Meta India planning to add AI capabilities to business messaging, says Ravi Garg
Meta Indiais planning to add AI capabilities to the business messaging. This will help the small businesses using the platform to automate certain transactions to cut the processing time, Ravi Garg, director of business messaging at Meta India, tells B.Krishna Mohan in an interaction.
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AI aid
With an app or a website of their own is still far for small businesses, many are warming up to use messaging to build a small catalogue, push info sought by the customers and also complete the sale via the messaging platform. Meta India is planning to add AI capabilities to the business messaging. We believe GenAI features will help in this segment. We are investing in bringing it to our messaging services so businesses can benefit from it. AI Businesses are experimenting with AI experiences on messaging platforms. The WhatsApp API enables brands to create chatbots via virtual assistant technology. The coming decade will be about technology, particularly AI and Generative AI, powering businesses, particularly more small businesses in India.
Focus
Business messaging is a priority for us in India and is also a revenue driver for our India business. Messaging is at the centre disrupting the way people interact with each other and with businesses. People are seeking connections that are conversational, instant, real-time, and fast. People have a preference to leverage conversation commerce for day-to-day needs.
Users
Businesses of all sizes have come to rely on Whatsapp as business messaging. We are investing in ways to help businesses easily build their presence; send the right message to the right person to improve their ROI. More brands will pivot towards conversational commerce in the future on the back of rising adoption of messaging platforms across large and small enterprises. A recent survey said 70% of surveyed enterprises are already engaging with more than 50 per cent of their customer base using conversational platforms. More than 60 per cent of enterprises are planning to increase spending on conversational platforms over the next three to four years.
Revenues
Click-to-WhatsApp ad revenue continues to grow very quickly in particular and is already at a multi-billion dollar annual run-rate. India is a key market and business messaging is a key driver for our India revenue. Revenue from Click-to-Message ads in India has doubled year-over-year. Every week now, more than 60% of people on WhatsApp in India message a business app account.
Recent additions
Company last year had announced some product updates, including Flows on WhatsApp. It also expanded payment options for users to pay businesses through their preferred mode directly within the WhatsApp chat. We are seeing momentum for these products. Today, businesses are using these for answering questions to closing sales to sending relevant updates. Having AI act as an assistant within the WhatsApp Business app will help with things like creating a Facebook or Instagram ad that clicks to start a WhatsApp chat or getting support using features like catalog or quick replies, for example.
Verified businesses
We’re beginning to roll out Meta Verified to small businesses using the WhatsApp Business app. Meta Verified will make it easier for businesses to establish a presence on WhatsApp, build credibility with customers and grow their brand so people can feel more confident in reaching out. Meta Verified businesses will get a verified badge, impersonation protection, account support, a verified channel and premium features including a custom WhatsApp page that is discoverable via a web search and enhanced multi-device support so multiple employees can respond to customers to provide better service.
Use cases
Businesses across verticals are implementing these features. They include Bengaluru Metro, Delhi Metro, and Hyderabad Metro. We also introduced ticketing on Nagpur Metro making it the sixth metro service after Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune to offer booking and purchasing tickets right within WhatsApp chat. Flows is used for credit card approvals, booking diagnostic appointments, implementing vernacular languages on chatbots and others.
