VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS: We tell you everything!

Introduction

Virtual assistants are no longer just there to tell you the weather, play your favourite song or call "Mummy" when you ask them. Equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and trained every day, they now occupy a more important place in our lives.

What is a virtual assistant?

First of all, what is a virtual assistant? It is a software agent, this term does not speak to you and yet you know a lot of them! For example Siri from Apple, Cortana from Microsoft, Ok Google, Alexa from Amazon...

These artificial intelligence software are installed in devices such as smartphones, speakers or any other connected object.

They perform tasks by responding to different commands. The assistant can recognise a command given by voice and respond by voice synthesis. Voice assistants can help us anytime, anywhere.

As you have understood, these technological revolutions are not physical people, but they understand you almost like humans.

For what purpose?

But how are they useful?

They are multifunctional and come in a variety of forms. They can be voice-activated or chat-based.

All these "software" are intelligent tools that answer you when you ask them questions, they assist you in your daily tasks. They have access to everything in our phone and are therefore able to inform us better than anyone else!

We use them regularly to get information about the weather, the news, the date of our next hairdresser's appointment... But also to launch the applications on our smartphones... With Amazon's Alexa we can even order items.

Some of them can also control the IoT like adjusting the thermostat of the house, turning on the light, etc...

From a professional point of view, these virtual assistants have the capacity to plan your appointments according to your agenda, or better still to participate in your meetings, to take notes and to write a report!

Moreover, they can complement or replace customer service. This possibility would result in a considerable workload reduction for call centre staff.

These robots take over time-consuming and repetitive tasks from your employees, making them twice as productive!

Who uses them?

Even if a large majority of people in the world use these virtual assistants, opinions remain mixed. Some people have decided to adopt them in their daily lives, while others are still reluctant.

Here are a few reasons for their refusal to take the plunge:

• Lack of confidence in the tool: they prefer to do things themselves to avoid mistakes.

• The inhuman side: they do not like the voice or the name of the assistant, which is not natural enough and reminds them too much of a robot.

• The irrelevance of the results : They noticed a lot of errors during certain uses, so they preferred to stop using it.

• Incomprehension of what is said : They find that the assistant does not understand their sentences or their intentions.

And here are the reasons why people love them:

• Practicality/usefulness : when you are busy, you can ask one of these assistants to send a message to someone, to write down a reminder...

• Availability : as they are not human, these assistants are available 24/7!

• Time saving : don't wait on the phone for the customer service to answer you, make your complaint to the chatbot, it answers you immediately! It also saves time when we ask them to perform simple tasks.

• Ease of use : anyone can use it, from the most tech-savvy to the least tech-savvy, it's an indispensable asset!

In what hardware are they found?

Virtual assistants are integrated into a multitude of platforms or elements :

• Smart speakers (Google Home)

• Mobiles or computers (Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana)

• Mobile applications for specific companies such as Domino's Pizzas on connected watches

• Cars (Tesla, Mercedes…)

• Websites with integrated chat systems

• Connected household appliances (robots, fridges, ovens...)

• Touch terminals in shops, shopping centres, train stations...

• Virtual worlds (iBIM 😉)

There are also chatbots that serve only to keep people company, for lonely people, they can chat with an "ideal" interlocutor. Listening, always available, not interrupting, advising, what more could you want?

Future trends

What still seems a bit "crazy" to us today, is already in the minds and uses of our children... Yes, asking Siri to call Grandma or to start a cartoon episode is already integrated in their minds.

Not a single day goes by without artificial intelligence developing in all areas such as autonomous driving, research, medical diagnosis...

This is not a revolution but a digital disruption as Stéphane Mallard calls it.

This "Digital Evangelyst" gives us some surprising information. Jobs are increasingly automated, starting with cashiers and self-service employees, now the most threatened jobs are those of accountants, train drivers, taxi drivers... But they are not the only ones.

Yes, the professions of lawyer, and even doctors and surgeons, are likely to disappear in the future. In fact, in the United States, many law firms are already equipped with virtual assistants that make it easier for them to search through the countless law books and save them considerable time.

We are continuously enriching artificial intelligence and therefore training virtual assistants that will one day become better than us! And that is how the student will surpass the master...

According to the CNIL, in 2019, there were approximately 1.7 million voice assistants on connected speakers and 16 to 20 million voice assistant users on smartphones in France.

The consultancy Roland Berger estimates that there will be 3 billion voice assistants, all media combined, and presents a projection of 8 billion in 2023, worldwide.

And to look even further ahead, there is every reason to believe that virtual personal assistants will follow us around the clock and share our lives. They will know us better than anyone else and will be able to inform others better than ourselves!

For example, your spouse will be able to consult your personal assistant to find out which gift you would like most for your birthday.

Conclusion

These virtual assistants can be frightening at first, but once you start using them occasionally for small tasks, you can't do without them...

And this is a resigned person telling you that!

Even if their development is lightning fast, their functionalities are still limited. This leaves us with quite a few years to go before we become totally dependent on them!

And you, have you already gone through the process?