Before the rise of the AI age, the term virtual assistant used to refer to online professionals responsible for helping business leaders answer emails and deal with various tasks. Now, in the communications world, there’s a new definition for virtual assistant. These handy AI-enhanced bots are powered by machine learning and natural language processing.

The modern virtual assistant can improve business efficiency and support employees in any segment of the business, by automating tasks and offering quick access to information. The demand for these assistants rose from the back of smart assistants in the consumer landscape. Predictions suggest that 1.8 billion people will be using them by the end of 2021.

How Virtual Assistants Support Collaboration

Most of today’s employees are already familiar with smart assistants at home. They use tools like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa every day, making the transition to work-based assistants easy. In the collaboration landscape, these tools are perfect for delivering information, improving the quality of meetings, and driving better engagement. Some of the things that virtual assistants can do in a collaborative setting include:

  • Delivering quick access to information: A virtual assistant in a meeting can instantly bring up details about a product or service for an employee. Quick access to crucial information keeps the meeting running smoothly. Assistants can even automatically share files and presentations with attendees. These AI tools can also pull up information about the people in a meeting, to help make the conversation more personal and contextual
  • Recording and note taking: Note taking actions can pull a person’s attention away from the collaborative experience. Virtual assistants can instantly start recording information and taking notes on the behalf of the employees. These tools can also share that information with attendees in the conversation later
  • Bridging collaboration gaps: As the workplace becomes more diverse and dispersed, virtual assistants can make it easier for people anywhere to work together. The right tools can automatically translate and transcribe languages for people who are difficult to understand or here. Agents can also look at the shared calendars of every attendee to schedule future meetings and collaboration sessions
  • Instant access to meetings: In a meeting room, a virtual assistant could automatically set up a meeting within a matter of minutes, just by responding to a person’s voice. This reduces the need for IT teams and professionals to set up interactions between employees in the new hybrid work environment

Collaboration is Easier with Virtual Assistants

Now that the world of work is constantly changing and evolving, virtual assistants can make life significantly easier for every employee. These tools essentially provide each team member with their own dedicated support for setting up and enhancing collaborative experiences. Whether the assistants are offering quick access to information or recording conversations for later analysis, the conversations between employees instantly become more effective.

Going forward, virtual assistants will become the must-have partner for team members in every part of the business landscape, from sales through to marketing.

 

 



from UC Today https://ift.tt/3mOpKh4