AI glossary · Agents
Virtual assistant
In one sentence
A virtual assistant is AI software that helps a person, or a company's customers, with a range of tasks by text or voice: it answers questions, keeps track of the conversation and handles simple jobs such as booking an appointment.
Also known as: AI assistant · digital assistant · intelligent virtual assistant · IVA
What is a virtual assistant?
It’s the term people use most outside technical circles. Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are consumer virtual assistants; in a business, the virtual assistant is the one that serves your customers on the channel they already use: website chat, WhatsApp or the phone.
Put it to work
An AI agent on your WhatsApp, CRM included
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It replies to customers on WhatsApp and logs every conversation in the CRM.
See the WhatsApp agentIt sits between two neighbouring ideas:
| Chatbot | Virtual assistant | AI agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it does | Answers specific queries | Helps across several tasks | Completes tasks with tools |
| Language | Script or AI | Conversational AI | AI with reasoning and actions |
| Channel | Mostly text | Text and voice | Any |
| Actions | Few or none | Simple jobs | Real integrations (calendar, CRM) |
In practice the lines blur: a well-built AI agent introduces itself to customers as a virtual assistant, because that’s the label everyone understands.
Related to this term
UTIO WhatsApp
- 3 users and 500 AI conversations
- CRM and shared inbox included
- Built from your website in a minute
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From €49/mo + VAT
See the WhatsApp agentHow it works
A virtual assistant combines several building blocks:
- Input: text or speech. Speech is transcribed first.
- Understanding: natural language understanding works out what the person wants and which details they’ve given (date, name, service).
- Context: it remembers what has been said, sometimes across conversations, thanks to agent memory.
- Response: a language model writes the reply, drawing on your business information.
- Action: if it’s connected, it does the job: books, checks an order, logs a request.
The best assistants also know their limits and pass the conversation to a person when they’re out of their depth. Together these make up what’s known as conversational AI.
Example
A physiotherapy clinic in Leeds gets messages at all hours. Its virtual assistant on WhatsApp says hello, introduces itself as an assistant, asks what the problem is and whether the patient has been before, offers free slots and confirms the booking. If the patient mentions severe pain or asks to speak to the physio, the conversation goes to the team, who pick it up with everything already said.
Virtual assistants at UTIO
UTIO’s agents introduce themselves as a virtual assistant at the start of each conversation. The WhatsApp agent runs on a shared inbox with a built-in CRM: every conversation has an owner and creates a contact record, pipeline stage, tasks and appointments. The voice agent does the same on the phone, 24/7 and in 26 languages.
You set the autonomy: no AI, ask first, draft or automatic. Most businesses start in draft mode and give the assistant more room once its answers prove reliable.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a virtual assistant and a chatbot?
A chatbot usually handles one kind of query on one channel, often from a script. A virtual assistant covers more: it understands free-form language, keeps the context of the conversation and deals with several tasks, by text or voice.
Are Siri and Alexa virtual assistants?
Yes, they're consumer virtual assistants that help one person with personal tasks. In a business setting, the term means the assistant that serves your customers on your website, your WhatsApp or your phone line.
Is a virtual assistant the same as a remote PA?
The term is also used for freelance administrative assistants who work remotely. In this glossary we mean the AI software.
Related terms
- Chatbot
A chatbot is a program that holds text conversations with people, on a website or on WhatsApp, to answer questions or guide them through a task. It either follows fixed rules or uses a language model to understand what people write.
- AI agent
An AI agent is a system that uses a language model to understand a request, decide which steps to take and carry them out with real tools, such as your calendar or CRM, until the task is done rather than just replying.
- Conversational AI
Conversational AI is the set of technologies that let a machine hold a conversation in natural language, by text or voice: understand what is said, keep track of the context and reply in a coherent way.
- AI copilot
An AI copilot is an assistant built into a work tool that suggests, drafts or summarises while a person works, without acting on its own: the final decision and the send button always stay with the user.
- Voicebot
A voicebot is a program that holds spoken conversations: it listens to what a person says, works out what they want and answers out loud. It can run on a phone line, a website, an app or a smart speaker, and with generative AI it handles open conversation, not just menus.
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