WhatsApp AI agent for business: how it replies, and when it hands over

A WhatsApp AI agent reads each customer message and writes a reply from the facts you give it, in the customer’s language, inside WhatsApp’s 24-hour window, and hands the chat to a person when the customer asks for one or the topic needs one. Because it is not following a fixed menu, the guardrails around it matter more than how clever its answers are.

This guide explains how an AI agent on WhatsApp works, what it should never do, and how Fliok AI, the agent built into Fliok, is set up.

How is an AI agent different from a chatbot?

A chatbot follows a path you drew: buttons, lists and fixed answers. An AI agent writes each answer itself. That makes it good at the questions a menu cannot predict (“do you deliver to Salt Lake on Sunday?”) and means it has to be told firmly what it may not say.

Fliok has both. See how to make a WhatsApp chatbot without coding for the first.

How does a WhatsApp AI agent work?

1. 1A customer writes. It might be text, a photo of a product or a short video.
2. 2The agent checks whether it may answer: is the AI switched on for the workspace and this chat, is it within the hours you set, has the customer opted out, is the 24-hour window open, and is there money in the AI wallet?
3. 3It reads what you told it: what you sell, prices, policies and the questions people ask.
4. 4It writes a reply in the customer’s language and checks it against its rules.
5. 5It sends the reply, or hands the chat to your team.

What should an AI agent never do?

These are the rules Fliok AI works under. Your own instructions cannot switch them off.

• Never invent facts. It answers only from what you wrote, and never makes up prices, policies, links or details. Every rupee amount in a reply has to come from your facts.
• Never promise what a person has to do. No callback times, no “the team will call you”, and no discount or quote that is not in your facts.
• Never keep an old quote alive. A price it quoted is treated as valid for 14 days.
• Never ask for secrets: no OTPs, UPI PINs, card numbers, Aadhaar or PAN.
• Never claim to be human when a customer sincerely asks.
• Never send its own notes. When no reply is needed, it sends nothing.

When it learns a new rule from a conversation, the rule is saved as a draft that changes nothing until an admin approves it.

When does it hand the chat to a person?

• The customer asks for one. Fliok AI recognises the request in English, Hindi, Hinglish, Bengali and Banglish, tells the customer the team can see the chat, stops replying on it and alerts your team.
• Someone on your team replies, from the inbox or from the WhatsApp Business App on a coexistence number. The AI stays out of that chat for 45 minutes after the last human message.
• You pause it on one chat. Pause while I reply turns it back on after 7 quiet days; Turn AI off permanently does not.
• The message mentions a topic you excluded, such as “refund”, “complaint” or “legal”.
• A chat runs too long: 30 AI replies in an hour, or 100 in a day, on one chat hands it to the team.

What can it understand?

• The customer’s language. It matches the customer, so Hinglish gets Hinglish. You choose the language it starts in.
• Photos and short videos. It looks at a photo, and at key frames of a video.
• Links. If a customer pastes a link, it reads the page.
• Documents it does not read; it asks the customer to type the point.

How does it follow up?

Two settings, both on by default and both easy to switch off:

• Send one follow-up if a customer goes quiet. One nudge, in the daytime, while the 24-hour window is open. For a lead from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, it can be one of your approved templates within the free 72-hour window.
• Follow up quiet leads. The AI decides whether a lead who has gone quiet is worth an approved marketing template. It never messages opted-out contacts, never sends two in a row, and stays under a daily limit you set.

What does it do in your CRM?

In Settings → Sales pipeline, the AI can copy what the customer says onto the lead (need, budget, timeline, location), move the lead forward when the conversation earns it, book a follow-up the customer asks for, score the lead from 0 to 100 with its reasons, and write a short handoff brief when the lead changes stage or owner. Each can be switched off. More in the WhatsApp CRM.

How to set it up in Fliok

1. 1Be on Basic or above and add money to the AI wallet.
2. 2Open AI assistant in the sidebar and fill in Business details: your business name, the assistant’s name, what you do, prices, policies and common questions, and how it should sound. Or press Draft from my website: it reads your home page and up to five more, and saves only what you tick (how the website draft works).
3. 3Try it. The test chat sends nothing to WhatsApp and charges nothing.
4. 4Set when it replies: only in working hours, never when a message mentions certain words, or only when it mentions others.
5. 5Switch it on. Only admins and owners can.

What does it cost?

Each reply the AI sends costs ₹0.10 from the prepaid wallet, plus Meta’s charge for delivering the message. A reply that is never sent costs nothing. The details are in how AI replies are billed, and the feature list is on the AI sales agent page.

Frequently asked questions

Can a WhatsApp AI agent reply in Hindi or Hinglish?

Fliok AI matches the customer’s language, so a customer who writes in Hinglish gets Hinglish back and one who writes in Hindi gets Hindi. You choose the language it starts in.

Will customers know they are talking to an AI?

It never claims to be human when a customer sincerely asks, and you can give the assistant its own name. In your inbox, its replies are marked Fliok AI so your team always knows who answered.

Can the AI agent message customers first?

It replies inside the 24-hour window. Outside it, the only thing it can send is an approved template, through the two follow-up settings, which you can switch off.

Which Fliok plans include the AI agent?

Basic, Pro and Enterprise. It is not on Free Forever. Replies are paid from a prepaid AI wallet, separate from the plan.

How do I stop the AI on one conversation?

Reply yourself and it steps back for 45 minutes. To stop it for longer, use the AI chip in the chat header: Pause while I reply, or Turn AI off permanently. Admins can switch it off for the whole workspace. See stopping the AI on a chat.