How to Run Your Business on WhatsApp (With AI)
Your customers already message you on WhatsApp. The problem is that you’re the one who has to answer, at 10pm, between jobs, with your hands full.
The quick answer: Carly runs your business on WhatsApp for you. It answers every customer message in your business’s name, books people on your real calendar, sends quotes and photos, follows up with leads and hands off to your team when a person should take it, the same way every time. And you manage all of it from ChatGPT, Claude or whichever AI you already use: “WhatsApp everyone booked tomorrow a reminder” and it’s done. Set it up on carlyassistant.com or by pasting one prompt into your AI.
What a day on WhatsApp looks like with Carly
- 7:30am: every customer booked today gets a WhatsApp reminder with their time and address.
- 9:12am: a new lead fills out your website form. Carly messages them on WhatsApp within a minute and books them for Thursday.
- 11:40am: a customer sends a photo of a leaking pipe. Carly asks your triage questions, books the visit and sends the photo to your plumber.
- 1:15pm: someone asks for a quote. Carly sends your price list as a PDF and offers two times.
- 3:00pm: a customer wants to talk to a person. Carly hands the chat to your office manager with a summary.
- 9:45pm: three messages come in after hours. All three get answered, and two get booked.
- 6:00pm, every day: you get a summary of the day’s WhatsApp conversations and who still needs an answer.
That’s what reliable means here: Carly follows your rules on every message, not whatever it feels like saying.
Run it all from ChatGPT or Claude
Add the Carly connector in Claude or the Carly plugin in ChatGPT (it also works in Grok Bot, Meta Muse and Perplexity), and your whole WhatsApp inbox is one sentence away:
- “Who messaged us on WhatsApp today and is still waiting on us?”
- “WhatsApp everyone with an open quote that we can start next week.”
- “Reply to Emily’s WhatsApp with the gate code and her appointment time.”
- “Send Josh the invoice PDF on WhatsApp.”
- “Every evening at 6, WhatsApp anyone who asked for a quote today and didn’t book.”
- “Turn on WhatsApp for our number and have the agent answer it the same way it answers texts.”
The same chat runs your texts, calls and email too, so WhatsApp is one channel of the business, not another app to babysit. See how to make ChatGPT send WhatsApp messages or the Claude version.
Set it up in minutes
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It sets up Carly, gets your business number and turns on WhatsApp.
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest, WhatsApp included.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.- Already use the WhatsApp Business app? Connect that number instead. Keep replying from the app whenever you like; Carly answers the rest and steps back when you jump in.
- No waiting. Business texting in the US needs carrier registration that can take weeks. WhatsApp doesn’t, so you can be answering customers the same day.
- Photos and PDFs work both ways, so quotes, invoices, floor plans and before-and-after shots all go through the chat.
- WhatsApp’s rules are handled. Carly uses your approved message templates when WhatsApp requires them, like messaging someone who hasn’t written in a while.
Why not just use the WhatsApp Business app?
The app gives you a greeting message, an away message and quick replies. They’re canned: the same text to everyone, whether they’re asking about price, hours or an emergency. Nobody gets booked, nobody gets followed up with, and it all lives on one phone.
Carly actually answers. It reads the question, replies with your real information, books the appointment, follows up tomorrow if they don’t, and keeps every WhatsApp, text, call and email for that customer in one inbox your whole team can see. It connects to thousands of apps, so a WhatsApp booking can update your CRM, create the job and ping the right person, as free Zapier-style workflows.
Who runs their business this way
- Salons and studios: “anything Saturday?” gets a real answer and a booking. See WhatsApp appointment booking.
- Plumbers, HVAC and contractors: photos come in, visits get booked, the crew gets the address.
- Real estate and property managers: showings booked, maintenance requests logged, tenants answered at night.
- Clinics and coaches: reminders that cut no-shows, and rescheduling without phone tag.
- Online stores: order questions answered and abandoned questions followed up.
More: best WhatsApp CRM, WhatsApp Business auto reply, Wati alternatives and best AI assistants for WhatsApp.
FAQ
Can I run my whole business on WhatsApp?
Yes. With Carly, WhatsApp handles customer questions, bookings, quotes, reminders and follow-ups, and you manage it from ChatGPT or Claude.
Do I need the WhatsApp Business API?
No. Carly turns WhatsApp on for your business number during setup, or connects the WhatsApp Business app number you already have.
Can my team share one WhatsApp number?
Yes. Everyone works from one inbox, and Carly hands conversations to the right teammate.
Can I still text and call customers?
Yes. Carly runs WhatsApp, texts, calls and email from the same number and the same inbox. A reply goes back the way the customer wrote.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
