through the same API. The logic lives in our own service, not on a third-party platform: the model (Claude, GPT or another, interchangeable) interprets the request and picks a tool; the code decides what it may touch. Identity verification, permissions, 24-hour window control and template selection are deterministic, as at La Salve and Loviux.
Tools call your store, ERP, calendar or CRM through their APIs, with credentials in an encrypted vault and minimum permissions. Every conversation is logged with its cost, the tools used and the outcome. Data is stored on European servers with configured retention, and we design privacy as in privacy engineering. For connecting the model to your systems, see LLM integration.
Technologies
- WhatsApp Cloud API
- Webhooks
- Anthropic Claude
- OpenAI
- Node.js
- Python
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- WooCommerce
- Shopify
- HubSpot
- Docker
- Cloud API webhook with signature verification
- Interchangeable model; rules and permissions in code
- 24-hour window control and approved templates
- Server-side identity verification before sharing data
- Every conversation logged with cost and outcome
Risks and how we cover them
Risks and How We Avoid Them
What can go wrong on a channel as direct as WhatsApp.
- 01
The agent shares order details with someone who is not the owner
MitigationIdentity verification is done in code against your store or ERP, not by the model. Without a match, no data is shown.
- 02
Made-up answers about prices, stock or delivery times
MitigationThe agent only answers with data it looks up in your systems or documents, and if it cannot find it, it says so and hands off to a person.
- 03
Messages blocked or the number restricted by Meta
MitigationOutside the window we only write with approved templates and to people who gave consent, and we process opt-outs immediately.
- 04
Message spend nobody controls
MitigationThe dashboard shows every template sent and why, and campaigns or scheduled sends are approved by a person.
Technologies
Technologies
What we use to build and connect the agent.
- WhatsApp Business Platform
- WhatsApp Cloud API
- Anthropic Claude
- OpenAI
- Node.js
- Python
- Laravel
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- WooCommerce
- Shopify
- Magento
- PrestaShop
- HubSpot
- Zendesk
- Google Calendar
FAQ
WhatsApp AI Chatbot FAQs
What people ask us before starting.
What is the WhatsApp Business API and how is it different from the app?
The WhatsApp Business app is used by a person on a phone. The WhatsApp Business API (Meta’s Cloud API) is the official way to connect WhatsApp to software: it handles many conversations at once, integrates your store or CRM and lets an AI agent reply. It is the one we use.
How much does a WhatsApp AI chatbot cost?
As a custom project, €8,000-30,000 excluding VAT, depending on integrations and languages; if it also has to take actions in your systems, the agent starts at €25,000-50,000. Messages, which Meta charges under its own rates, and AI model usage are extra.
How much does Meta charge for WhatsApp messages?
Meta charges for messages or conversations under its current rates, which vary by country and message type (marketing, utility, authentication or service). Your WhatsApp Business account pays them directly. We do not quote figures because Meta updates them: we review them with you, against your real volume, before we start.
What is the WhatsApp 24-hour window?
When a customer writes to you, you can reply with normal messages for the 24 hours after their last message. After that, you can only write to them with a template approved by Meta. The agent handles this on its own: it knows whether the window is open and which template applies.
Can the agent message a customer first?
Yes, with a template approved by Meta and only to customers who have given consent to receive WhatsApp messages: order updates, appointment reminders, invoices. Marketing messages also need consent and are approved by someone on your team.
Can it check an order’s status in my ERP or store?
Yes. It connects through the API to your store (WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop, Magento) or your ERP and replies with the real status, after checking on the server that the person asking is the owner. That is what the La Salve assistant does with WooCommerce.
What happens when the agent does not know the answer?
It says so and hands the conversation to someone on your team with the full history, so the customer does not have to repeat anything. You decide which cases always go to a person: complaints, refunds, amounts, anything.
Is it GDPR compliant?
Yes, if it is designed for it: a privacy notice in the first conversation, consent records for business-initiated messages, immediate opt-out, data on European servers with configured retention and AI providers under a data processing agreement. We do it with the same controls behind our ISO 27001, ISO 42001 and ENS certifications.
Can I keep my current WhatsApp number?
It depends on how you use it today. We review your number and account at the start and tell you whether it can move to the API or whether a new one makes more sense. We check this before starting, not halfway through.
Does it work in several languages?
Yes. It detects the customer’s language and replies in it. The Loviux chatbot answers in 18 languages, and we work in seven every day, so we check how the answers sound in each one.
How is this different from your chatbot service?
The engine is the same. This page is for when WhatsApp is the main channel, with its templates, 24-hour window and consent rules. If you need an assistant on your website, or across several channels at once, start with AI chatbots.
Next step
Tell Us What People Ask You on WhatsApp
30 minutes with the person who will design the agent. We tell you what it can solve alone with your data, what it would cost and whether the free app is enough for you.
- No commitment
- Response in 24h
- Custom proposal
Let's talk.
Initial technical consultation
AI, security and performance. Diagnosis with phased proposal.
- NDA available
- Response <24h
- Phased proposal
Your first meeting is with a Solutions Architect, not a salesperson.
Talk to an architect