Best AI Agents For Business Operations in 2026
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Featured AI Agents For Business Operations At A Glance
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Buyer's Guide: AI Agents For Business Operations
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Microsoft Copilot, enjoying seamless integration across Microsoft products without browser hassle.
Users find Microsoft Copilot extremely helpful, enhancing productivity with seamless integration and intelligent drafting features.
Users value the efficiency of Microsoft Copilot, benefiting from quick responses and seamless integration across Microsoft 365.
Users find Microsoft Copilot often delivers inaccurate results, leading to frustration and wasted time during urgent tasks.
Users experience poor understanding with Microsoft Copilot, feeling unclear about model distinctions and context for use.
Users face usage limitations with Bing Chat, including constrained chat sessions and insufficient creative responses.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Retell AI, praising its intuitive design and effortless knowledge file uploads.
Users appreciate the clean and intuitive interface of Retell AI, making it easy and efficient to use.
Users appreciate the easy-to-use interface of Retell AI, praising its simplicity and quick response times.
Users express concern over the missing features of Retell AI, including limited language options and country support.
Users experience a steep learning curve with Retell AI, especially for those new to advanced voice agents.
Users find the limited features of Retell AI restrict their ability to manage clients and provide essential tools.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Synthflow, highlighting its friendly UI and quick setup process.
Users love the easy setup and intuitive UI of Synthflow, enabling quick and powerful deployment of features.
Users value the easy integrations with other platforms, enhancing their overall seamless experience with Synthflow.
Users are concerned about the high cost of Synthflow, which may limit accessibility and trial opportunities.
Users find the cost limitations of Synthflow challenging, with steep pricing and insufficient trial minutes.
Users struggle with the steep learning curve of Synthflow, finding it difficult to grasp its full capabilities quickly.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Guru to be user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy to access and manage information effortlessly.
Users find the seamless access to information in Guru essential for enhancing their customer support experience.
Users find comprehensive information in Guru, enhancing their work efficiency and simplifying their daily tasks.
Users find inefficient searching in Guru, struggling to locate specific articles amid a large knowledge base.
Users find the search functionality lacking, making it difficult to locate specific GURU cards efficiently.
Users find the inefficient search in Guru frustrating, especially when locating specific cards or content.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Jira, enabling efficient tracking and management of tasks and projects.
Users value the efficient project management capabilities of Jira, appreciating its organization and comprehensive tracking features.
Users value the accurate task tracking in Jira, enhancing project focus and keeping everyone informed throughout.
Users find the learning curve steep, often struggling with setup and understanding workflow settings effectively.
Users find Jira's complexity challenging, especially for beginners, impacting ease of use and task management.
Users find Jira's learning difficulty daunting, especially with its complex setup and overwhelming options for newcomers.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the ease of use with Podium, highlighting effortless payment processing and streamlined communication with customers.
Users appreciate the ease of communication with customers through Podium, leading to increased review completion rates.
Users love the efficient communication features of Podium, enhancing client interactions and streamlining project management.
Users experience messaging issues with Podium, finding it overwhelming to keep track of numerous inquiries efficiently.
Users find the missing features in Podium frustrating, often leading to confusion and accessibility issues.
Users find Podium has limited features such as lack of integration and inadequate reporting for optimal efficiency.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the seamless task management in Asana, facilitating easy tracking, assigning, and organization of projects.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Asana, which enhances organization and boosts productivity effortlessly.
Users appreciate the ease of project management with Asana, enhancing collaboration and efficiency across teams.
Users find the learning curve steep, as setup and hierarchical features are confusing and not user-friendly.
Users find the missing features in Asana limit automation and ease of use for less technical team members.
Users find Asana has limited features like basic reporting, which can hinder their project management effectiveness.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find ClickUp's ease of use highly beneficial, enabling seamless project management and effective team collaboration.
Users appreciate the feature-rich task management capabilities of ClickUp, enhancing collaboration and productivity for teams.
Users commend ClickUp for its extensive features that enhance collaboration and streamline task management efficiently.
Users find missing features in ClickUp hinder overall functionality and daily usage experience, causing frustration.
Users find the learning curve steep due to an overwhelming number of features and limited guidance for beginners.
Users note the limited features of ClickUp, highlighting missing tools and frequent bugs affecting usability.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Kore.AI's platform extremely easy to use, facilitating quick and efficient chatbot development even for beginners.
Users enjoy the user-friendly interface and fascinating features of Kore.AI, simplifying bot development for beginners.
Users love the user-friendly templates of Kore.AI for easy chatbot development and fast design analysis.
Users find the steep learning curve of Kore.AI challenging, requiring additional time to grasp its features effectively.
Users experience usage limitations with Kore.AI, facing server issues and challenges in variable naming across platforms.
Users experience slow performance with Kore.AI, which can hinder learning and configuration processes.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users commend the exceptional customer support provided by Qualified's team, enhancing their experience and success with the platform.
Users find the dedicated support from Success Architects invaluable, enhancing team efficiency and maximizing platform utility.
Users highlight the stellar customer service from Qualified, with responsive support enhancing the overall experience and implementation.
Users note a steep learning curve with Qualified, especially for those unfamiliar with conversational marketing tools.
Users encounter missing features like limited reporting, restricted copy/paste, and cumbersome setup, affecting overall efficiency.
Users face a steep learning curve with Qualified, though support helps navigate the complexities over time.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Jotform AI Agents incredibly easy to use, making onboarding and automating workflows a smooth experience.
Users find the AI efficiency of Jotform AI Agents significantly saves time, money, and reduces stress during onboarding.
Users praise the easy setup of Jotform AI Agents, making onboarding clients a smooth and efficient process.
Users find Jotform AI Agents to have limitations in flexibility and face challenges with question accuracy and functionality.
Users express concerns about the limited AI capabilities, highlighting issues with data interpretation and responsiveness during inquiries.
Users feel there are limited features in Jotform AI Agents, expressing a desire for more customization and integration options.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users admire the ease of use of IBM watsonx Orchestrate, enabling effortless interaction through natural language prompts.
Users value the easy integrations with IBM watsonx Orchestrate, enhancing workflow management and process organization.
Users appreciate the intuitive automation capabilities of IBM watsonx Orchestrate, enabling quick and easy task orchestration.
Users find the learning curve steep, especially when integrating with complex enterprise systems, requiring additional knowledge and assistance.
Users find the complexity of setup and integration challenging, often experiencing performance lags with multiple workflows.
Users find the integration process complicated, leading to a frustrating learning curve and additional workflow challenges.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Zendesk, benefiting from its intuitive design and seamless integrations.
Users appreciate the robust and flexible features of Zendesk, enhancing customer service across multiple channels effectively.
Users value the exceptional customer support and efficient ticket management provided by Zendesk, enhancing overall service quality.
Users find the missing features in Zendesk, like limited backlogs and unresponsive tools, limit their effectiveness.
Users find Zendesk lacking in advanced features, requiring significant effort and time to customize effectively.
Users note a steep learning curve with Zendesk, particularly regarding advanced features and custom report setups.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of HubSpot Marketing Hub, with its friendly interface and comprehensive workflow automation.
Users love the easy-to-use automation tools in HubSpot Marketing Hub, enhancing efficiency and lead generation.
Users appreciate the user-friendly email marketing features in HubSpot Marketing Hub, enabling effective collaboration and campaign execution.
Users face missing features in HubSpot Marketing Hub, especially with integrations and form logic limitations impacting their experience.
Users find the steep learning curve challenging due to frequent updates and overwhelming data complexity.
Users find the limited features in HubSpot Marketing Hub restrictive, especially as costs escalate for advanced options.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the flexible and intuitive compensation management of Workleap, enhancing efficiency and empowering leadership.
Users find Barley's platform to be intuitive, making compensation management seamless and user-friendly for all.
Users love the ease of use of Workleap, noting its intuitive design and seamless integration in compensation management.
Users desire more flexibility in reporting and budget adjustments, indicating limitations in Workleap's current system.
Users feel that Workleap lacks insufficient features, particularly in reporting and flexibility for compensation cycles.
Users find a lack of flexibility in Workleap, particularly regarding report features and budget adjustments post-launch.
Learn More About AI Agents For Business Operations
What is Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software?
Businesses interact with clients, customers, and internal stakeholders across various channels which include telephone, email, websites, and social media platforms. Historically, businesses needed to manually engage with humans, who would provide support and communication. However, in this current age of digital transformation, conversational agents of different flavors have emerged which are helping businesses be available and at the ready 24/7.
One particular instantiation of this technology is chatbots. These tools provide a simple conversational interface where users input text (or speech) and receive a canned or scripted response. With chatbots, a company is enabled to scale its functions, such as IT support and recruitment with limited resources, both in terms of money and time. If a company has more time and energy, as well as fiscal resources, it is wise for them to explore intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs), which provide the same basic capabilities of chatbots and more. With IVAs, users are enabled to have natural conversations via a host of different channels to solve their business problems. In addition, this advanced software has the ability to use the conversations to update systems such as a CRM, an ERP, or human resource management systems.
Key Benefits of Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software
- Provides a solution which is available 24/7 for internal and external stakeholders
- Allow users to have a natural, personalized conversation with a business
- Provides a key tool for automating core business functions, such as customer service
- Updates front end and back end systems effectively with conversational agents
Why Use Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software?
IVAs should be part of a broader automation strategy, one in which a business considers areas where they increase efficiency with minimal effort and expenditure. For example, for a shoe selling business to be successful, they need to look for ways to increase margins, sell more shoes, and hire in a smart manner. They may want automation to streamline processes through tools such as robotic process automation (RPA) software, and make an effort to dynamically change pricing with retail pricing software. A prong in this automation strategy could be IVAs, which could help automate interactions between the business and customers, current or prospective.
The medium of this interaction is variable, depending on the software being used, as well as the particular use case. Thus, the business may choose to provide an IVA on their website as well as via email and telephone. These virtual agents engage with customers across all of these various channels. At times, they are even able to replace legacy systems such as interactive voice response (IVR), engaging customers for the purposes of identity verification, for example. The impact of IVAs vary greatly based on industry and use cases.
Unified and uniform experience — IVAs help maintain consistency across channels and various touchpoints. This presents business users with a unified experience for all support in areas such as IT and human resources (HR).
Cost saving — Businesses looking to cut costs and handle inefficiencies from operations, call centers, internal functions can look to IVAs. With this software, they can scale in a fiscally smart manner.
Customer satisfaction — Net promoter score (NPS) is a core metric which businesses track to keep tabs on how their customers feel about them. Providing a successful conversational solution in the form of an IVA helps businesses maintain customer satisfaction. With their always-on capabilities, IVAs provide a tailored customer experience. This personalization is likely to improve satisfaction.
Who Uses Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software?
IVAs are impacting all industries across various use cases and are affecting any touchpoint where businesses communicate with people. It is beneficial for businesses to explore how it impacts their industry and particular use case.
Banking and finance — IVAs are a hot commodity in the financial sector in which there is frequently a high volume of interactions with customers. For these industries, IVAs interact with customers on the phone, provide information regarding transactions and deals, and verify identity.
Telecommunications — Within the telecommunications sector, IVAs replace outdated automated voice systems in contact centers to improve resolution times and customer satisfaction. This gives customers a more natural interface for communicating with the business.
Hospitality — The hospitality industry is being transformed by IVAs, with businesses using them to increase customer loyalty through on-demand support and personalized service.
Other uses in the hospitality sector include making reservations, enabling personalized services—preferred room features or local restaurant recommendations—supporting customer engagement and retention.
Retail — Retail and e-commerce stands to benefit greatly from the deployment of IVAs to enhance customer engagement and drive sales. They also deliver a personalized e-commerce experience for customers.
Travel — The travel sector is adopting IVAs to assist in customer bookings and provide customer support and complaints resolution, thus acting as a personal assistant to customize a traveler’s itinerary and experiences.
Kinds of Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software
Business leaders of all stripes can reap the benefits of IVAs, transforming their strategy with digital transformation. Focusing on sales and marketing, IT support, HR, and customer service use cases, businesses can communicate with their internal and external stakeholders in a supercharged manner. A successful deployment of IVAs can help businesses scale with the ability to engage in thousands of conversations.
Scale is not the only important factor to keep in mind. Intelligence is also key—the ability for the virtual assistant to respond to queries in a personalized fashion based on past interactions and stored data. Budget holders exploring different solutions should evaluate this level of intelligence through sustained conversations across various areas. Below are some prevalent use cases:
Customer service — Similar to IT virtual assistants, virtual customer service and customer success agents are able to resolve issues, problems, and concerns at scale. By conversing with current and prospective customers, IVAs quickly defuse difficult situations and reach resolutions. Frequently, they interact with both customers as well as human customer support teams. When an IVA does not have an adequate response at the ready, they escalate the conversation to a human agent. All of these benefits lead to faster response time, personalized self-service interactions, 24/7 support, and a unified automated experience across channels.
Sales and marketing — IVAs help engage buyers by initiating contact, empathizing intelligently to interpret replies, and responding with a tailored response. These assistants are useful throughout the entire customer journey, from determining interest to activating unresponsive demand and to winning back former customers.
HR — Businesses are able to deliver immediate, simplified, and intuitive access to HR applications with IVAs to improve employee experiences. They help employees find resources and information quickly, improving efficiency and user satisfaction.
Specific use cases within the HR function include travel and expense management, benefits management, and absence management. For example, an employee can converse with an IVA in a natural manner and ask them about vacation days or benefits. The benefits of this deployment include improving employee net promoter score (eNPS) and allowing the employee success team to focus on higher-level strategic engagements.
IT — Employees always have IT-related problems. In a typical organization, they submit a ticket to an IT professional (whether internal or outsourced), who takes time to evaluate the problem and respond properly. With IVAs, tasks such as password resets, access permissions, server diagnostics for IT support personnel, and more can be automated end to end.
IVAs help eliminate jammed ticket queues and provide quick resolutions for end users. These agents are trained to handle IT services use cases to ensure IT support staff remain one step ahead of the most common issues employees face. They handle queries at any time of day, meeting demand, and improving ticket processing times.
Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software Features
With the use of machine learning and deep learning, IVAs grow intelligently and understand a wider vocabulary and colloquial language as well as provide more precise and correct responses to requests. In addition, IVAs are able to provide personalized answers based on segmentation or other information provided. Below are some features:
Personalization — IVAs provide personalized responses to interlocutors based on segmentation or past responses.
Route to humans — The software has tools (e.g., dashboards and reports) to better understand conversations IVAs have had.
Natural language understanding (NLU) — With NLU features, the software can have a natural, human-like conversation with an interlocutor. The degree of intelligence and understanding differ between IVAs. For example, some providers have built robust sentiment detection capabilities that allow the assistants to communicate in a tailored way based on the person’s sentiment. This gives it some degree of emotional intelligence which is key for a successful conversation.
Conversation editor — This feature allows businesses to edit conversations to meet their unique needs. This includes aspects of process design, along with some tools that empower intelligent process execution to enable more dynamic conversations.
Integration — The integration feature gives users the ability to update systems, like CRM, based on conversations.
Human-in-the-loop — The software allows users to maintain and observe the accuracy and viability of IVAs by keeping human agents in the loop.
Additional Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software Features
Avatars — Some IVAs provide life-like avatars, which communicate in a strikingly human fashion. These avatars come in various forms and formats, such as on-site customer support agents. Some companies even choose to roll out these avatars in store as shopping assistants. In terms of the look of these avatars, some providers provide the ability to customize them to fit a particular business.
Other features of intelligent virtual assistant software: Alexa Capabilities, Google Assistant Capabilities, Microsoft Teams Capabilities, Skype Capabilities, Slack Capabilities, SMS Capabilities, Social Media, Video, and WhatsApp Capabilities.
Potential Issues with Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software
Preference for human agents — Although IVAs are great at many tasks, some contexts, such as those which require a significant amount of empathy, may be better served by a human agent.
Transparency — Despite the fact that IVAs might be better suited for repetitive tasks, users still deserve to know that they are speaking to an IVA, not a human. Legislation is catching up to this human desire and is requiring bots to state that they are not human in certain U.S. states like California.
Effective handoffs to humans — Sometimes, IVAs do not have an answer to a question from the user. It is critical that the system is designed in a way to successfully resolve this problem. Typically, the best way to solve this issue is to transition the user to a human agent.
