How to Automate WhatsApp Business Replies

The WhatsApp Business app can send one greeting to new customers and one away message after hours. That covers "Hi." It does not cover "Is the blue one available in XL?", "Do you deliver to Kochi?", or "Price for 200 pieces?"

Those are the questions that decide whether someone buys. They arrive at 11 pm, in Hinglish, as a screenshot of your own Instagram post.

This guide covers four ways to automate WhatsApp Business replies in Querygen, from a fixed welcome message to an AI agent that answers from your catalog, and how to pick the simplest one that does the job.

What the WhatsApp Business app does on its own

The free app gives you a greeting message, an away message, quick replies (saved answers a person inserts by typing /), labels, and a catalog. For a one-person shop, that's a good start. It stops working when:

• the right answer depends on what the customer asked,
• several people reply from the same number,
• questions arrive while everyone is asleep, or
• half your enquiries come from Instagram DMs.

Four levels of automated replies

Start at the top and move down only when the level above can't answer the question. Simple automation is easier to trust and easier to fix.

Levels 1 and 2: welcome messages and keyword replies

A welcome message goes out when a new conversation starts on a channel. Use it to set expectations, not to sell: "Thanks for messaging Meera Sarees. We reply between 10 am and 8 pm. Send a screenshot of the saree you liked and we'll share the price."

A keyword reply is an automatic reply campaign that starts when a message contains words you choose. Limit it to direct messages, groups, or specific conversations, and turn on repeat protection so the same customer doesn't get your price list five times in one chat.

Level 3: reply to what customers mean

Customers don't type your keywords. "Kitna hoga?", "rate?", "price pls", and "how much for 2" are the same question. An automatic reply with an AI condition starts from a sentence you write, such as:

• "The customer asks whether we deliver to their city or pincode."
• "The customer asks for bulk or wholesale pricing."
• "The customer wants to know if a product is in stock."

The reply can be a fixed message, fields filled from matching entries in your knowledge base, or an answer written from guidelines and a knowledge base you select. You can also require customer conditions, like a profile value or a past event, and exclude chats you want a person to handle.

Level 4: Autopilot, an AI agent that answers from your information

Autopilot is for conversations you can't script. It has two modes. Use replies I write matches common questions to exact answers you provide. Answer from my information writes each reply from your instructions and your knowledge: documents, a website, Google Sheets, catalog items, and FAQs.

If you sell on Instagram, you can import your posts and Reels as catalog items, with caption, link, and preview. When a customer pastes a post link into WhatsApp, Autopilot can match it to the right product instead of asking what they meant. On Instagram itself, comments can get a DM with the right product too. See Instagram DM automation.

A few settings keep Autopilot inside the lines you draw:

• Escalation topics. List what must always go to a person: discounts, refunds, custom designs, bulk orders above a quantity. Those chats appear in your Inbox and the agent's Escalation tab.
• Fallback. Give a standard reply for questions it can't answer, or leave it blank so it stays silent.
• Check replies before sending. Autopilot writes drafts and a person approves them from the Review tab. A good way to spend the first week.
• Groups. On a personal WhatsApp number, set it to reply in a group only when someone mentions it by name.
• Language. It replies in the customer's language, including Hindi and Hinglish.

What this looks like in real businesses

The Wrapping Store, a gifting brand with a 1,496-item catalog, used Autopilot to answer 583 product lookups across 807 customer conversations between 7 April and 11 May 2026. Happy Eaters answered 192 parent questions across six WhatsApp community groups and left 91% of the group chatter alone.

When a person takes over

Automation should make handoffs cleaner, not rarer. In Querygen, any reply from a team member pauses automation in that chat. Escalated conversations arrive with the customer's messages and details already there, and you can pause, resume, or close Autopilot from the conversation header.

Set it up in an afternoon

1. Connect a channel: a personal WhatsApp number by QR code, a WhatsApp Business API number through Meta's signup, Instagram, or your website chat.
2. Add knowledge: your price list PDF, product sheet in Google Sheets, website, and FAQs. Review what Querygen imported.
3. Create an agent and write its instructions the way you'd brief a new salesperson.
4. Choose where it replies: all chats, private chats only, groups only, or a list of conversations, with exclusions for sensitive chats.
5. List the topics that always go to your team, and decide whether unanswered questions get a fallback message or silence.
6. Use Test reply with ten real questions from last week, including one that should be handed to a person.
7. Switch it on, then check Insights and the Escalation tab every week, and update the knowledge when prices change.

Connecting an official number for the first time? Follow WhatsApp Business API setup in India first. A personal number connects with a QR code in a minute.

Instructions work best when they read like a brief to a new teammate:

What it costs

Each automated answer uses 1 credit, even when it appears as several message bubbles. Incoming messages are free, and replies your team types are free on personal numbers (on a Business API number, each outgoing message uses 0.1 credit). The plan is ₹9,900 + GST a month with 9,900 credits and unlimited teammates. See pricing for the full breakdown.

Automated replies are also the first half of a sale. Once they're running, set up automatic lead follow-up for the customers who ask a question and then go quiet, and use what they told you to send personalized campaigns.

Frequently asked questions