Virtual assistant is the profession of the future.

The virtual assistant is software, which performs tasks from the user. The first such systems appeared back in the 1980s, but the closest was the assistant installed on the very first IBM Watson smartphone, released back in 1994. And the very first voice assistant installed on a modern smartphone was Siri from Apple, introduced in October 2011.

Methods of working with virtual assistants:

• Text message. Common when working with chatbots.
• Voice command. As with Siri and many other modern voice assistants.
• Loading a specific image, as is the case on the latest S8 flagship.

Some virtual assistants offer users several options for working with them at once. So you can give commands to Google Assistant through Allo chat, and control home exercises with your voice through the Google Home speaker. Modern voice assistants use technology to recognize your normal voice, and also use machine learning techniques, being artificial intelligence.

The most common voice virtual assistants

Previous generations virtual assistants had an avatar. Many (but not all) modern assistants also have their own characters, and their developers give the systems personalized names. Here are the most common, functional and dynamically developing virtual assistants:

These assistants are mostly compatible with the Internet of Things (the exceptions are M and Cortana), and have additional mobile application for work and can always be turned on (the exceptions are the same) for quick access to all their functionality.

Internet of Things gadgets for smart homes are created with support for working with such assistants. The choice of a virtual assistant and additional resources for it should be made taking into account the connected devices, because the management of the Internet of Things system is still not perfect. Some gadgets support some systems, others - others. To avoid confusion, you should stick to one system. In any case, until the most universal one finally appeared, which will unite them all.

Devices that support virtual assistants

Virtual assistants can be integrated on different types platforms. Or, as in the case of Amazon Alexa, work on several at once. Often virtual assistants are supported by the following platforms:

The functionality of the virtual assistant will be limited to the device itself and the operating system. At the same time, such assistants are developing and becoming multi-platform, making it very easy to switch between different compatible devices.

A virtual assistant is an Internet resource or software for mobile devices and PCs, which, in essence, performs all the functions of a personal secretary for the user. The assistant can solve problems of changing and planning a work schedule, help with organizing and performing everyday tasks and searching for the data a person needs on the Internet.

One of the most important differences between the virtual assistant and previous generations of schedulers is that the virtual assistant is contextual in its operation—that is, it takes into account the range of conditions in which the user finds himself. This may include its geolocation and other circumstances.

A virtual assistant can create various reminders, select places to stay, help in finding and booking tables in establishments and various types of tickets, and order a taxi at an address. The assistant is able to independently learn, taking into account completed tasks, analyzing the behavior and all the user’s hobbies.

History and development of digital assistants

In 2005, thanks to an initiative from an independent non-profit research institute from California, SRI International, the efforts of a number of researchers were combined to bring to life a very ambitious and unusual idea - to create a virtual assistant that would have the ability to absorb knowledge, self-learn and systematize information . The project was originally called CALO, and it was part of the PAL program, which developed artificial intelligence to serve military purposes and needs.

This means that the project was originally a defense project. The researchers came up with ideas and created prototypes of digital assistants that would be able to satisfy such a specific task - to create a connection between the user of such a service and the service itself. As a result, 2009 was a success for the researchers, and work on the project was completed. The state army received a virtual assistant that could sort mail emails, draw up reporting documents on their content and create schedules of meetings and appointments.

This project for defense needs was the basis for Siri - a project of a commercial nature, which at the moment included in iPhone software. Today, not only smartphones from Cupertino can boast of a virtual assistant - almost every mobile device supports technology. Moreover, the user can choose which virtual assistant to use. And there are already a lot of them.

Google Now Assistant

This is a virtual assistant from the popular search giant. Able to analyze your email and request history in search engine. Supported on Android OS, iOS, and also allows installation of an assistant in Google browser Chrome.

• How is it different? High speed work. Virtual assistant Has increased accuracy when creating routes. Has a lot of information about booking your tickets and tables, about flights and transfers. It can interact with a number of other applications, manage your notes and calendar, analyze messages and control music playback.

• Disadvantages of an assistant. Sometimes the virtual assistant is overly proactive (for example, it can demonstrate the results of matches between teams that are not of interest to you, or provide directions to your home from familiar places). It is useless in the process of managing a smart home. All workflows for integrating the assistant with third party applications, apparently, have been paused.

• The humanity of the assistant. Located at zero. Not at all conducive to communication. Apart from the word “Google” it has no name. But the company is trying to constantly improve its own virtual assistant, which is not surprising, given its level. Recently, Google managed to use neural networks to make the assistant speak more humanely, but not yet in Russian.

Apple's Siri

This is a virtual assistant from a company from Cupertino that can communicate with the user and provide him with various recommendations. You can activate it by holding down the Home key on iPad devices or iPhone.

• Advantages. Easy to use on iOS devices. Easily recognizes human speech. Has a high level of awareness of current news, weather conditions, sporting events, new movies, routes and nearby businesses. He is capable of recommending something for television viewing. It can interact with a number of smart home elements.

• Flaws. Low level of communication with many third party programs and resources. The speed is slower than that of some other virtual assistants.

• The humanity of the assistant. He is not able to conduct a full dialogue, but in some moments he can demonstrate a certain wisdom. The woman's voice sounds quite natural.

This is a virtual assistant built into devices from Amazon, Fire TV set-top boxes. It is expected to appear in a number of other devices, for example, in alarm clocks or feeders for pets.

• Advantages. Has the ability to play music and read news aloud from certain news sources. Provides data on weather conditions, traffic jams and some other parameters. It is possible to order goods from Amazon's Prime resource, as well as pizza delivered by voice. It has an open API, which allows it to easily work with all other applications.

• Negative points. You can control the virtual assistant only while in your apartment. The assistant does not work with smartphones.

• The humanity of the assistant. He has the ability to answer a complex question with humor, but immediately turns the dialogue into the category of some kind of acquisition.

Microsoft Cortana

It's digital voice assistant, which can be controlled by entering queries via text or voice. Available for use on iOS, Android or Windows. Able to answer and anticipate user questions.

• Advantages. Can manage your calendar, notes and reminders. Tracks postal items, can set an alarm and find news notes in Bing. Monitors weather forecasts and other information. The virtual voice assistant easily interacts with a number of applications on Windows, and has also recently been able to conduct a dialogue with other bots using Skype.

• Negative aspects. At the moment, it is not a finished, final product, and only a limited number of San Francisco residents can now use it.

• The humanity of the assistant. Extremely high. It is achieved due to the fact that answers to various questions are formed, first of all, by people.

• Advantages. The company promises that their product will be able to understand even quite complex issues. Work is underway to integrate the application with many other programs and resources.

• Flaws. At the moment, there are no convincing facts that would confirm that the assistant will work in accordance with the stated capabilities. All that the public now has are a few presentations from the developers.

• Flaws. At the moment, the assistant is not yet completely perfect in terms of searching for information. Questions may be misinterpreted. Reacts poorly to difficult questions. Can communicate what the weather is expected to be, but has difficulty understanding the phrase “Should I take an umbrella to work?”

• The humanity of the assistant. The assistant knows how to improvise well, has a set of good jokes, which is replenished, and you can easily conduct a relaxed dialogue with the assistant. In addition, the virtual assistant has a pleasant and truly humane voice. In the future, it may well become the best solution for domestic users.

Today's virtual assistants are constantly improving, have the ability to learn, and provide truly useful assistance in everyday and work matters. Work on updating and creating new assistants is ongoing, which suggests that the market will continue to develop steadily and rapidly.

Assistant is your virtual assistant. He knows the answers to all questions and carries out any commands.

Registration

The application is designed in Material Design style. When first launched, the user is asked to select a background color, as well as customize the appearance of their virtual assistant. This could be a woman or a man, young or an older character, with any appearance- in a suit/T-shirt, with hairstyle and so on.

Peculiarities

You can activate the assistant in different ways. You can click on the keyboard or speaker icon in the main menu of the application. You can use the status bar. You can use a widget. You can shake the device (the shaking strength can be adjusted separately). Can be activated by voice.

Characteristic

Weather. “Should I take an umbrella today or not?” In response to this question, the Assistant will display a weather forecast and comment on the data.

Applications. The assistant will launch any application at your command. And if it suddenly isn’t on your device, the assistant will offer to install it from PlayMarket.

Translator. The assistant knows all the languages ​​of the world and can translate words, phrases, sentences and even entire texts. You can start the translation with the word: “Translate into English...”.

Directory. The assistant will answer any question and even provide relevant sources on the Internet.

Telephone. The assistant will automatically dial the number from notebook. YOU can also dictate the number yourself.

And a reliable accountant for our fictitious company. The business got back on its feet, began to grow in some places, new clients came, there was a mountain of work, we returned home late and irregularly, on weekends we amused ourselves with completing tasks that were not completed during the work week. 1024 cups of espresso and a couple of sleepless nights later, voices in my head begin to whisper the magic word “delegation”. Having overcome difficult moral contradictions, about which Maxim Ilyakhov wrote well, the entrepreneur begins to look for a person who will help him break out of the routine. This person could be a secretary, personal assistant or business assistant.

The market offers a bunch of options, starting with web services and ending with full-time employees. We have done a little research and want to talk about popular options that will suit Moscow entrepreneurs ranging from micro to medium-sized businesses. Let's try to be objective and not pull the blanket on the Button, although this is not easy.

Online service exchanges

Virtual assistant

Virtual assistant services, like YourBees or Assistant, can take on slightly more complex tasks. These guys will book a hotel, order flowers for the woman they love, organize a holiday, and help find employees, suppliers, contractors and even real estate. It was not possible to find a clear boundary of the virtual assistant’s competencies - he will take on any legal assignments that do not require leaving the office. If you can’t do it yourself, he’ll help you find a contractor.

Another type of virtual assistant is a concierge service. Essentially, this is a premium virtual assistant that will be 146% more courteous, polite and diligent. Such services, as a rule, come in addition to elite brands like Vertu, Visa cards of the Gold level and higher, or membership in closed luxury clubs, so not everyone will be able to receive Holy Communion. We have never encountered such phenomena face to face, but they say that the quality is at the highest level. Maybe you have had such an experience?

Who is it suitable for?

What is the price

• From 5,000 rubles per month for a virtual secretary;
• from 500 rubles per hour of virtual assistant work;
• concierge service is priceless.

Links

Remote secretary

On the other hand, the secretarial profession does not require the same level of knowledge, skills and abilities that are required by an accountant and lawyer. You can hire an acquaintance, a neighbor's daughter, or a second great-nephew. The main thing is responsibility and discipline. It is advisable to enter into a civil law agreement to avoid legal battles.

Who is it suitable for?

What is the price

Employee on staff

If a secretary works hard and does more than is expected of him, there is a chance to earn the “personal assistant” or “business assistant” achievement. This person is needed not only and not so much for shifting pieces of paper and pressing buttons on the coffee machine. This is the same healthy head on which you can shift problems with the patient, a second memory and a third hand for an entrepreneur.

An assistant with the prefix “personal” is designed to fulfill the whims of an entrepreneur - order something somewhere, collect information, make an appointment, run and bring it (the clinical case is perfectly described in the first person). A “business class” assistant is, in fact, a miniature executive director who often knows more about the company’s operating activities than the business owner. He helps organize business processes, can independently communicate with clients and suppliers, and sometimes even make decisions and give advice to his boss.

This profession is not taught at university, so it is unlikely that you will be able to find a solution out of the box. If the level of an accountant and lawyer can be assessed at least by professional qualities, then choosing a personal assistant or business assistant requires a completely different approach. When selecting assistants for Button, we use tasks that help assess their horizons, erudition, mobility, ability to interact with people and work with new information. Simply put, you need to look for a person who loves and knows how to learn and is ready to work without job descriptions. This is the case when a person must organize the work of his manager, and not vice versa.

Who is it suitable for?

What is the price

40,000-80,000 rubles per month for a personal assistant/business assistant;

100,000 and above for a dude of the “let a pink pony fly to me on a rainbow Falcon 9 right now” class.

Links

What place does the Button occupy?

As development progressed, we rethought the role of the business assistant several times. At first he was perceived as a personal assistant, then as a secretary, but later, when our guys improved a lot, we realized that they were doing an excellent job with the tasks that a business assistant usually performs. Of course, a push-button assistant can still book a flight, find a good restaurant in an unfamiliar city, or sign up for a pedicure, but it can do more.

Working in a team with an accountant and lawyer, our business assistant will help build business processes right up to the launch of a new project or direction. We hire real superheroes, they constantly study, work with different businesses and, sometimes, know what you don’t expect from them. It’s unlikely that it will be possible to list everything without inflating the post into an unreadable footcloth, but you can read about a couple of real examples

#freelanceeconomics

Bookmarks

If only you had the ability to minimize the risk of your business idea failing before you even get started. Would you use it? Of course, the obvious answer is yes, and yet, Why?

Choosing a reliable travel companion in business.

Do you need a virtual assistant?

Back in the mid-90s, when I was just starting my career, I gained my first experience using the services of a freelancer. One of the most memorable moments occurred during a small discussion with a group led by the writer. I don't remember his name, but I remember that he referred to his personal assistant. Does this writer have a personal assistant? I didn’t really understand why he needed this. Despite the fact that at that time, everything was fine with me, I managed to do everything, the thought of paying someone for work, even part-time, seemed like crazy nonsense, a cheap show off, or a stupid waste of money However, over the following years, I increasingly began to hear from my colleagues and acquaintances who referred to their virtual assistants. And now I'm finally starting to realize my mistake in underestimating all the benefits of using a personal assistant. And at the end of the day, I pay for a house cleaning service, I pay people to do their tax returns. Why not pay for a virtual assistant?

When should you hire a VA?

A virtual assistant, or VA for short, is someone who can help with minor tasks, such as filling out invoices, managing schedules and responding to emails, writing texts on a certain topic - all this is done remotely. So when should you hire him? There is no clear answer to this question. I got some answers from talking to several freelancers who hired VAs to help them. For Andrey Rotonov, a project manager from Kirov who specializes in processing editorial projects for clients and the National Education Association. The turning point came when he started losing money. “When my mail with orders was so full that I had to cut back on work. The job I love, I knew it was time to hire an assistant,” said Andrey. For Zhenya Gregina, a B2B marketing specialist based in Izhevsk, it all came down to time management issues. Zhenya decided that it would be nice to stop working until 3 am. And for Tanya Kaseleva, a writer, editor, and trainer in Minsk, her main goal was to eliminate the secondary tasks that took up a lot of time so that she could pursue higher goals. People have many common points and we are alike in many ways. Perhaps you've just had a baby, are sick, or are caring for elderly parents - these are just a few possible situations where you might need a little outside help.

How much can a VA cost?

In order for you to decide, you need to know how much VA services cost. According to a review of freelancing platforms, VA services range from $5 to $7 per hour. On a writers' forum, they mentioned that they pay their VAs between $5 and $10 an hour. Gregory pays his VA $15 an hour, but he told me that he has a habit of overpaying when he finds that the VA's work really appeals to him because her work is so specialized. His VA usually works about seven hours a week for him, but how many hours your VA will work for you is up to you. The most important thing is to solve some theoretical equations about the benefits and feasibility of using a VA, is it possible that you will have to charge higher prices for your services to compensate for the cost of the VA? Of course, there is no way to know for sure how a BA will impact your work.

Where to look for VA

There is no universal formula for finding a VA, but there are freelancing platforms such as fl.ru, freelancehant.com, flassist.ru and others that you can check out. One of my friends found her assistant on the pages of one of social networks by searching for profiles offering similar services. She works with a twenty-five-year-old woman from the Baltics who has experience working for large publishing companies. “She's coming back from maternity leave this year and is ready to work full time again as a virtual assistant,” she said. “Her skills meshed well with my needs. She worked 20 hours a week, which is perfect for me, but I would love to go full-time with her next year.” Make sure you are clear about what you want and what your goals are from the very beginning.

Actual value of VA

However, if we have something in common, you might be wondering if you're organized enough to be a virtual assistant. With a virtual assistant, you need to be at least organized enough to give your VA enough work. I used to dismiss the idea of ​​working with a virtual assistant and argued passionately about it. But now I ask myself how much time was wasted and how stupid I was not to use it. By unloading myself as much as possible from unnecessary routine work, which is not difficult, but takes a lot of time, frees up free time for me, which I can use to increase my competitiveness and improve the quality of my services, time that costs much more than I spend on use of VA.