Digital assistants are fast becoming the norm in business circles. No surprise there, either: they’re fast, affordable, easy to use, and skyrocket productivity across an ever-increasing variety of domains.
So, it’s not an exaggeration to say that implementing a digital assistant could help your business offer more services and increase its efficiency.
But first, we’ll have to go over what digital assistants are, what they’re not, and exactly how they’re helping business owners and employees.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- The basics of digital assistants
- How they work
- The main benefits of implementing one
- Real-world digital assistant use cases
- A 10/10 digital assistant to bring your business into the 21st century right now
Read on!
What is a digital assistant, anyway?
In a nutshell, digital assistants are software programs that use artificial intelligence (AI) to have natural conversations and complete tasks for users.
The best of the best are able to understand full sentences, have discussions, and learn user preferences over time.
And yes, even though it may sound like something out of a sci-fi thriller starring Michael Fassbender, we’re already at that level.
Let’s take a look at some of the things these newfangled AI assistants can do:
- Digital assistants use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to understand natural speech and respond fluently and conversationally. This makes interacting with them more human-like (and fun).
- They can handle more complex requests than chatbots, like booking a flight or having a meaningful discussion. Their advanced AI allows fluid back-and-forth conversation.
- A good digital assistant will adapt to users by understanding context and remembering preferences. Basically, the more you use one, the more personalized it becomes.
- For businesses, digital assistants can take over those by-the-numbers customer service tasks, freeing up employees for higher-value work. They scale easily without additional hiring.
The focus of digital assistants is allowing us to give our time and energy to more creative and meaningful work. So they complement and augment our intelligence rather than replace it outright.
How do digital assistants work?
As we’ve established, digital assistants are complex AI systems that use state-of-the-art machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
Here's a quick look at how they do their thing:
- NLP - This allows the assistant to understand human language, including slang, accents, and context. NLP breaks down speech into parts and analyzes meaning.
- Machine learning - Assistants store conversations to improve over time. The more people use an assistant, the smarter it gets. Also, machine learning algorithms enable the assistant to handle new questions and tasks.
- Knowledge graph - This is like a giant database of facts that the assistant can pull from to answer questions and follow up on conversations. The knowledge graph expands as the assistant learns.
- Voice recognition - This transcribes human speech into text that NLP can analyze. Voice recognition improves with machine learning.
- Natural conversations - With all these technologies combined, digital assistants can understand requests, ask clarifying questions if needed, pull relevant information, and deliver it conversationally (and some would say a bit cheekily).
So in a nutshell, advanced AI gives digital assistants human-like communication abilities that keep getting better the more we use them.
What are the benefits of using a digital assistant?
Using a digital assistant in your business can offer a huge variety of benefits:
- They’re excellent time-savers and productivity boosters. Digital assistants can handle routine customer service requests, freeing up employees to pursue more mission-critical tasks. And they don’t mess up their day because they talked to that one angry customer.
- Deliver quick and consistent answers. Digital assistants provide fast, uniform responses. Plus, they never get frustrated, talk back, or have an off day.
- They’re always there when you need ‘em. With a digital assistant, customers can get help 24/7.
- All-around improved customer satisfaction. Customers appreciate getting immediate help. Digital assistants create positive experiences.
- Gather data and insights. The AI behind digital assistants learns and improves through every interaction – and they’re able to give businesses valuable analytics.
- They cut costs. Digital assistants automate simple requests at a fraction of the cost of human agents, which means significant long-term savings.
- Scale easily. Digital assistants can handle increased demand without staffing up. Great for seasonal spikes or growth.
- Free up employees for higher-level work. Let your team focus on complex issues and innovation while digital assistants tackle routine inquiries.
What's the difference between a digital assistant and a chatbot?
Digital assistants and chatbots have some similarities, but there are some important differences that you can’t gloss over.
They are:
- Chatbots mainly use scripted responses and menus to have basic conversations. They follow pre-programmed rules and have limited abilities – they’re not “intelligent.”
- Conversely, digital assistants use much more advanced AI and natural language processing. They understand context and intent better, so they can have free-flowing conversations.
- Chatbots are very good at repetitive tasks like customer service duties. But when things get more complex, digital assistants can handle way more interactions and requests.
- Digital assistants continue conversations and track context. Chatbots have zero long-term memory; they start fresh with each exchange.
- Over time, digital assistants learn user preferences through machine learning algorithms. Chatbots stay the same unless they get updates.
- Digital assistants aim to be omnipresent and accessible for a wide array of tasks. On the other hand, chatbots have a narrow focus like scheduling or purchases.
How digital assistants are changing the world of business
All over, business owners are getting savvy with the huge benefits of AI. This is leading to the mass adoption of digital assistants in many key areas that used to be solely the domain of skilled human workers.
Digital assistants are transforming businesses in several ways:
- Automating repetitive, boring tasks - Digital assistants can handle many repetitive customer service queries, which gives employees the time and energy to pursue more meaningful tasks. Plus they’re always on, with no breaks or time off.
- Customers actually LIKE them - Customers appreciate the quick, customized service from digital assistants. There’s no being put on hold, no wait times, and no misunderstandings, which they greatly appreciate.
- Generating insights - The AI behind digital assistants learns about customers' needs and preferences from conversations, which helps companies improve products and services.
- Productivity goes up, up, up - Digital assistants act as virtual coworkers to boost productivity. Not only do things get better on the customer service front, but they also “augment” the capabilities of other employees.
- Enhancing brand image - Customers see companies offering digital assistants as innovative, high-tech, and focused on great service. Over time, this increases the brand’s visibility and customer loyalty.
- Expanding capabilities - Businesses can easily add new skills to digital assistants to handle changing needs. And not only do assistants get smarter and learn, but they also incorporate new skills, and templates, and get better at what they already know.
- Reducing costs - Digital assistants virtually eliminate the need for large call center staffing. Same service, but at a fraction of the cost.
In short, the scalability and flexibility of a digital assistant can be a huge boost for sales, HR, IT support, and a host of other business functions.
Lindy: Your new digital assistant
Ready to modernize your business with a digital assistant? Meet Lindy, built on the principle of lifelong learning and adaptation, Lindy becomes more useful the more you interact with it.
How does it work? By allowing you to create digital mini-assistants (or Lindys) for different tasks, which can collaborate with one another and your integrated tools.
Think of it like a small army of AI assistants at your service.
Here's how it will help transform your business:
- Fast learner: Lindy adapts on the fly, learning your preferences, communication style, company style, and working habits. By observing interactions and receiving your feedback, it constantly fine-tunes its understanding of your needs, guaranteeing assistance becomes increasingly personalized and efficient.
- Proactive and independent: Lindy is no static assistant, it takes initiative! It proactively offers solutions and anticipates you and your customers’ needs, always ensuring reliability and confidence before acting.
- An automation champ: Lindy can reliably and easily take things like customer service, competitor analysis, sales outreach, lead generation, and even outbound recruitment off your hands thanks to its natural language capabilities and ever-growing template library.
- Seamless integrations: Lindy effortlessly integrates with your existing tools and workflows, like Zoom, Google Docs, and email clients like Gmail. From syncing with your calendar for scheduling to connecting with your Google client for customer support, it’s got your business covered.
- Constant growth: As you and your clients use Lindy, it continuously learns and expands its capabilities. Plus, new features and skills are regularly added, ensuring Lindy stays ahead of the curve and adapts to your business’s evolving needs.
Meet your new digital assistant, try Lindy for free today!
Conclusion
So where does this leave us? The bottom line is that digital assistants aren't just cool pieces of tech - they're invaluable tools for streamlining operations, boosting productivity, and enhancing customer service.
Chances are, as time goes by, these AI digital assistants will become even better as they continue to learn, grow, and evolve into new territories.
All in all, it looks like a good time to be a business owner. You can grab the low-hanging fruit of AI automation right now at very little risk, and start reaping the benefits!
