A virtual assistant is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual. These tasks or services are based on user input, location awareness, and the ability to access information from a variety of online sources (such as weather or traffic conditions, news, stock prices, user schedules, retail prices, etc.). Examples of such an agent are Microsoft's Office Assistant and later Cortana, Apple's Siri, Google's Google Home, Google Now (earlier Android versions had voice search via Google Search; later Google introduced Google Assistant). Amazon Alexa, Amazon's Evi (branded as Evi), the open source Mycroft, Braina (application developed by Brainasoft for Microsoft Windows), Samsung's S Voice, LG G3's Voice Mate, BlackBerry's Assistant, SILVIA, HTC's Hidi, IBM's Watson (computer), Facebook's M (virtual assistant) and One Voice Technologies (IVAN).
According to venture capitalist Chi-Hua Chien of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, examples of tasks that may be performed by a smart personal agent-type of Intelligent Automated Assistant include schedule management (e.g., sending an alert to a dinner date that a user is running late due to traffic conditions, update schedules for both parties, and change the restaurant reservation time) and personal health management (e.g., monitoring caloric intake, heart rate and exercise regimen, then making recommendations for healthy choices).
Intelligent personal assistant technology are enabled by the combination of mobile devices, application programming interfaces (APIs), and the proliferation of mobile apps. However, intelligent automated assistants are designed to perform specific, one-time tasks specified by user voice instructions, while smart personal agents perform ongoing tasks (e.g., schedule management) autonomously.
Automated online assistants have the ability to provide customer service during 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and may, at least, be a complement to customer service by humans. One report estimated that an automated online assistant produced a 30% decrease in the work-load for a human-provided call centre.
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Characteristics
Organize and maintain information
One of the key aspects of an intelligent personal assistant is its ability to organize and maintain information. This includes the management of emails, calendar events, files, to-do lists, etc.
Problems
A study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that Siri and similar devices often gave unhelpful responses to mental health questions.
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Components
Dialog system
The main function of the dialog system of automated online assistants is to translate the human-generated input into a digital format that the automated online assistant can use for further processing by its expert system, as well as interpret whatever solutions or replies it generates back to what a human user understands, and optimally in a way as natural and user-friendly as possible. A major underlying technology to such systems is natural language processing.
In addition, the dialog systems of many automated online assistants have integrated chatterbots, giving them more or less ability of engaging in small talk or casual conversations unrelated to the scope of their expert systems, or simply making the dialog feel more natural.
Avatar
The avatar of an automated online assistant may be called an interactive online character or automated character. It makes the automated online assistant a form of embodied agent. It aims to enhance human-computer interaction by simulating real-world conversations and experience. Such an interaction model can be constructed to guide conversations in planned directions or allow characters to guide natural language exchanges.
Because such characters can express social roles and emotions of real people, they can increase the trust that users place in online experiences. The level of interactiveness increases the perceived realism and effectiveness of such "actors", which translates into more prosperous on-line services and commerce.
When choosing an avatar to represent a business, it's important to make sure it makes the right impression. Avatars are subject to the principles of the Uncanny Valley and creating a lifelike, photorealistic character without proper consideration of the user experience can have a detrimental effect on web visitors' experience. Sometimes an extremely knowledgeable, intelligent and well designed system with a simple text box can be as, if not more effective.
Other components
An automated online assistant also has an expert system that provides specific service, whose scope depends on the purpose of it. This system can be described as an intelligent agent that functions to perceive the needs of customers in order to perform proper reactions by various structured systems, such as question answering.
Also, servers and other maintaining systems to keep the automated assistant online may also be regarded as components of it.
Comparison of assistants
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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