WhatsApp AI
chatbot
for Malta businesses.

Most businesses in Malta already use WhatsApp for customer chats, often on the owner’s or a manager’s phone. The free WhatsApp Business app can send a greeting, an away message and quick replies, which are fixed texts. A WhatsApp AI chatbot goes further: it reads what the customer wrote, understands it, and writes a fitting answer from your own information, in the customer’s language.

A customer might send “hi do u have a table for 6 tmrw around 8, one is in a wheelchair”. Fixed auto-replies cannot do much with that. An AI assistant connected to your booking diary can check availability, confirm step-free access if that is in your information, offer two times and book the table, then pass the conversation to staff if the customer asks for something unusual.

This article is about that AI layer. For the simpler automation, such as greetings, quick replies and reminders, see our guide to automating WhatsApp messages.

In October 2025 Meta changed the WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, with effect from 15 January 2026. Providers of AI technology, such as large language models and general-purpose AI assistants, may no longer use the WhatsApp Business Platform to offer those assistants when the AI is the main thing being offered. That is why public assistants from several large AI companies stopped working on WhatsApp.

For an ordinary business the important part is what is still allowed. Using AI to support your own business, such as customer service, answering questions about your products, taking bookings and handling orders, is permitted, because the AI is there to serve your customers rather than being the product itself. A restaurant’s booking assistant or a shop’s order helper is fine. A “chat with our AI about anything” service is not.

Keep it focused on your business. That is the right design anyway, and it keeps you on the right side of the terms.

There are three parts. The provider or system that connects you to the Business Platform and provides the inbox, usually a monthly fee. The AI usage, charged by the amount of text processed, which grows with the number of chats. And Meta’s own WhatsApp charges, which apply per message to certain template messages, such as marketing messages. Replies to customers within the 24-hour customer service window are not charged by Meta.

Chats that start from a click-to-WhatsApp ad can open a longer free window, which matters if you plan to use ads to fill the inbox. Meta’s pricing changes from time to time, so check the current page before you budget, and ask any provider to show its own fees separately from Meta’s.

Compare the total with the time it saves and the enquiries it catches out of hours. For a business answering a handful of chats a day, the free app and good quick replies may be enough. The AI layer pays off when the volume is high or the questions repeat.

A restaurant in Valletta gets dozens of booking messages each evening; the assistant checks the diary, books the table, asks about allergies and passes large groups to the manager. A car hire company near the airport answers the same questions about deposits, insurance and pick-up in English, Italian and German, and sends a booking link. A clinic lets patients book or move appointments and reminds them the day before, while anything medical goes straight to a person.

A trades business asks for photos and the locality, then sends the enquiry to the right person with everything attached. A shop confirms stock and delivery to Gozo and sends a secure payment link. In each case the AI handles the routine part and the team handles the judgement.

We start with your chats: the questions customers send, the answers your team gives and where bookings or orders are recorded. Then we connect your number to the WhatsApp Business Platform through a suitable provider, set up the shared inbox, write the assistant’s knowledge and rules with you, connect it to your booking system or CRM where useful, and add the AI notice and handover. We test it on real phones before it goes live and review chats with you in the first weeks.

We quote after a short call, once we know your chat volume and what the assistant needs to connect to. Our AI automation page explains the rest of our work in this area.