If you're like us, you're always on the hunt for the latest and greatest AI-powered voice assistants. But you may sometimes get a bit dizzy regarding the number of offerings out there.
Well, buckle up, because we're taking a deep dive into the 5 best AI voice assistants 2024 has to offer, saving you hours of hard work.
We’ll cover:
What’s an AI voice assistant?
What are the best AI voice assistants in 2024?
What can you use AI voice assistants for? (And what aren’t they good at?)
A detailed breakdown of the top 5 voice assistants
Hey, are there any good free options out there?
Let’s get started!
What is an AI voice assistant?
An AI voice assistant is a software program that uses voice recognition, natural language processing, and Artificial Intelligence to understand and respond to your spoken commands.
These days, AI voice assistants are everywhere. Chances are, you've got one in your pocket right now.
Smartphone assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant have become our constant digital companions, always ready to answer questions, send messages, or play our favorite songs at the drop of a mic.
While early voice assistants were glorified chatbots, today's AI models are far more advanced. They can understand complex commands, access huge amounts of data, and even sound convincingly human.
The best AI voice assistants in 2024
In 2024, AI voice assistants are way more capable than their counterparts of just a year ago.
Now, you can chat with digital friends who actually understand you and can handle complex requests.
Here are the top contenders vying for the crown:
Lindy: The overall best, allowing you to build your own AI assistant army to conquer your workday and make your life easier.
Siri: The sassy, ever-present Apple sidekick ready to tackle everyday tasks with a touch of snark.
Alexa: Amazon's answer engine turns homes into smart hubs, playing music, answering questions, and controlling your devices.
Rabbit M1: The ultra-modern video chat device that bridges the distance, making remote movie nights and family gatherings feel immersive.
Retell AI: Want to let your inner AI architect loose? Retell lets you build custom voice assistants tailored to your every whim.
What can you use AI voice assistants for?
What exactly can these digital assistants actually handle?
Let’s take a closer at some of their capabilities:
Set timers, reminders, and calendar events to keep you on track
Organize and triage your inbox
Summarize meetings
Read you the news or daily summaries
Control smart home devices like lights, thermostats, and speakers
Find quick answers to everyday questions or search the web for information
Dictate emails, take notes, and create to-do lists to boost your productivity
Track your mood and offer companionship
Play your favorite music, audiobooks, or podcasts
Translate words and phrases into other languages
Brainstorm ideas, get help with simple or professional writing tasks, and some can even generate creative artwork
What they're not so good at (yet):
Complex problem-solving: While they can tackle some tricky tasks, don't expect them to replace your strategic advisor outright.
Deep conversations and emotion: Most AIs lack the emotional intelligence and nuance for truly deep discussions. But they’re getting exceedingly better at reading moods and emulating empathy.
Physical world interactions: Assistants are stuck in the digital world. They can't drive your car or give you a hug.
Generalizing knowledge: Most AI assistants are still pretty specialized. Applying knowledge from one field to another isn't their strong suit — except for Lindy, though we’ll get into that later.
Lindy is your AI headquarters, where you can build a whole workforce of interconnected, specialized voice-powered digital assistants ready to tackle any task. Coding? Not really necessary!
Here's why Lindy's our top pick:
Lets you build your own AI dream team: Need help with scheduling? Customer questions? To-do lists? Lindy lets you create custom AI assistants (called "Lindies") designed for specific jobs.
Over 99% accurate: While other voice assistants may miss the mark or basically say “Come again?” Lindy’s natural language processing capabilities allow it to understand you with superhuman prowess. Got an accent, or tend to mumble? No problem!
Add voice shortcuts: With Lindy, you can create easy voice commands and shortcuts to have easy access to tasks and automated workflows. Customize your own, streamline your day, presto!
Teamwork makes the dream work: The coolest part? Your Lindies chat with each other, learning and sharing info to streamline your whole operation.
Workflow woes, away! Lindy can help you schedule meetings, summarize them, clean up your inbox, offer customer support, and even do prospecting for you. If you can imagine it, Lindy does it.
Start with a template, then make it yours: Choose from pre-built templates (calendar management, customer support, and more!), then customize them with your own lingo and workflows.
Plays well with others: Lindy offers over 3,000 pre-built integrations (Google Calendar, Slack, Zendesk, you name it). Connect your favorite tools, and Lindy handles the rest.
It understands humans: Lindy's conversational AI means your assistants get what you're saying, leading to smoother (and less robotic) interactions.
Without a doubt, Alexa's the reigning queen of smart speakers, the brains behind the Amazon Echo empire.
She's got a skill for just about everything and she's constantly evolving, making her one of the most versatile AI voice assistants out there.
Here's what she brings to the table:
Plays music, audiobooks, and podcasts from Amazon Music, Spotify, and others (your house can be a party zone).
Answers all your random questions (you can have it whisper the answers to you during trivia night!).
Tells you the weather so you can dress accordingly (or not, some people like getting wet).
Controls your smart home like a boss, turning lights on and off or locking doors with just a simple voice command.
Helps you order groceries and shop on Amazon (dangerously convenient, but perfect for those lazy days when you don’t care about getting your steps in).
Offers tons of fun skills, from guided meditations to silly games and interactive stories for kids.
Price: Alexa works best with an Amazon Echo device. Prices vary from around $60 for a single speaker to over $1,500 for a complete Smart Home system.
A screen, speakers, and AI with a proprietary OS rolled into one — that's the Rabbit M1.
Rabbit is all about staying connected, making it the perfect AI voice assistant for long-distance loved ones or remote teams.
Here's what it does well:
Primary interaction is through a "Push-to-Talk" button that activates the Rabbit OS for listening.
The Rabbit R1 AI can handle tasks like booking rides, finding recipes, and answering trivia questions.
Rabbit OS uses a Large Action Model (LAM) to perform actions directly on user interfaces, streamlining processes.
LAM enables Rabbit AI to learn and replicate complex tasks by observing a user's actions, similar to a sophisticated macro.
The rotating camera acts as a privacy feature, and can be used in conjunction with the AI for tasks like identifying objects or suggesting recipes based on refrigerator contents.
Retell AI lets you create a custom AI assistant tailored to your specific wants and needs. This is the DIY route, offering maximum flexibility for those who love to tinker.
Retell brands itself as a “conversational voice API,” allowing you to talk to it as if to a real person.
Here's how it works:
Design your assistant's personality and voice (make it as sassy or as serious as you like).
Determine what tasks it can perform (from ordering takeout to automating work stuff).
Integrate with your existing smart devices and services (this takes some coding know-how).
Unleash your creation on the world (or, you know, just keep it for yourself and impress your friends).
Price: Retell AI has a free tier to get started, and then a pay-as-you-go model that’s $0.10/min for normal voices, and $0.12/min for premium voices.
Is there a free AI virtual assistant?
In short, yes, there are a few free AI voice assistants out there if you’re on a budget. While they may not be quite as sophisticated as the paid options, they can still handle basic tasks like setting reminders, controlling smart home devices, and answering general knowledge questions.
The most well-known freebie is Google Assistant. We all know and some of us even love the charmingly clueless Google Assistant. It comes built into Android phones and as an app for iOS.
Many chatbot services offer free tiers for basic conversational AI, such as Dialogflow and Botpress. While not full voice assistants, you could use them for some voice-activated tasks creatively.
But, as always, if you want to step up your game, you’re going to have to open up your wallet.
Summing up
Those were the 5 best AI voice assistants to have in your corner in 2024.
Just think about how much easier it's gonna be to get stuff done with these virtual helpers running the show.
These nifty little helpers will handle all that for us so we can focus on more important stuff, like watching parkour videos, working out, or catching up on our sleep!
