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Guide · AI · For the owner choosing what to automate first

Which job should Meta's AI agent do on your WhatsApp? Meta's six agent types, the add-ons, and the pairs owners confuse

Meta Business Agent, Meta's AI agent for business numbers, can be set up for quite different jobs. Meta's developer pages sort them in a useful way: six complete kinds of agent, each built for one job, and seven add-ons for an agent that already answers. They also name the pairs people mix up. Here is that map, with our guide on each.

Published 8 October 2026

Six kinds of agent

Meta's page on building an agent says each of its guides sets up a complete agent for one job: its instructions, what it answers from, the tools it calls, when it hands over to a person, and the tests that show it behaves. Meta's advice is to follow one from start to finish, then extend it.

  • Sell one product. Find it, confirm the right size or colour, check stock, take the order. Meta's example is a clothing brand. Our selling guide.
  • Sell several parts as one set. Price and book them together, so nobody ends up with a flight and no hotel. Meta's example is a trip with a flight, a hotel and a hire car; the same selling guide covers it.
  • Take a reservation. Hold something for a range of dates and report the booking back. Meta's example is vehicle rental. Our bookings guide.
  • Answer support questions. Reply from your own policies, look up orders, start a return and pass the conversation to a person when needed. Meta's example is a shop. Our support guide.
  • Help after the sale. Explain conditions, change a booking, say where a refund has got to. Meta's example is an airline. Our after-the-sale guide.
  • Qualify a lead. Ask the right questions and hand a complete lead to the business's customer-records software. Meta's example is catering and bulk orders. Our leads guide.

The pairs Meta says are easy to confuse

Meta says the difference lies in what the agent has to get right, not in the industry.

  • One product or a set. If the hard part is identifying the one thing a customer wants, it is the single product agent. If the order only makes sense as several parts priced and committed together, it is the set.
  • Support or after the sale. Support is the front door for any question, and acting on an order is one branch of it. After-the-sale assumes every conversation starts from a booking the customer already holds.
  • Reservation or purchase. A reservation holds something for a window of time and can be changed or cancelled later. If what you sell is sent out rather than reserved, use one of the purchase agents.

Meta adds that the example industry does not limit anyone: the date-range check in the bookings guide works the same for meeting rooms, equipment hire or appointments. Choose on the job, not the industry.

Seven add-ons for an agent that already answers

Meta's page on adding a capability says each add-on stands alone and can be added in any order. Each assumes the agent already runs on a WhatsApp number, that someone can set up the tools it calls, and that there is a way to test it before customers see it.

  • Live catalog and stock, so it only offers what a customer can actually get, and recommendations that turn a vague request into products to choose from. Both are in the selling guide.
  • A basket built over several messages, and "where is my order?" answered from live delivery data, in the orders and basket guide.
  • Knowing who is signed in, and a one-time passcode before acting for someone, in the account holder guide.
  • Buttons, lists, carousels, locations or a form instead of plain text, in the interactive messages guide.

Meta names two more pairs here. Sign-in keeps track of who the agent is talking to; the passcode proves the person is who they say. Many agents need both. And recommendations built on a catalog the agent cannot check will confidently offer things nobody can buy, so Meta says to add live stock first.

Our reading: one job first, tested, then add

Meta's pages describe a tool as what makes an add-on possible and an instruction as what stops the agent using it at the wrong moment or describing results it never received. For an owner, that points to starting with the single job that brings in most of your chats, testing it, and only then adding the next piece. Testing is covered in the testing guide, and what the agent is in the first place in the Meta Business Agent guide.

Questions

What can Meta's AI agent do on our WhatsApp number?

Meta's developer pages describe six kinds of agent: selling one product, selling several parts as one set, taking reservations, answering support questions, helping after the sale, and qualifying leads. Seven add-ons extend an agent that already answers.

Should we choose the agent type by our industry?

No. Meta says to choose on the job, not the industry; its example industries only make the instructions concrete, and the same setup transfers, such as a date-range booking check for rooms, equipment or appointments.

Is a support agent the same as an after-sales agent?

Not in Meta's map. A support agent takes any question and acting on an order is one branch of it; an after-sales agent assumes every conversation starts from a booking the customer already holds.

Can we add product recommendations before live stock?

Meta advises adding live catalog and stock first, because recommendations built on a catalog the agent cannot check will confidently offer things nobody can buy.

Sources

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

Deciding what to automate first?

We set up a business's WhatsApp number on a system its team runs, so every customer conversation sits in one place the business owns. A short call is the easiest way to see how that would work for you.

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