Meta has started hiring salespeople to pitch its AI products to smaller businesses and is building ties with consulting firms like Accenture, Deloitte and IBM that would sell and set them up at bigger ones, according to The Information. The push follows a failed effort to get retailers to put Meta’s business agent on their own websites to answer shoppers’ questions. Amazon and Booking.com resisted letting Meta get closer to their shoppers, and wiring the agent into inventory, pricing and shipping systems took more Meta engineering help than expected. Meta shut that product down in December after customers said shoppers didn’t want to chat with a bot on a retailer’s site, but its agents have caught on in WhatsApp and Messenger, where Flipkart has signed up.
