virtual assistant
In plain wordsSoftware you speak or type to, like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant, that answers questions and does simple jobs such as setting timers, playing music or controlling smart-home devices.
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AI products
A program, usually operated by voice, that carries out everyday requests: answering questions, managing calendars and reminders, sending messages, playing media and controlling connected devices. Classic voice assistants chain wake wordwake word, n.: A word or phrase, such as 'Alexa' or 'Hey Google', that a smart speaker or phone listens for constantly and that switches it into full listening mode. detection, speech recognitionspeech recognition, n.: Technology that turns spoken words into written text, as when a phone transcribes a voice message or captions appear automatically under a video., natural language understandingnatural language understanding, n.: The part of language AI concerned with working out what a piece of text means — who did what to whom, what the writer wants and what follows from it — rather than with producing text. (mapping an utterance to an intent and its parameters), task-specific services and text-to-speechtext-to-speech, n.: Technology that reads written text aloud in a computer-generated voice, used in screen readers, voice assistants, audiobooks and navigation apps.. Their skills were largely hand-built, which made them reliable for narrow commands but brittle in open conversation. From 2023 the major assistants began to be rebuilt or supplemented with large language modelslarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code., blurring the line with AI assistantsAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf.. Always-listening devices raise privacy concerns about accidental recording and data retention.
The virtual assistant can turn off the lights but still cannot reschedule a meeting with three people.
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Work
A person, usually a freelancer or contractor, who works remotely for clients on office tasks such as scheduling, correspondence, bookkeeping or social-media management. This older sense persists in the labor market and can cause confusion in searches and statistics.
Origin
Precursors include Microsoft's animated Office Assistant (introduced with Office 97) and SRI International's DARPA-funded CALO project (2003–2008), whose spin-off Siri was bought by Apple and launched on the iPhone 4S in October 2011. Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa followed in 2014 and Google Assistant in 2016. In February 2025 Amazon announced Alexa+, rebuilt around generative AI.
Usage note
Virtual assistants were designed for short spoken commands; AI assistantsAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf. such as ChatGPT were designed for open-ended text conversation, and the categories are converging. Not to be confused with conversational AIconversational AI, n.: The technology that lets computers hold conversations with people in everyday language, by text or voice. It powers chatbots, voice assistants and automated customer-service lines., the broader technology field.
Related
- AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf.
- chatbotchatbot, n.: Software you chat with in ordinary language, by typing or talking, as you would with a person. The newest ones, such as ChatGPT, can answer questions, draft writing and keep long conversations going.
- conversational AIconversational AI, n.: The technology that lets computers hold conversations with people in everyday language, by text or voice. It powers chatbots, voice assistants and automated customer-service lines.
- speech recognitionspeech recognition, n.: Technology that turns spoken words into written text, as when a phone transcribes a voice message or captions appear automatically under a video.
- wake wordwake word, n.: A word or phrase, such as 'Alexa' or 'Hey Google', that a smart speaker or phone listens for constantly and that switches it into full listening mode.
- text-to-speechtext-to-speech, n.: Technology that reads written text aloud in a computer-generated voice, used in screen readers, voice assistants, audiobooks and navigation apps.
- ClippyClippy, prop. n.: Microsoft Office's animated paper-clip helper of the late 1990s, remembered for interrupting people with unwanted tips; also a nickname for an imagined AI that turns everything into paperclips.
- AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf.
Mentioned in
chatbotchatbot, n.: Software you chat with in ordinary language, by typing or talking, as you would with a person. The newest ones, such as ChatGPT, can answer questions, draft writing and keep long conversations going., AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf., conversational AIconversational AI, n.: The technology that lets computers hold conversations with people in everyday language, by text or voice. It powers chatbots, voice assistants and automated customer-service lines., voice agentvoice agent, n.: An AI system you talk to out loud, for example on a phone call, that listens, answers in a natural-sounding voice and can carry out tasks such as booking appointments or checking an order., wake wordwake word, n.: A word or phrase, such as 'Alexa' or 'Hey Google', that a smart speaker or phone listens for constantly and that switches it into full listening mode., SRI InternationalSRI International, prop. n.: A nonprofit research institute in California, once part of Stanford University, where the Shakey robot was built and the technology behind Apple's Siri assistant began.