What is an AI assistant?

There's a lot of hype around AI assistants right now. But what actually is an AI assistant, and which is best for you? Find out in this guide.

What is an AI assistant?

An AI assistant is an application that uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to interact with users in a human-like way. They do this in two main ways: by text, or through voice. 

AI assistants can be extremely effective in streamlining, automating and improving manual processes. However, AI assistants vary in their functionality, quality and use cases. This means that some will suit your business better than others.

In this guide, we'll explore some common AI assistant use cases are, how AI assistants work, and some examples of AI assistants on the market today.

How do AI assistants work?

AI assistants often rely on large language models (LLMs) that have been trained using large amounts of text and data. These models enable them to generate coherent and contextually appropriate responses, even for complex queries. 

AI assistants can integrate with various APIs and platforms to provide users with real-time information or perform actions like sending messages, setting up appointments, making recommendations, and more. This means that professionals can embed AI assistants into their existing applications and workflows, rather than jumping back and forth between tools. 

As users interact more with an AI assistant, it learns from these interactions and adjusts its responses over time, improving its accuracy and understanding of user needs.

Types of AI Assistant

You’ll probably be familiar with AI assistants like Alexa and Siri that you can access on smartphones and home devices. These are known as AI voice assistants because they participate in conversations through speech.

ChatGPT is another popular example of an AI assistant. However, ChatGPT is a text-based AI assistant, meaning that it accepts written queries and responds with either images or text. 

There are plenty of AI assistants on the market, and they each respond in different ways to perform different tasks. To help you better understand what AI assistants look like and how they can be applied to your daily tasks, let's cover some of these types of AI assistants in more detail.

1. AI legal assistant

An AI legal assistant is an application that uses artificial intelligence to provide support and assistance to legal professionals. It's often used to streamline various tasks and automate time-consuming, repetitive processes, helping professionals work more efficiently.

AI legal assistants can perform a variety of tasks, from legal research to document review and contract drafting. This form of legal AI is particularly popular among businesses with lean legal teams that are buried in low-value contract admin. This is because AI legal assistants empower them to automate repetitive admin tasks and focus on higher-value projects.

AI legal assistants can also empower lawyers to speed up legal processes and act as an enabler for the rest of the business. For example, Juro's AI contract collaboration platform enables teams to agree contracts up to ten times faster than traditional tools. This means faster sales cycles and clearer routes to revenue.

Examples of AI legal assistants

• Juro
• DoNotPay
• Genie.AI

It's also possible to use ChatGPT as an AI legal assistant. To find out how, check out this guide to ChatGPT for lawyers.

2. AI writing assistant

An AI writing assistant is a tool that leverages AI to help individuals and businesses to improve their writing by flagging suggestions, corrections, and enhancements that can be made to their copy.

This type of AI assistant is often used to ensure grammatical accuracy and make content more engaging. It can be applied to various formats, including academic writing, creative writing and copywriting.

Some AI writing assistants will also be able to translate text, format documents and provide feedback on the structure of the content.

Examples of AI writing assistants

• Rytr
• Grammarly
• Wordtune

3. AI scheduling assistant

AI scheduling assistants are designed to help individuals and teams manage their schedules, appointments, and meetings more effectively.

This type of AI assistant uses AI to automate the often arduous process of coordinating and organizing meetings, saving users time and reducing the challenges associated with scheduling conflicts.

Usually, AI scheduling assistants are integrated with individuals' calendars to assess availability and identify the time slots that are most convenient for participants.

Some AI scheduling assistants will even automate the admin associated with hosting these meetings by booking rooms and sending automated reminders. Scheduling assistants can be powerful when paired with AI sales assistant tools.

Examples of AI scheduling assistants

• Reclaim
• Clockwise
• Clara

4. AI email assistant

AI email assistant tools leverage AI to streamline, respond to and organize emails for busy individuals and businesses.

However, different AI email assistants can be used in different contexts and to perform different functions.

For example, LyneAI is an AI email assistant for sales reps. This means that it has been designed to compose personalized, compelling emails to send to prospects.

Mailbutler and Flowrite, on the other hand, can be used in any department and are designed to schedule, track, summarize and organize emails more effectively.

Examples of AI email assistants

• Flowrite
• Mailbutler
• LyneAI

5. AI transcription assistant

AI transcription assistants leverage AI to convert spoken language into written text. This type of AI assistant is designed to automate the transcription and note-taking process, making it easier to convert audio or video recordings into readable and searchable text.

This type of AI assistant is often used to transcribe meetings with stakeholders, prospects and customers. This allows individuals to be present in the conversation and prevents them from worrying about capturing all of the points shared in that meeting.

Some AI transcription assistants will also generate meeting summaries based on these notes, making this type of AI useful for sharing outcomes of meetings with those that didn't attend.

Examples of AI transcription assistants

• Gong
• Otter.ai
• Fireflies

How to choose and adopt an AI assistant

Many businesses will be adopting an AI assistant for business for the first time. If you're one of them, here are three things you can do to make sure your AI assistant rollout is a success.

1. Assess and mitigate the risks involved

AI assistants have the potential to transform the way you complete manual tasks. However, you have to provide a lot of (often sensitive and personal) data for them to work effectively. This carries a lot of risk, though.

It's important to:

1. Evaluate the AI Assistants based on the security provisions they have in place, including how they use and share your data, and which credentials they have.
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2. Establish internal processes to mitigate risks when using AI further. This could mean that you have policies on which data can the AI Assistant will be provided, or that you create a playbook detailing how to use it safely.

2. Choose an AI assistant that integrates seamlessly with your tech

The best AI assistants are those that can fit seamlessly into your existing workflow and tech stack. This is because workflows that require you to jump back and forth between different tools create friction.

Some AI assistants will even be able to replace some of your tools if they offer the same functionality. This gives you the opportunity to streamline your processes and reduce spend.

3. Provide internal training on how to use the AI assistant

If you want to ensure adoption in your business, you'll need to equip your team with the training they need to use the AI assistant effectively.

This could involve teaching the employees how to write good prompts, or demonstrating the best use cases for the tool. Either way, thorough training can empower individuals to make better use of the AI assistant, increasing its value for the business as a result.

Do you need an AI assistant in 2024?

If you're buried in repetitive, low-value admin work, it's worth considering how an AI assistant can help you manage this workload.

Lawyers are a prime example of this. They're often inundated with requests for contracts to be drafted, reviewed and approved.

Juro's legal AI assistant can support in-house legal teams by automating this routine admin, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks instead.

This can prove transformative for fast-growing businesses with lean legal teams, allowing them to agree contracts up to ten times faster.

To find out more about how Juro's AI assistant works and how it can benefit your business, fill in the form below for a personalized demo.