What are intelligent virtual assistants?
Intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) are bots that engage in a human-like conversation to answer questions or provide information. Other names IVAs go by include digital employees, virtual agents, and intelligent virtual agents. They are often implemented online, but some industries use them over the phone.
These intelligent virtual assistants differ from individual-use assistants like Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, or Microsoft’s Cortana. At a business level, IVAs are similarly powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning but instead help companies solve several business problems and inefficiencies.
Businesses can implement intelligent virtual assistant software and take advantage of natural language processing, allowing them to communicate with customers or employees at scale.
Use cases for intelligent virtual assistants
Some use cases for businesses implementing intelligent virtual assistants are as follows:
- Serving as an extension of a customer support team, handling straightforward or self-service questions and needs.
- Fielding requests for product demos or quotes and sending prospects to sales and marketing teams.
- Helping internal employees get answers to HR and IT questions.
- Making reservations or providing local recommendations for hospitality and travel clients.
Benefits of intelligent virtual assistants
Because of the intelligence and nuance that artificial intelligence and machine learning bring, intelligent virtual assistants offer many benefits to businesses that decide to use them.
- Human-like communication. IVAs communication flows more like normal conversations and lacks the robotic feeling of regular chatbots.
- IVAs continue to learn. Because of its machine learning backbone, an IVA learns and grows with each customer or employee interaction.
- 24/7 availability. Unlike human employees, who are located across different time zones and can only work a set number of hours per day, IVAs can provide support as long as the website or phone lines are available.
- Increased team efficiency and customer satisfaction. By handling many common and straightforward queries, IVAs allow human agents more time to provide personalized care and support.
- Seamless integration with other tools. Customers' experiences with IVAs are similar to those with chatbots and digital assistants like Alexa, and IVAs can be integrated with other such tools to increase efficiency.
- IVAs as real avatars. Life-like avatars can be created to simulate nearly human conversations. They can often be customized.
- If they can’t provide the right answer, IVAs can route customers to the right human agent. IVAs can be trained to sense the right time to transfer a customer to a human when they don’t have the answer readily available,or when the customer needs more personalized support.
Drawbacks to intelligent virtual assistants
While intelligent virtual assistants provide undeniable benefits, the fact remains that even the most sophisticated chatbots present difficulties.
- Not everyone likes working with a virtual agent or assistant. Despite the speed they provide, IVAs aren’t everyone’s preference. Many customers prefer talking to a human, no matter their needs.
- The ethics around disclosing the use of IVAs is questionable. Many states and countries are introducing or enacting legislation around IVAs and whether or not they must self-identify in conversations as bots. How IVAs find and use data is a topic of concern, as well.
- They aren’t flawless. IVAs are a lot like humans in this way. They can misread an interaction or provide the wrong answer at times.
Intelligent virtual assistants vs. digital assistants vs. virtual assistants vs. chatbots
Intelligent virtual assistants are bots that help customers engage with businesses in a human-like fashion.
Digital assistants, or productivity assistants, are another name for smart devices like Siri or Alexa. This name helps differentiate them from other intelligent virtual assistants used by businesses at scale.
Virtual assistants are humans who work over the internet to help businesses with various administrative or technical tasks. They are often self-employed or employed on contract.
Chatbots are a form of a virtual assistant, but they aren’t as advanced as IVAs. They can be programmed for specific scenarios with limited responses by using chatbot software. They often use button options to help users further the conversation.
Learn how intelligent virtual assistants can help to strengthen customer support teams.
Whitney Rudeseal Peet
Whitney Rudeseal Peet is a former freelance writer for G2 and a story- and customer-centered writer, marketer, and strategist. She fully leans into the gig-based world, also working as a voice over artist and book editor. Before going freelance full-time, Whitney worked in content and email marketing for Calendly, Salesforce, and Litmus, among others. When she's not at her desk, you can find her reading a good book, listening to Elton John and Linkin Park, enjoying some craft beer, or planning her next trip to London.
