If you weren’t specifically paying attention to WABetaInfo on Friday, 27 October 2023, you might’ve missed it foretelling one of WhatsApp’s next big features: AI customer support. It slipped under the radar for most — and hasn’t been seen since; from either WABetaInfo or WhatsApp’s official update team. That’s no longer the case after everyone’s favourite beta tester caught wind of the feature finally arriving on the TestFlight Beta Program.
Meep Morp Zeep (How can we help you today?)
The feature is about as self-explanatory as it gets. WhatsApp, understandably, would rather avoid dealing with its userbase’s repeatedly dull and commonplace questions, so it’ll be employing an artificial intelligence “using a secure technology from Meta” to ‘man’ the support desks instead. WABetaInfo doesn’t offer any sort of hint as to what that AI will be, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out it’ll get Meta’s myriad of AI tools it’s got brewing involved.
WhatsApp isn’t eliminating human support entirely, either. Users who feel their AI customer support technicians aren’t answering their queries satisfactorily can request a real-life human to help them solve their issues. You’ll do that by replying to the AI’s messages and requesting the help of a warm-blooded figure and someone should be along to help shortly.
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Should the rollout be successful, WhatsApp will be massively reducing the downtime users may experience while they hang around in need of a suitable technician. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when that rollout will be making the rounds on the App and Google Play Stores. After the four-month-long wait since WABetaInfo’s last update on the topic, the recent update to the TestFlight Beta Programme has us believing the update will be landing sooner rather than later.
