Confirm WhatsApp Business access
You need a WhatsApp Business Platform setup, an approved sender, and a webhook endpoint that n8n can receive publicly. Record which account owns the sender and who can update templates or tokens.
Separate inbound replies from outbound templates
Inbound support conversations and outbound business-initiated messages have different operational needs. Plan approved templates, variables, language versions, and fallback behavior before building a reminder or campaign workflow.
Design human escalation first
An AI reply path needs a clear stop condition. Define which topics, confidence levels, customer signals, or account actions require a person. Preserve the message history and retrieved context during handoff.
Control duplicates and conversation state
Use a stable message ID and a conversation record so webhook retries do not send duplicate replies. Log the received message, chosen route, outbound response, delivery status, and escalation state.
Choose a focused workflow
Review the WhatsApp AI Chatbot for knowledge-based support, or the WhatsApp Appointment Reminder for scheduled outbound messages. Start with one use case and test it with internal numbers before customer rollout.