Meta Business Agent (MBA)
Meta Business Agent (MBA) is Meta's own AI agent. It replies to customers directly through your WhatsApp Business number, using the business information and context you've set up.
You can set up MBA right from Cekat, from adding a Knowledge Base and setting up Agent Transfer to creating Connectors and testing replies in Preview.
This guide walks you through turning on and setting up Meta Business Agent for a WhatsApp number that's already connected to Cekat.
1. Getting started with Meta Business Agent
Before you use Meta Business Agent, make sure your Meta and WhatsApp Business accounts meet the requirements.
Accept the Terms of Service and add a Line of Credit
Before setting anything up in Cekat:
Accept the Terms of Service (ToS) for Meta Business Agent in your Meta account.
Open Business Settings in Meta.
Go to Billing & payments.
Choose Credit lines.
Add a Line of Credit (LOC) and make sure it's funded.
Important: if your Line of Credit isn't funded, Meta Business Agent can still receive messages, but it can't reply to customers.
Check eligibility
Once the Meta requirements are done:
Open Connected Platform in Cekat.
Choose the WhatsApp channel you want to use.
Open Channel Setup.
Choose the General tab.
Find the Meta Business Agent section.
Click Check Eligibility.
Cekat checks whether the channel meets the requirements for Meta Business Agent.
Run the final check
If the channel passes the eligibility check:
Click Check Status.
Wait for the check to finish.
The final check makes sure the channel is fully ready for Meta Business Agent.
If it passes, the Check Eligibility button changes to Settings.
That means Meta Business Agent is available and ready to set up.
2. Setting up Meta Business Agent
Click Settings in the Meta Business Agent section to open the settings page.
The page has three main sections:
Knowledge Base
Agent Transfer
Connectors
You can also use Preview to test Meta Business Agent's replies before turning it on for customers.
3. Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base holds the information Meta Business Agent refers to when answering customer questions.
You can add to the Knowledge Base from four sources:
Business Info
Website
File
Q&A
A. Business Info
Use Business Info to give the basics about your business.
This can be the main reference when there's no more specific knowledge to answer a customer's question.
Fill in the fields with your business information:
General information
Business description: what your business does, and the products or services you offer.
How to purchase: how customers can buy from you.
Policies
Payment methods: the payment methods you accept.
Delivery and shipping: delivery details, couriers or estimated delivery times.
Return policy: your product return policy.
Contact information
Email: the business email address customers can use.
Hours of operation: your opening days and hours.
Address: your business or store address.
Each field can hold up to 3,000 characters.
Keep the information clear and accurate, because Meta Business Agent may use it when answering customers.
B. Website
Use the Website tab to add your business website as a source of information.
Meta crawls the website you add and uses its content as knowledge for the agent.
Adding a website
Open the Website tab.
Enter the URL in the Website URL field.
Click Add Website.
Wait for the crawl to finish.
Meta does the crawling, and it can take a while.
Note: you can only add 1 URL per submission. You can't edit a URL once it's added. To replace it, delete the old URL and add the new one.
C. File
Use the File tab to add documents or images Meta Business Agent can read as a source of information.
Uploading a file
Open the File tab.
Drag and drop a file into the upload area, or click Choose file.
Choose the file you want to add.
Wait for the upload to finish.
Supported formats:
PDF, DOC, DOCX, PNG, JPG and JPEG
The maximum size is 24 MB per file.
Note: you can't replace a file with a new version directly. Delete the old file first, then upload the latest version.
D. Q&A
Use Q&A to give clear answers to questions customers ask often.
Q&A works best for information with a specific question and answer, such as prices, how to order, business policies or product details.
Adding a Q&A
Open the Q&A tab.
Click Add Q&A.
Enter a question customers often ask.
Enter the answer the agent should give.
Save the Q&A.
Add Q&As for important questions that need a consistent, specific answer.
4. Agent Transfer
Agent Transfer lets Meta Business Agent hand a conversation over from AI to a human agent.
Agent Transfer is available as a tool that Meta Business Agent can call.
When it calls the tool, the conversation is passed straight to a human agent to handle manually.
Good to know: Agent Transfer in MBA has no condition settings or custom triggers to decide when a handoff happens. A handoff happens whenever Meta Business Agent calls the Agent Transfer tool.
5. Connectors
Connectors let you create custom tools so Meta Business Agent can connect to external APIs or systems.
You can set up a connector with details such as:
Tool name
HTTP method
Webhook address
API key
Other API settings
Once it's set up, Meta Business Agent can call the connector whenever it needs something from the external system.
Additional payload limitation
Additional payload isn't sent when a connector is called.
Meta Business Agent doesn't have direct access to Cekat's conversation or contact data to use as additional payload.
That means connectors that need this data can't be used for some actions, such as:
Changing labels based on conversation data.
Changing the pipeline using contact data.
Running other actions that need conversation or contact data from Cekat.
Before creating a connector, make sure the API you're using doesn't depend on this data.
6. Previewing Meta Business Agent
Before turning Meta Business Agent on for customers, use Preview to see how it responds.
To open Preview:
Finish setting up your Knowledge Base, Agent Transfer or Connectors as needed.
Click Preview at the top right of the page.
Type a message in the chat field.
Check Meta Business Agent's reply.
Click New test to start a fresh conversation.
Preview runs directly on Meta's system and isn't charged. The Preview page shows this as Runs on Meta, not billed.
Use Preview to make sure the knowledge and replies are right before turning the agent on for customers.
7. Turning on MBA for WhatsApp
Once setup is done, Meta Business Agent isn't used automatically to answer customers yet.
You need to choose MBA as the AI Agent on the WhatsApp channel you want to use.
Activating Meta Business Agent
Open Inboxes.
Choose the WhatsApp channel or number you want to use.
Open the Basic tab.
Click the AI Agent dropdown.
Choose Meta Business Agent.
Click Save.
Once saved, Audience is set to All Customers automatically.
Meta Business Agent will then start answering customer conversations on that WhatsApp number.
Important: make sure the Line of Credit in your Meta account is funded. Without an active Line of Credit, MBA can receive messages but can't send replies.