The 5-layer stack you need to build. WhatsApp Cloud API, Backend, AI Brain, Knowledge Base, Monitoring. Real costs, real setup time. Modules 1 and 2 gave you the why and the framework — this is where we start shipping.
Five layers. Miss one — the system breaks. Each one solo, then how they connect into a working agent on a real phone.
The pipe that brings customer messages from WhatsApp to your server. Not the regular WhatsApp app, not WhatsApp Business app — Meta's developer Cloud API. Free for the first 1,000 conversations / month.
Your server. Receives the message, decides what to do, sends the reply. Vercel, Cloud Run, AWS Lambda, Railway, or Fly.io all work fine. Node.js, Python, or PHP — pick what your team knows.
Claude or GPT-4. Reads the customer message, your knowledge base, and the conversation history — then decides what to answer. Critical: the brain alone is NOT your agent. Brain + Knowledge Base + your rules = agent.
Your business: products, prices, hours, FAQ, policies. Stored in a way the AI can search instantly — embeddings + vector DB (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector). This is the layer that makes your agent YOURS, not generic.
The dashboard. Live conversations, intervention if needed, key metrics: response time, escalations, CSAT. Tools: Retool, Bubble, custom React panel. Without this layer, you're flying blind.
Top AI Africa builds Layer 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 for African businesses. WhatsApp Cloud API setup, Claude integration, Knowledge Base on your real product data, monitoring dashboard. Free 15-min strategy call to see if your business is a fit.