WhatsApp is no longer just where customers ask questions—it’s where discovery, engagement, and transactions increasingly converge. That was the clear message from Omnichat’s “Social CRM and AI” conference, a large-scale industry event that brought together leaders from Meta, Maxim’s Group Hong Kong, and MEDILASE to unpack how conversational commerce is reshaping customer experience across Asia.

At the center of the discussion was Omnichat’s latest product announcement: Omni AI Agent Studio, a new platform designed to make agentic AI a practical, deployable reality for businesses using WhatsApp as a core customer channel. The launch reflects a broader shift in MarTech and CX platforms—away from fragmented engagement tools and toward unified, data-driven social CRM systems built directly into messaging environments.

From Messaging App to Social CRM Engine

Omnichat, a Meta WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, used the event to position WhatsApp as the connective tissue of modern customer journeys. What once functioned primarily as a support inbox has evolved into a channel where brands can acquire, convert, and retain customers in a single conversational flow.

That evolution is being driven by both consumer behavior and platform capability. According to Kantar research cited at the event, 71% of Hong Kong consumers message a business on WhatsApp at least once a week—a signal that messaging is no longer peripheral to the buying journey.

“Customers no longer just expect WhatsApp to be a customer service channel,” said Silvie Lam, Business Director, Greater China at Meta. “They now expect to reach a brand immediately after discovering it through social ads.”

Meta’s roadmap reflects that expectation. Tools like Ads that Click to WhatsApp, Website-to-WhatsApp ads, WhatsApp Catalog, and WhatsApp Flows are designed to help businesses manage the full funnel—from discovery to transaction—without forcing customers to jump between platforms. In effect, WhatsApp is becoming a commerce-enabled front door rather than a post-sale support line.

Omni AI Agent Studio: Making Agentic AI Practical

Omnichat’s response to this shift is Omni AI Agent Studio, a new environment that allows businesses to deploy and orchestrate multiple AI agents across conversational workflows. The studio builds on Omnichat’s existing native AI agents, including:

• AI Customer Service Agent

• AI Marketing Campaign Agent

• AI Shopping Agent

What’s new is the ability to integrate these agents seamlessly into any customer interaction—without requiring businesses to rebuild workflows from scratch.

Founder and CEO Alan Chan described the launch as a strategic inflection point. “This signifies a pivotal moment in our commitment to democratising Agentic AI for businesses,” he said. “When combined with our advanced WhatsApp functionalities—our Social Data Customer Platform and WhatsApp loyalty program—we’re enabling brands to build a truly powerful social CRM.”

In practice, that means consolidating customer profiles, analyzing conversational data across CRM and social channels, and delivering experiences aligned with real customer behavior throughout the lifecycle—not just at isolated touchpoints.

Maxim’s Group: Turning WhatsApp Into a Revenue Channel

One of the most compelling case studies came from Maxim’s Group, one of Hong Kong’s largest F&B operators. Rather than treating WhatsApp as a support add-on, Maxim’s has positioned it as a high-performing e-commerce channel that complements its Eatizen membership app.

Using Omnichat’s platform, enhanced with Omni AI, Maxim’s engages both existing Eatizen members and new customers through WhatsApp. AI-powered chatbots streamline day-to-day operations, while segmented broadcast campaigns drive targeted promotions based on customer behavior.

The results, according to Eileen Tang, Head of Digital Business at Maxim’s Caterers Limited, have been striking. During a recent Mid-Autumn Festival campaign, Maxim’s built a fully end-to-end WhatsApp buying journey—from discovery to payment—inside the messaging app.

“The outcome was immediate,” Tang said. “We achieved a 2–3x higher Average Transaction Value compared to our traditional online marketplace channels.”

She attributed the uplift to two key factors: a frictionless customer experience that allowed users to order and pay directly within WhatsApp, and significantly lower costs compared to building new features inside a proprietary app. Maxim’s is now scaling WhatsApp commerce as a core growth pillar rather than a seasonal experiment.

MEDILASE: Automating Care Without Losing the Human Touch

While Maxim’s showcased commerce scale, MEDILASE demonstrated how conversational platforms can improve service quality and operational efficiency in high-consideration industries like aesthetic medicine.

By integrating Omnichat’s WhatsApp API solutions, MEDILASE automated key touchpoints across the customer journey—from initial inquiries to appointment confirmations and treatment reminders. The centralized platform unified marketing, customer service, and sales workflows, improving collaboration across teams.

“By leveraging the WhatsApp API solution, we’ve deployed 24/7 chatbots and achieved seamless cross-team collaboration,” said KC Ng, CEO of MEDILASE. “This has significantly elevated our service standards and operational transparency.”

Beyond automation, MEDILASE is using conversational data to anticipate customer needs and improve consultation quality. In one recent campaign, roughly 40% of customers participated in an interactive WhatsApp game, resulting in a 5% conversion rate—a notable outcome in a category where trust and personalization are critical.

Why This Matters for MarTech and CX Leaders

Taken together, the announcements and case studies at Omnichat’s event highlight a clear industry inflection point. Social messaging is no longer an edge channel—it’s becoming the backbone of customer engagement, especially in mobile-first markets across Asia.

What’s changing isn’t just where conversations happen, but how intelligently they’re managed. Platforms like Omnichat are moving beyond routing messages to using AI agents, conversational data, and unified customer profiles to guide decisions in real time.

For MarTech leaders, the implication is clear: CRM strategies that ignore messaging platforms risk becoming blind to where customers actually engage. For CX and commerce teams, WhatsApp is emerging as a place where convenience, personalization, and conversion can coexist—without forcing customers through fragmented digital experiences.

Conversation and Commerce, Fully Aligned

The collaboration between Meta, Omnichat, Maxim’s Group, and MEDILASE sends a unified signal to the market. The convergence of conversation and commerce is no longer a future-state vision—it’s already delivering measurable business outcomes today.

As brands look for sustainable competitive advantage in crowded digital markets, the winners may be those that stop treating messaging as a support tool and start building it into the core of their customer strategy. Omnichat’s bet on agentic AI and social CRM suggests that the next phase of customer experience will be conversational by default—and intelligently orchestrated behind the scenes.

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