Meta now lets AI agents handle the boring parts of WhatsApp Business setup

Alongside news of its new AI-focused subscription plans, Meta announced on Tuesday that it will now allow AI agents of your choosing to set up and manage WhatsApp Business messaging, the service that allows companies to connect with customers through WhatsApp conversations.

As Meta explains, this process was previously a bit more cumbersome, as it required developers to move between different tools and services, including the Developer Console, Meta’s Business Manager, the API reference, and their editor. Now, they can instead ask their preferred AI agent to set up WhatsApp Business messaging by chatting with it and describing what needs to be done.

This is made possible by the new WhatsApp Business Tools MCP, an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that directly connects an AI coding agent like Claude, Cursor, Codex, or ChatGPT to the WhatsApp Business Platform.

The move sees Meta expanding its existing lineup of MCP servers beyond those for managing ads and monitoring app configurations, and other social technologies to one specifically designed to help onboard businesses to WhatsApp. Many other tech companies also offer MCP servers that allow AI agents to securely interact with their services, including PayPal, Stripe, GitHub, Notion, Slack, Salesforce, Atlassian, X, Google, Microsoft, and others.