Meta AI for WhatsApp Business vs Bizthom’s Ejiro: which AI agent closes the sale?

If you sell on WhatsApp or Instagram, you’ve probably seen it: Meta AI for WhatsApp Business, officially called Meta Business Agent. It answers your customers for you, day and night, inside the apps you already use, and Meta says more than a million businesses use it on WhatsApp and Messenger.

So do you still need anything else? It depends on what you need the agent to finish. A Nigerian customer doesn’t buy after one answer. They ask the price, send a picture, ask for last price, ask what delivery to their area costs, then ask for your account. Only then do they pay.

Meta’s features below come from Meta’s own announcements and pricing pages, checked on 13 October 2026. Meta is changing this product fast, so check the links before you decide.

The short answer

Use Meta’s agent if you mostly need questions answered after hours, you take payment and arrange delivery yourself, and you want something free to try inside the apps you already use.

Use Bizthom’s Ejiro if you want the whole sale done in the chat: the price, the negotiation, the delivery fee, the payment confirmed, the order recorded, your stock updated and delivery booked, without you typing a word.

What Meta’s WhatsApp Business AI agent does well

Credit where it’s due. According to Meta’s announcement (3 June 2026), the agent:

• answers questions about your business, in your customers’ language and your tone
• recommends products from your WhatsApp catalog
• books appointments and sorts out serious leads
• lets you decide when someone from your team takes over
• gives you a morning summary of chats you missed overnight (on a waitlist for now)

It lives inside WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, so there’s nothing new to install. Getting started on Instagram is free. On WhatsApp, Meta’s Meta One business plans start at $14.99 a month for more agent replies, and businesses on the WhatsApp Business Platform pay per use since 1 August 2026.

Ejiro does the same answering, recommending and handing over, in the way your store talks to customers. Meta also says its agent “closes sales”. What closing takes is where the two part ways, and it starts with what each one knows about your business.

What each one knows about your business

Meta’s agent works from your WhatsApp catalog and business profile, and, Meta says, your posts, ads and website. To work from live stock, orders and delivery, Meta points businesses to its Business Agent Platform, connected to a store system such as Shopify. That’s another subscription, and Meta pitches the platform at larger businesses.

Ejiro is built into Bizthom, so it works from your whole business, not a copy of it:

• every product and variant, and how many are left
• your prices, and the lowest you’ll accept
• your delivery options and the fee for each area
• your returns and store policies
• a returning customer’s past orders
• how you talk to customers, learned from your past chats, with you approving what it learns

Sell the last one in your shop, and Ejiro knows before the next customer asks. You can even rename Ejiro on some plans, so customers chat with your store’s own sales agent.

What closing a sale in a Nigerian DM takes

Here’s the chat you have every day, step by step, and what each agent does at each step.

1. “How much?” and “Is it available?”

• Meta: answers from your catalog and business details.
• Ejiro: answers from your real stock and prices, the same ones your website and shop sell from, recommends what fits, and doesn’t offer what’s already sold out.

2. The customer sends a picture

• Meta: the announcement doesn’t say whether it reads customers’ photos.
• Ejiro: matches the photo to the product in your store and replies with it. If you don’t have it, it can suggest something similar you do have.

3. “How much last?”

• Meta: Meta’s pages don’t mention negotiating.
• Ejiro: negotiates like a Nigerian vendor, within limits you set, and never goes below your lowest price. Customers who feel they got a good deal pay.

4. “How much is delivery to Lekki?”

• Meta: not mentioned.
• Ejiro: asks for the area, gives the fee from your own delivery options, and takes the address.

5. “Send your account”

• Meta: Meta has announced payments inside WhatsApp chats for India, using UPI, as coming soon. Its pages don’t describe how the agent collects payment in Nigeria.
• Ejiro: sends an account number made just for that order. When the money lands, the payment confirms itself. No screenshot, no “let me check my bank app”.

6. After they pay

• Meta: larger businesses can connect the agent to tools like Shopify through the Meta Business Agent Platform. For a small seller, recording the sale and updating stock is still on you.
• Ejiro: the order is recorded and your stock goes down on your website and in your shop at the same moment. If you use Fez, pickup is booked automatically; if you use your own riders, you assign it to one. The customer gets the confirmation and “out for delivery” in the same WhatsApp chat, from your number.

7. “I’ll get back to you”

• Meta: the morning summary tells you about chats you missed.
• Ejiro: follows up in the same chat, about the product they asked for. It does the same for unpaid orders and for bags left on your website.

8. When a person should step in

• Meta: you decide when someone from your team takes over.
• Ejiro: the same. It hands the chat to you or your team when the customer needs a person, and lets you know.

Meta’s agent is a capable assistant. Ejiro is a salesperson that finishes the job.

Where Meta’s agent wins

• It’s already in your apps. No new account, no setup beyond switching it on.
• It’s free to start on Instagram.
• It’s backed by Meta. Integrations with tools like Shopify and Zendesk are there for big businesses, and Meta says customers will soon be able to find businesses by name in WhatsApp search.

If answering questions overnight is all you need, start there.

Ejiro is part of a whole commerce platform

Ejiro isn’t sold on its own. It comes with Bizthom, a commerce platform built around how Nigerians buy: a website that converts, an inbox that sells, automations and campaigns that bring buyers back, and a POS for your shop, all selling from the same stock.

A website built to convert Nigerian buyers

• Reviews pulled from your DMs, voice notes and photos included, once you approve them, so visitors hear real customers before they pay.
• Live proof from real activity (“12 sold”, “just bought”), “only 3 left”, and a bag timer.
• The same Ejiro on your website, negotiating within your lowest price.
• Part payments, pay on delivery, and bank transfers that confirm themselves.

An inbox that sells

• WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook DMs in one inbox, sorted by who’s ready to pay and who’s likely wasting your time.
• For chats you handle yourself, one click turns the chat into an order: products, address and delivery filled in from the conversation, and the payment read from the receipt they sent. WhatsApp buyers are already saved with their name and number.
• Chats that went quiet are flagged, and you get them in a morning email.

Buyers who come back

• Automations that thank, remind and reward buyers: pick a ready-made one, build your own, or describe it to Ask Bizthom AI.
• WhatsApp, SMS and email campaigns to groups like top spenders and buyers who went quiet.

Every plan includes Ejiro chats each month. See Bizthom pricing for what your plan covers.

Questions sellers ask

Is Meta AI for WhatsApp Business available in Nigeria?

Meta says the agent is expanding to businesses “of all sizes globally”, and that availability can vary by app and region. Open your WhatsApp Business app and check whether it’s offered on your account. If it isn’t showing, it may not have reached your account yet.

Is the WhatsApp Business AI agent free?

Getting started on Instagram is free. On WhatsApp, Meta One plans start at $14.99 a month for more agent replies, and businesses on the WhatsApp Business Platform pay per use. Every Bizthom plan includes Ejiro chats each month.

Can I turn it off?

Yes, for both. Meta says owners can take over a chat, change how its AI behaves or turn it off. On Bizthom you can step into any chat Ejiro is handling, or switch Ejiro off.

The bottom line

Your customers will keep asking “how much last?” in your DMs. An agent that only answers leaves you to do the rest: the negotiation, the delivery fee, the account, the screenshot, the record, the stock, the rider, the follow-up.

Ejiro does all of it in the chat, and your website and shop know about the sale before you do.

Start your Bizthom store and switch on Ejiro

Selling on Instagram? Read how to sell on Instagram in Nigeria, from post to paid.