Virtual digital assistant. Virtual assistant – the profession of the future

A virtual assistant can do all of their work from home. The assistant will earn money using a computer and telephone. A virtual assistant is a fairly in-demand profession, because there are quite a large number of companies that need to do this or that work and it is simply not profitable to employ someone officially. Among the tasks of such employees will be: helping clients set up something, answering emails, and other employers offer virtual assistants to perform some accountant functions. All of the above work is done by remote assistants at home, by the way, a very smart move by managers, because they don’t need to arrange such performers for work, which means there is no extra headache about the workplace in the office, social services. there will be no package and other things.

Why companies are turning to virtual assistants

“Being a virtual assistant” - what is it?

Finding a similar vacancy is easy. To do this, you need to use the services of the World Wide Web. Any search site - Google, Rambler, Yahoo - in the search bar you need to enter “VA”; this abbreviation is a fairly common expression or “virtual assistant”. After which you will receive a list of offers and the necessary information.

P.S. If you want to open a full-fledged business in Prague, click on the link and they will help you. A professional approach, reasonable prices and high quality await you on the proposed site.

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Do you need a virtual assistant?

Back in the mid-90s, when I was just starting my career, I gained my first experience using the services of a freelancer. One of the most memorable moments occurred during a small discussion with a group led by the writer. I don't remember his name, but I remember that he referred to his personal assistant. Does this writer have a personal assistant? I didn’t really understand why he needed this. Despite the fact that at that time, everything was fine with me, I managed to do everything, the thought of paying someone for work, even part-time, seemed like crazy nonsense, a cheap show off, or a stupid waste of money However, over the following years, I increasingly began to hear from my colleagues and acquaintances who referred to their virtual assistants. And now I'm finally starting to realize my mistake in underestimating all the benefits of using a personal assistant. And at the end of the day, I pay for a house cleaning service, I pay people to do their tax returns. Why not pay for a virtual assistant?

When should you hire a VA?

A virtual assistant, or VA for short, is someone who can help with minor tasks, such as filling out invoices, managing schedules and responding to emails, writing texts on a certain topic - all this is done remotely. So when should you hire him? There is no clear answer to this question. I got some answers from talking to several freelancers who hired VAs to help them. For Andrey Rotonov, a project manager from Kirov who specializes in processing editorial projects for clients and the National Education Association. The turning point came when he started losing money. “When my mail with orders was so full that I had to cut back on work. The job I love, I knew it was time to hire an assistant,” said Andrey. For Zhenya Gregina, a B2B marketing specialist based in Izhevsk, it all came down to time management issues. Zhenya decided that it would be nice to stop working until 3 am. And for Tanya Kaseleva, a writer, editor, and trainer in Minsk, her main goal was to eliminate the secondary tasks that took up a lot of time so that she could pursue higher goals. People have many common points and we are alike in many ways. Perhaps you've just had a baby, are sick, or are caring for elderly parents - these are just a few possible situations where you might need a little outside help.

How much can a VA cost?

In order for you to decide, you must know how much VA services cost. According to a review of freelancing platforms, VA services range from $5 to $7 per hour. On a writers forum, they mentioned that they pay their VAs between $5 and $10 an hour. Gregory pays his VA $15 an hour, but he told me that he has a habit of overpaying when he finds that the VA's work really appeals to him because her work is so specialized. His VA usually works about seven hours a week for him, but how many hours your VA will work for you is up to you. The most important thing is to solve some theoretical equations about the benefits and feasibility of using a VA, is it possible that you will have to charge higher prices for your services to compensate for the cost of the VA? Of course, there is no way to know for sure how a BA will impact your work.

Where to look for VA

There is no universal formula for finding a VA, but there are freelancing platforms such as fl.ru, freelancehant.com, flassist.ru and others that you can check out. One of my friends found her assistant on the pages of one of the social networks by searching for profiles offering similar services. She works with a twenty-five-year-old woman from the Baltics who has experience working for large publishing companies. “She's coming back from maternity leave this year and is ready to work full time again as a virtual assistant,” she said. “Her skills meshed well with my needs. She worked 20 hours a week, which is perfect for me, but I would love to go full-time with her next year.” Make sure you are clear about what you want and what your goals are from the very beginning.

Actual value of VA

However, if we have something in common, you might be wondering if you're organized enough to be a virtual assistant. With a virtual assistant, you need to be at least organized enough to give your VA enough work. I used to dismiss the idea of ​​working with a virtual assistant and argued passionately about it. But now I ask myself how much time was wasted and how stupid I was not to use it. By unloading myself as much as possible from unnecessary routine work, which is not difficult, but takes a lot of time, frees up free time for me, which I can use to increase my competitiveness and improve the quality of my services, time that costs much more than I spend on use of VA.

A virtual assistant is software that performs tasks for the user. The first such systems appeared back in the 1980s, but the closest was the assistant installed on the very first IBM Watson smartphone, released back in 1994. And the very first voice assistant installed on a modern smartphone was Siri from Apple, introduced in October 2011.

Methods of working with virtual assistants:

• Text message. Common when working with chatbots.
• Voice command. As with Siri and many other modern voice assistants.
• Loading a specific image, as is the case on the latest S8 flagship.

Some virtual assistants offer users several options for working with them at once. So you can give commands to Google Assistant through Allo chat, and control home exercises with your voice through the Google Home speaker. Modern voice assistants use technology to recognize your normal voice, and also use machine learning techniques, being artificial intelligence.

The most common voice virtual assistants

Previous generations of virtual assistants had an avatar. Many (but not all) modern assistants also have their own characters, and their developers give the systems personalized names. Here are the most common, functional and dynamically developing virtual assistants:

These assistants are mostly compatible with the Internet of Things (the exceptions are M and Cortana), have an additional mobile application for work and can always be turned on (the exceptions are the same) for quick access to all their functionality.

Internet of Things gadgets for smart homes are created with support for working with such assistants. The choice of a virtual assistant and additional resources for it should be made taking into account the connected devices, because the management of the Internet of Things system is still not perfect. Some gadgets support some systems, others - others. To avoid confusion, you should stick to one system. In any case, until the most universal one finally appeared, which will unite them all.

Devices that support virtual assistants

Virtual assistants can be integrated into different types of platforms. Or, as in the case of Amazon Alexa, work on several at once. Often virtual assistants are supported by the following platforms:

The functionality of the virtual assistant will be limited to the device itself and the operating system. At the same time, such assistants are developing and becoming multi-platform, making it very easy to switch between different compatible devices.

A virtual assistant is an Internet resource or software for mobile devices and PCs, which, in essence, performs all the functions of a personal secretary for the user. The assistant can solve problems of changing and planning a work schedule, help with organizing and performing everyday tasks and searching for the data a person needs on the Internet.

One of the most important differences between the virtual assistant and the generations of schedulers that came before it is that the virtual assistant is contextual in its operation—that is, it takes into account the range of conditions in which the user finds himself. This may include its geolocation and other circumstances.

A virtual assistant can create various reminders, select places to stay, help in finding and booking tables in establishments and various types of tickets, and order a taxi at an address. The assistant can learn independently, taking into account completed tasks, analyzing the behavior and all the user’s hobbies.

History and development of digital assistants

In 2005, thanks to an initiative from an independent non-profit research institute from California, SRI International, the efforts of a number of researchers were combined to bring to life a very ambitious and unusual idea - to create a virtual assistant that would have the ability to absorb knowledge, self-learn and systematize information . The project was originally called CALO, and it was part of the PAL program, which developed artificial intelligence to serve military purposes and needs.

This means that the project was originally a defense project. The researchers came up with ideas and created prototypes of digital assistants that would be able to satisfy such a specific task - to create a connection between the user of such a service and the service itself. As a result, 2009 was a success for the researchers, and work on the project was completed. The state army received a virtual assistant who could sort emails, draw up reporting documents based on their contents, and create schedules for meetings.

This defense project was the basis for Siri, a commercial project that is currently included in the iPhone software. Today, not only smartphones from Cupertino can boast of a virtual assistant - almost every mobile device supports the technology. Moreover, the user can choose which virtual assistant to use. And there are already a lot of them.

Google Now Assistant

This is a virtual assistant from the popular search giant. Can analyze your email and search engine query history. It is supported on Android, iOS, and can also be installed in the Google Chrome browser.

• How is it different? High speed. Virtual assistant Has increased accuracy when creating routes. Has a lot of information about booking your tickets and tables, about flights and transfers. It can interact with a number of other applications, manage your notes and calendar, analyze messages and control music playback.

• Disadvantages of an assistant. Sometimes the virtual assistant is overly proactive (for example, it can demonstrate the results of matches between teams that are not of interest to you, or provide directions to your home from familiar places). It is useless in the process of managing a smart home. All workflows for integrating the assistant with third-party applications appear to have been paused.

• The humanity of the assistant. Located at zero. Not at all conducive to communication. Apart from the word “Google” it has no name. But the company is trying to constantly improve its own virtual assistant, which is not surprising, given its level. Recently, Google managed to use neural networks to make the assistant speak more humanely, but not yet in Russian.

Apple's Siri

This is a virtual assistant from a company from Cupertino that can communicate with the user and provide him with various recommendations. You can activate it by holding down the Home key on iPad or iPhone devices.

• Advantages. Easy to use on iOS devices. Easily recognizes human speech. Has a high level of awareness of current news, weather conditions, sporting events, new movies, routes and nearby businesses. He is capable of recommending something for television viewing. It can interact with a number of smart home elements.

• Flaws. Low level of communication with many third-party programs and resources. The speed is slower than that of some other virtual assistants.

• The humanity of the assistant. He is not able to conduct a full dialogue, but in some moments he can demonstrate a certain wisdom. The woman's voice sounds quite natural.

This is a virtual assistant built into devices from Amazon, Fire TV set-top boxes. It is expected to appear in a number of other devices, for example, in alarm clocks or feeders for pets.

• Advantages. Has the ability to play music and read news aloud from certain news sources. Provides data on weather conditions, traffic jams and some other parameters. It is possible to order goods from Amazon's Prime resource, as well as pizza delivered by voice. It has an open API, which allows it to easily work with all other applications.

• Negative points. You can control the virtual assistant only while in your apartment. The assistant does not work with smartphones.

• The humanity of the assistant. He has the ability to answer a complex question with humor, but immediately turns the dialogue into the category of some kind of acquisition.

Microsoft Cortana

It is a digital voice assistant that can be controlled by entering queries via text or voice. Available for use on iOS, Android or Windows. Able to answer and anticipate user questions.

• Advantages. Can manage your calendar, notes and reminders. Tracks mail, can set alarms, and find news items in Bing. Monitors weather forecasts and other information. The virtual voice assistant easily interacts with a number of applications on Windows, and has also recently been able to conduct a dialogue with other bots using Skype.

• Negative aspects. At the moment, it is not a finished, final product, and only a limited number of San Francisco residents can now use it.

• The humanity of the assistant. Extremely high. It is achieved due to the fact that answers to various questions are formed, first of all, by people.

• Advantages. The company promises that their product will be able to understand even quite complex issues. Work is underway to integrate the application with many other programs and resources.

• Flaws. At the moment, there are no convincing facts that would confirm that the assistant will work in accordance with the stated capabilities. All that the public now has are a few presentations from the developers.

• Flaws. At the moment, the assistant is not yet completely perfect in terms of searching for information. Questions may be misinterpreted. Reacts poorly to difficult questions. Can communicate what the weather is expected to be, but has difficulty understanding the phrase “Should I take an umbrella to work?”

• The humanity of the assistant. The assistant knows how to improvise well, has a set of good jokes, which is replenished, and you can easily conduct a casual dialogue with the assistant. In addition, the virtual assistant has a pleasant and truly humane voice. In the future, it may well become the best solution for domestic users.

Today's virtual assistants are constantly improving, have the ability to learn, and provide truly useful assistance in everyday and work matters. Work on updating and creating new assistants is ongoing, which suggests that the market will continue to develop steadily and rapidly.

Imagine the situation: you live in a country where you do not have the opportunity to work. The children are growing up, I want to realize myself professionally, but I have no ideas for my own business, and I only have an hour or two of free time a day. Sound familiar?

I think I'm not alone in this situation. I’ve been living in Cyprus for a long time, but I don’t have a work permit, and it’s quite difficult to find work in our village. Therefore, I began to think about remote work via the Internet - I ran my own blog, administrated several groups on Facebook to support the local community, wrote articles, took photographs, but did not understand how to translate this hobby into a paid activity.

Yes, I read advertising articles for schools that teach various professions online, but it was not clear to me how to find a job later, how to work with clients, how to hook a client when there are many newcomers like me in the market...

And so, when some time ago I read an article about the “Virtual Assistant” profession, it clicked in me - here it is! That's the thing I was looking for.

What is a virtual assistant? This is a universal specialist who helps an entrepreneur run a business on the Internet - fills out pages on social networks, designs landing pages and presentations, organizes webinars and sets up mailing lists. Depending on previous experience, an assistant can specialize in one direction or another. But in general, this is a person who is well versed in the Internet, can find the right service, write a request, control contractors and be that multi-armed, multi-machine operator who will relieve the entrepreneur of routine responsibilities. And it doesn’t matter what country the entrepreneur lives in or what citizenship the Virtual Assistant has - they meet and collaborate on the Internet.

• By 2020, 20% of jobs in Russia will be virtual, according to a study by J’son & Partners Consulting, commissioned by the Bitrix24 service. According to research from 2016, this figure in Europe is 17%, and in Japan and the USA it reaches 40% of all workers.

I googled it and realized that in the English-speaking environment this profession is very common, there are even associations of business assistants. There is less information in the Russian-speaking space, but there are several schools for training virtual assistants. And all of them - which is very valuable - promise help with internships and employment. You can see the results of the study of schools that train business assistants on my Facebook page. I chose the International School for Training Business Assistants and Internet Marketers “Helppy” by Olga Shevchenko and did not regret a minute. Both the organization of training and the usefulness of information are excellent!

The training lasts five weeks and the immersion in study is complete. In 35 days, you delve into the principles of organizing an Internet business, layout a presentation in Power Point, draw up a content plan and a schedule of posts within the framework of your own developed social media promotion strategy, create a landing page - a one-page website, and also - TA-DAM! – you create a portfolio for yourself. It is clear that these are not all topics, but only those on which homework was required, and on which we all pored over at night. For all your homework you receive detailed answers, and very rarely did you manage to pass them the first time, they asked you very strictly - either the typography was lame, or the design failed.

In addition to lectures and educational material, a closed section contains a database of useful articles, the secret group is full of life - curators and fellow students discuss assignments, and on Fridays Olga Shevchenko talks to each student separately and answers all their questions.

Creating a portfolio is a huge blow to your self-esteem. After you have collected everything you can, apply the rules of strong text, add customer reviews there (we did our homework on behalf of online entrepreneurs, and they wrote reviews for us), select fonts, and then put it into a landing page with beautiful pictures... This makes your self-esteem rise, and you are ready for exploits and new achievements. Would you like to see my portfolio? . I’m showing it to you not to brag, but to show what you can get out of it.

It’s good that I started studying in advance, so I even had time to sleep and manage the clients I found right there, next to me. The fact is that when you start studying and delving into a topic, your vision sharpens and you see that in this project, for example, you can be useful, but here you can turn the page and get completely different results. You offer your services, show what you can do, how you can help, and people respond. This is how many of my fellow students and I got our jobs.

I don’t promise an easy life - you will have to study and work a lot, information on the Internet changes quickly, Facebook, for example, has innovations every week, more and more people enter the labor market every day. You will need to build your work schedule and think about time management. For example, I typed a draft of this article on my phone in Google copy while the pedicurist was working on my feet. And I had to refuse one very promising offer, because I understood - either work or family, there was no third option, I couldn’t cope with everything at the moment.