How to Set Up the WhatsApp AI Agent

In this article, you'll learn how to set up the WhatsApp AI Agent on your phone number, test it, and go live.

Before you start, make sure your account is on the Advanced or Premium plan and your number is eligible. See What is the WhatsApp AI Agent? for the eligibility requirements.

To get started, open the AI Agent page in WANotifier.

Step 1: Accept the Meta Business Agent terms

Meta requires you to accept its AI terms once for your WhatsApp Business Account.

Click the Accept the terms in WhatsApp Manager button. This opens the Meta Business Agent tab in WhatsApp Manager.

Click Set up Meta Business Agent and accept the terms.

Come back to WANotifier. The page checks again automatically. You can also click Check again.

If WhatsApp Manager shows a white error screen with the text "Sorry, this content isn't available right now", your account isn't eligible yet. See Fix: AI Agent Not Available or Not Replying.

Step 2: Connect the AI Agent

Once the terms are accepted, WANotifier checks whether your number is eligible.

If it is, click Connect AI Agent. WANotifier creates the agent on your number.
If you already set up a Meta Business Agent for this number in WhatsApp Manager, WANotifier connects to it automatically. You don't need to do anything.

Step 3: Add a payment method in Meta Billing Hub

Meta bills the agent's usage directly. To let the agent reply to all your customers, add a payment method:

Click the link to Billing Hub on the AI Agent page.
Open the Meta Business Agent Billable Account and click Add payment method.

You can skip this step while testing. Without a payment method, the agent only replies to numbers on your Agent Allowlist.

Step 4: Train the agent

Go to the Configure tab and add your business info, FAQs, files and website pages. The more accurate your information, the better the agent's answers.

For details on each section, see Train Your WhatsApp AI Agent.

Step 5: Set up Handoff and Followup

Go to Setup → Handoff & Followup.

Handoff: Turn this on to let the agent pass a conversation to your team when it can't help, or when the customer asks for a person. Then choose the message the customer sees:

Meta's standard handoff message
A message the agent writes for each conversation
Your own message, for example: "Thanks, a member of our team will get back to you shortly."

When the agent hands over a conversation, the assigned team member gets a notification.

Followup: Turn this on to send one message when a customer stops replying. Choose the delay (5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 8 hours or 24 hours) and the message, for example: "Still there? Happy to help if you have more questions."

Click Save Changes.

Step 6: Test the agent

Use the test chat panel on the right side of the AI Agent page. Type a question the way a customer would and check the reply. If the agent would hand the conversation over, the test chat tells you why.

To test on WhatsApp itself:

Go to Setup → Agent Allowlist.
Click Add Allowlisted Number and add your own number and your team's numbers.
Go to Setup → AI Agent and set Who can message the agent to Only the numbers added under Agent Allowlist.

Now message your business number from an allowlisted number. Your customers aren't affected.

Step 7: Go live

When you're happy with the replies:

Go to Setup → AI Agent.
Turn the agent on. The status shows Agent is active.
Set Who can message the agent to Everyone who messages this number.
Click Save Changes.

That's it. The agent now replies to everyone who messages your number. You can pause it from the same tab at any time.

Every conversation the agent handles shows in your Inbox, where your team can take over at any time. See Inbox Overview to learn more.

Updated on: 30/10/2026

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