AI, Digital Tools Reshape How Small Businesses Reach Customers

Nigerian small businesses are increasingly turning to digital messaging platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) to manage customer enquiries, showcase products and convert conversations into sales, highlighting the growing role of technology in an economy dominated by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The shift is evident among businesses that operate largely through social media and messaging platforms, where customer engagement, product discovery and order management increasingly take place outside traditional physical stores.

Three Nigerian entrepreneurs operating in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja recently shared how they use WhatsApp Business to manage different aspects of their operations, from displaying products and answering enquiries to organising orders and following up with customers.

Their experiences point to a broader change in how small businesses are using digital platforms not merely as communication channels, but as low-cost tools for running day-to-day commercial activities.

For Mosumola Oladoye, founder of Lagos-based snack business Edibles by Lera Ipapanu, the platform functions as a digital shopfront.

“WhatsApp Business is the digital storefront of Edibles by Lera Ipapanu,” she said, citing the platform’s catalogue feature as useful for allowing customers to view products, prices and available sizes.

Similarly, Aminat Akinyemi, founder of FHR Spices in Ibadan, said digital communication has become important to maintaining customer relationships while she concentrates on production.

“WhatsApp Business has become one of our most powerful tools for building relationships and driving sales,” Akinyemi said.

She added that the platform’s AI-powered Meta Business Agent helps respond to customer questions when she is occupied with production.

The development reflects one of the key challenges confronting small businesses: balancing production and service delivery with the need to respond promptly to customers.

For businesses with limited staff, automated responses could reduce the time owners spend handling repetitive enquiries, although the effectiveness of such tools will depend on their ability to provide accurate and context-appropriate responses.

At Twinny’s Kitchen in Abuja, founder Augustina Onoriode said WhatsApp Business is also being used to organise customers and orders.

“WhatsApp Business has helped me transform customer conversations into lasting relationships,” she said.

Onoriode said the platform’s Lists feature enables her to categorise customers according to stages such as new orders, follow-ups, pending orders and dispatched items.

The experiences highlight the growing importance of simple digital tools to businesses that may not have the financial capacity to deploy sophisticated customer relationship management systems or e-commerce platforms.

The development also signals a new phase in the use of AI by small businesses, as Meta Business Agent is designed to handle customer questions, recommend products and assist with sales interactions when business owners are unavailable.

Head of Communications, Sub-Saharan Africa, Meta, Oluwasola Obagbemi, said Nigerian businesses were using WhatsApp for activities beyond conventional messaging.

“WhatsApp continues to be an important part of how business gets done in Nigeria, and we’re seeing business owners use it for far more than just messaging,” she said.

According to Obagbemi, AI could further assist business owners by working alongside them in handling customer interactions.

However, the growing use of AI by small businesses also raises questions around accuracy, customer privacy and the extent to which automated systems should make commercial recommendations or interact with customers without direct human supervision.

For Nigeria’s largely informal and cash-constrained small-business economy, the attraction of such tools is understandable. A business owner can potentially combine product catalogues, customer conversations, order tracking and automated assistance without investing heavily in separate digital systems.

However, technology alone cannot resolve the wider constraints facing small businesses, including high operating costs, unreliable electricity, logistics challenges, limited access to finance and weak digital infrastructure.

The increasing adoption of messaging-based commerce therefore represents an opportunity to improve business efficiency, but its wider economic impact will depend on whether entrepreneurs can convert digital engagement into sustainable sales, improved productivity and stronger customer retention.

The experiences of the entrepreneurs also suggest that Nigeria’s digital economy is evolving beyond simply connecting people to the internet. Increasingly, small businesses are using digital platforms as part of their core commercial infrastructure.

That shift could become more significant as AI tools become embedded in platforms already familiar to business owners, potentially lowering the technical barrier to automation for enterprises that cannot afford dedicated digital teams.