Meta has unveiled new AI-centric subscription offerings and, in a related move announced on Tuesday, revealed that users will now be able to have AI agents of their choice handle the setup and management of WhatsApp Business messaging — the platform that enables businesses to engage with customers via WhatsApp conversations.

Previously, getting WhatsApp Business messaging up and running was a more labor-intensive affair, requiring developers to juggle multiple tools and services such as the Developer Console, Meta's Business Manager, the API reference, and their own editor. Under the new approach, users can simply describe what they need to their preferred AI agent through a chat interface, and the agent takes care of the setup.

This capability is powered by the newly introduced WhatsApp Business Tools MCP, a Model Context Protocol server that links an AI coding agent — such as Claude, Cursor, Codex, or ChatGPT — directly to the WhatsApp Business Platform. With this launch, Meta is broadening its existing collection of MCP servers, which already covered ad management, app configuration monitoring, and other social technologies, to include one purpose-built for onboarding businesses onto WhatsApp.

MCP servers that let AI agents securely interface with services are offered by numerous other tech companies as well, among them PayPal, Stripe, GitHub, Notion, Slack, Salesforce, Atlassian, X, Google, Microsoft, and more.

In Meta's implementation, the AI agent takes over much of the tedious work tied to WhatsApp Business setup — establishing the company's WhatsApp Business account, adding and verifying its phone number, registering it for Cloud API access, reviewing the business's Terms of Service, and similar steps. Beyond setup, businesses can direct the AI agent to handle other jobs, such as describing a messaging template they'd like it to generate or asking it to modify an existing template. They can also test messages and webhooks, and keep an eye on items that might otherwise have failed without notice, including the Terms of Service, payment method, and Business Verification.

Meta also noted that during setup and configuration, its separate MCP server — Meta Social Technologies MCP — can be leveraged to find API endpoints, look up documentation, and assist with error troubleshooting.