It’s crucial to understand what Natural Language Processing (NLP) is before discussing intelligent virtual assistants. Machines can analyze and interpret human language thanks to a process known as natural language processing (NLP).
It is at the heart of all the technologies we use on a daily basis, including search engines, chatbots, spam filters, and grammar checkers as well as voice assistants and social media monitoring tools.
In other words, a general definition of NLP is the autonomous software manipulation of natural language, such as speech and text. With the advent of computers, the study of natural language processing, which has been around for more than 50 years, evolved from the study of linguistics.
Fortune Business Insights projects that the global NLP market will expand at a CAGR of 29.4% from $20.98 billion in 2021 to $127.26 billion in 2028.
The enthusiastic AI Virtual Assistant is at the forefront of the NLP revolution, reaching out to assist companies and their clients. What exactly are these “intelligent” virtual assistants, and are these so-called “helpers” capable of doing the job?
What is AI Virtual Assistant?
An artificial intelligence system called an Intelligent Virtual Assistant may simulate human contact to carry out specific duties, such as customer support. Deep neural networks, machine learning, and other breakthroughs in AI technology have led to a rise in the use of virtual assistants.
Since Siri and Alexa, AI virtual assistants have advanced significantly, creating a number of new opportunities for the enterprise sector. Have you ever thought about the technology behind Siri, though? How is speech understood by Siri and other AI virtual assistants? Why are they so intelligent? Based on the directives they have received, how are they able to behave?
Virtual assistants are significantly more advanced than chatbots, despite the fact that they are occasionally confused with them. And more companies are switching from simple chatbots to IVAs because recent advances in AI have made IVAs simple to use and affordable.
In many ways, AI virtual assistants are superior to traditional chatbots. Traditional chatbots are programmed to react to questions, but AI chatbots, which are enhanced with next-generation analytics, machine learning, AR/VR, and data science, can offer dynamic responses and insights.
IVAs, as opposed to chatbots, can comprehend and respond to any question, even if it has not been specifically coded into them.
Intelligent virtual assistants can identify human speech, comprehend the meaning behind it, and answer in a fashion that mimics human conversation by combining natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), and other advanced technologies.
Why Do Enterprises Need Virtual Assistants?
Today, the idea of smart gadgets without virtual assistants is unthinkable. It has simplified and improved the manageability of our daily chores. When technology can greatly simplify daily duties, there is no reason why organizations can’t use it for their operations or business.
This is even more crucial today as businesses struggle with labor shortages or offer greater salaries and benefits to keep their staff; in the post-pandemic environment, they need all the assistance they can get. AI-driven virtual assistants and remote assistants appear to be the only way ahead for businesses to thrive, with the impacts of “The Great Resignation” still hovering over many small and large firms.
Virtual assistants powered by AI can increase productivity and customer service while requiring little human involvement. Additionally, they can amplify the business’ momentum and interact more effectively with potential clients.
The majority of businesses have begun to invest in creating AI virtual assistants. The AI virtual assistants can develop tools that swiftly and effectively process enormous volumes of data, offer analyses, and make wise suggestions.
AI assistants can conduct routine chores like adding events to your calendar, putting up a reminder, or even tracking spending if they have voice and speech recognition skills. By 2024, Statista predicts that more than 8 billion digital voice assistants will be in use worldwide, about equal to the world’s population.
Businesses can use AI-driven virtual assistants to monitor and improve their marketing activities for greater ROI and long-term benefits in addition to exploiting economies of scale and increased brand awareness. Or even this brand-new startup in content marketing that combines AI with a human staff to distribute content widely.
Types of AI Virtual Assistants
Chatbots, voice assistants, AI avatars, and domain-specific virtual assistants are just a few of the several forms of AI virtual assistants. What they actually imply and do is as follows:
- Chatbots – Since their creation, chatbots have been a hallmark of the e-commerce industry. However, contemporary chatbot implementations are powered by artificial intelligence, allowing them to consider client inquiries rather than forcing the customer through a series of fixed actions.
- Domain-Specific Virtual Assistants – These highly specialized AI virtual assistant implementations are made for extremely specific industries and are tuned for high performance in the travel, banking, engineering, cybersecurity, and other demanding areas.
- AI Avatars – AI Avatars are 3D models that are created to resemble people and are used for entertainment purposes or to provide a human touch to virtual customer service interactions. Modern technology from firms like Nvidia is able to create remarkably lifelike human avatars in real time.
- Voice Assistants – Voice Assistants, like the well-known Siri and Google Assistant products, use automatic speech recognition and natural language processing to provide vocal responses to questions.
Technologies Behind AI Virtual Assistants
Although virtual assistants can be any of the aforementioned, the technology that power them are what matter. You need a team of knowledgeable AI experts or a technology partner to construct an AI virtual assistant rather than relying on premade solutions.
Here is a list of the essential products and services that enable AI virtual assistants to increase convenience, productivity, and financial gain. Let’s go into the specifics.
- Text-to-Speech (TTS) & Speech-to-Text (STT) – The chatbots can reply to text and speech using TTS and STT. It is a characteristic that most virtual assistants share. For user engagement, the STT transforms spoken word into digital signals, which are subsequently translated into textual. TTS does the opposite.
- Computer Vision (CV) – Using computer vision (CV) Body language plays a crucial role in communicating. Visual virtual assistants include a CV as a core component. It enables you to take information out of visual inputs like videos, live cameras, or digital photos.
- Speech Compression – Speech compression is required since your voice assistant needs to temporarily store the commands. You can store your commands more efficiently by using speech compression.
- Noise Control – Although smartphones and other gadgets, such as Bluetooth headphones, have built-in noise cancellation, there is no guarantee that this will prevent background noise from being picked up. Including internal noise control can improve productivity and decrease the possibility of misinterpreting voice orders.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) – Speech recognition is aided by Natural Language Processing (NLP), a language analysis technique. The virtual assistant must process a voice command in order to recognize it and react. Voice samples can be used to train your AI assistant to understand voice commands.
- Language Understanding (NLU) – Speech processing alone cannot discern a person’s true intent from their natural language use (NLU) and carry on a conversation. It’s important to read the request correctly. You need Natural Language Understanding (NLU), a branch of NLP, for this.
- Natural Language Generation (NLG) – NLG produces natural language that sounds human-like. Depending on the objectives and development procedures of the project, many models and approaches for NLG may be used.
- Augmented Reality (AR) – Build a mobile augmented reality chatbot for offering tours and responding to user inquiries about certain display objects in text, images, videos, and audio formats using augmented reality (AR).
- Deep Learning – Virtual assistants and chatbots can learn from data and human-to-human interaction thanks to deep learning algorithms. Deep learning chatbots examine recent interactions between customers and support staff to produce pertinent messages and responses.
- Emotional Intelligence (EI) – EI analyses human emotions by spotting facial expressions, body language, or speech, making AI assistants more receptive. Emotion AI employs machine learning and computer vision methods.
- Generative Adversarial Networks (GANS) – These are algorithmic systems that make use of neural networks to produce new examples of synthetic data. For AI avatars and 3D assistants, GANs use real-world image samples and generators that are fed into discriminators to produce a lifelike 3D face.
Benefits of Using AI Virtual Assistants for Your Business
The timing is right for AI virtual assistants, also known as conversational assistants, digital assistants, conversational interfaces, and chatbots, for a number of reasons.
Improved machine learning and speech technology algorithm development, more processing power, access to more and more diverse sample data, new proprietary and open-source projects, and more are some of the top advantages.
The following is a summary of the top advantages of using AI virtual assistants in your company:
- Customized User Experience – They offer a highly tailored experience that adapts to the demands of the user, increasing user engagement and customer happiness.
- Seamless Data Gathering – AI virtual assistants do not require customer service representatives to take detailed notes because they immediately file and categorize client inquiries and related metadata for analysis.
- Streamlined Day-to-Day Tasks – With AI Virtual Assistants, you can automate workflows, streamline business operations in a variety of areas, including sales, marketing, human resources, and customer care.
- Better Customer Support – Using AI assistants, you may automate the process of responding to customer inquiries. Your staff can then concentrate on harder jobs that require their assistance.
- Increased Staff Productivity – You can raise employee output by delegating tedious, error-prone manual work to AI virtual assistants.
- Quick, Efficient, and Contextual Response – Respond to client inquiries promptly, effectively, and contextually to improve customer satisfaction.
- Effective Communications – To improve personalization and boost sales conversions, schedule meetings, make calls, send emails, and set reminders.