It doesn't look like our customer service prayers will be answered anytime soon.

Meta has officially abandoned its plans for building a customer service platform and divested itself of Kustomer, the CRM startup it previously acquired. 

Kustomer specializes in using AI technology to detect customer queries and provide automatic responses based on context or route messages to human service agents.

Meta planned to integrate Kustomer into its DM customer service tools, with a focus on WhatsApp business. But due to broader cost-cutting measures within the company, resulting in employee layoffs and the shelving of multiple projects, the integration has become yet another casualty.

Meta will retain a minority stake in the platform, and Kustomer will now operate as an independent entity.

Image: Kustomer