Introduction
A virtual assistant is an artificial intelligence system designed to mimic human actions to perform certain tasks or help the user. An example of one of the first attempts to create such a technology is the assistant in Microsoft Office back in 2003 (Kim et al., 2020). However, the anthropomorphic nature of the assistant heightened user expectations, which provoked a wave of discontent, and the feature was soon removed from the company’s products. However, the idea was relevant all the time, and ever since the 1990s, the development of an assistant capable of speech recognition has been underway.
The Basis for VA Digital Realm
The basis for the development of virtual assistant technology was the need to reduce human labor costs. It was mainly related to information retrieval and processing, which is still the main goal and function. Facilitating human work and life was to be achieved by implementing unique algorithms, machine learning, and interaction with databases.
Initially, the maximum connection of virtual assistants was observed with reference or consulting systems. Later on, the technology was implemented in the media space and business analytics (Rafailidis & Manolopoulos, 2019). An example of one such product is Conversica, which deals with lead engagement for marketing and sales organizations and is operated mainly through e-mail and texting.
The Involvement of the VA Technology in Everyday Life
Many people do not even notice how advanced this technology is today. Most help systems and messengers have an assistant for speech recognition or information retrieval (Tulshan & Dhage, 2019). In addition, one of the corresponding products can be found in contemporary life:
- Built into mobile operating systems – Blackberry Assistant, Apple Siri.
- Built into smartphones and tablets regardless of operating system – Bixby, Note8 Assistant, Galaxy.
- Messenger assistant – Facebook M, Aeromexico Aerobot.
- Built into a smart speaker or smart home control system – Alexa, Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod, Google Home.
- Built into home appliances, cars, some types of wearables, universal – Google Assistant, Tesla, and others.
Conclusion
Despite the prevalence of the technology, some see it as a purely entertainment feature (Kim et al., 2020). However, this is difficult to agree with because, with the development of technology, robotics, and networks, more and more opportunities to use virtual assistants are opening up.
- For all their convenience, digitally controlled machines require time to change setups. With a virtual assistant’s active implementation and fine-tuning, employees will only need to voice the necessary metrics and wait for the finished product.
- The implementation of smart home technology, which controls all the electrical systems from lighting and appliances to security devices, has already taken place (Rafailidis & Manolopoulos, 2019). Only further development and proliferation of virtual assistant technology in the home are expected in the future.
- Medical, military, and civilian applications are possible with the development of robotics and the evolution of virtual assistants into artificial intelligence.
References
Kim, K., de Melo, C. M., Norouzi, N., Bruder, G., & Welch, G. F. (2020). Reducing task load with an embodied intelligent virtual assistant for improved performance in collaborative decision making. 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), 529–538. Web.
Rafailidis, D., & Manolopoulos, Y. (2019). Can Virtual Assistants produce recommendations? Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Web Intelligence, Mining and Semantics – WIMS2019, 1(4), 1-6. Web.
Tulshan, A. S., & Dhage, S. N. (2019). Survey on virtual assistant: Google assistant, Siri, Cortana, Alexa. In Communications in Computer and Information Science, 190–201. Springer Singapore. Web.