What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is a conversational AI application that helps a person get things done across several tasks, rather than answering questions on a single topic. Consumer examples take voice commands to set timers, play music, or send messages. In a business, a virtual assistant sits inside the company’s systems and handles requests such as booking a conference room, checking a benefit balance, filing an expense, or resetting a password. It differs from a chatbot in breadth and in its ability to act. It differs from an AI agent in that it works one request at a time under direct instruction.
Virtual assistant in practice
A managed service provider gives its technicians a virtual assistant inside the ticketing tool. A technician types “show me every open ticket for the hospital site and the last time each was touched,” and the assistant queries the system and returns the list. The next request, “put a note on the oldest one that parts are on order,” updates the record after a confirmation prompt. In the field, the assistant uses speech recognition so a technician can dictate while working on hardware.
What to watch for
- Scope the assistant to the user’s own permissions, so it cannot retrieve records the person could not open themselves.
- Require a confirmation step before it writes to a system of record.
- Measure completion rate per task type; an assistant that handles most requests but fails on the common one is quickly abandoned.