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A virtual assistant, also called AI assistant or digital assistant, is an application

program that understands natural language voice commands and completes tasks
for the user
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Virtual assistants are available on most smartphones and tablets, traditional
computers, and, now, even standalone devices like the Amazon Echo and Google
Home.
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historically performed by a personal assistant or secretary, include taking dictation,
reading text or email messages aloud, looking up phone numbers, scheduling,
placing phone calls and reminding the end user about appointments
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Popular virtual assistants currently include Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google’s
assistant and Microsoft's Cortana
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In contrast to computers that have a keyboard and mouse, or tablets and phones
with a touchscreen, virtual assistants let us interact using natural spoken language.
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Voice interfaces drastically simplify our interaction with technology.
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the term virtual assistant, or virtual personal assistant, is also commonly used to
describe contract workers who work from home doing administrative tasks typically
performed by executive assistants or secretaries.
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Virtual assistants can also be contrasted with another type of consumer-facing AI
programming, called smart advisers. Smart adviser programs are subject-oriented, while
virtual assistants are task-oriented.
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answer questions,
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tell jokes,
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play music
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control items in your home such as lights, thermostats, door locks, and smart home
devices.
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They can respond to many voice commands, send text messages, make phone calls,
set up reminders. Anything you do on your phone, you can probably ask your virtual
assistant to do for you.
What are they?
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Virtual assistants are typically cloud-based programs that require internet-
connected devices and/or applications to work. Three such applications are
Siri on Apple devices, Cortana on Microsoft Devices and Google Assistant on
Android devices.
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There are also devices dedicated to providing virtual assistance. The most
popular ones are available from Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
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To use the Amazon Echo virtual assistant, called Alexa, users call out the
wake word, "Alexa." A light on the device signals to the user that it is ready to
receive a command which typically
involves simple language requests, such as "what is the weather today," or
"play pop music." Those requests are processed and stored in Amazon's
cloud.
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The technologies that power virtual assistants require massive
amounts of data, which feeds artificial intelligence (AI) platforms,
including machine learning, natural language processing and speech
recognition platforms.
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Using artificial intelligence (AI), virtual assistants can understand
natural language, recognize faces, identify objects, and communicate
with other smart devices and software.
Working
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AI voice assistants mainly accept input by voice.
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Many of them listen constantly for a trigger word, which makes
hands-free use possible.
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You’ll find them in smartphones, smart speaker, smart TVs and other
“smart” internet-connected devices.
To fulfill requests, virtual assistants are built on a complex pipeline of AI
technology:
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A Wakeword (WW) detector runs on the device, listening for the user
to say a particular word or phrase to activate the assistant.
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Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) converts spoken audio from the
user into a text transcription.
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Natural Language Understanding (NLU) takes the transcription of what
the user said and predicts their intention in a way that’s actionable.
This component understands that users can make the same request in
a multitude of different ways that should all have the same outcome.
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The Dialogue Manager (DM) decides what to say back to the user,
whether to take any action, and handles any conversation.
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Text to Speech (TTS) is the output voice of the assistant.
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The technology in this pipeline needs to cope with the breadth and
ambiguity of natural language.
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Hence, alongside manually defined rules, it’s based on machine
learning – a group of AI algorithms that learn their behavior from data
instead of being explicitly programmed.
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This allows assistants to learn how people speak and be able to
generalize to new speakers or requests.
Capabilities
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adding tasks to a calendar;
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providing information that would normally be searched in a web browser
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controlling and checking the status of smart home devices, including lights, cameras and
thermostats.
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to make and receive phone calls,
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create text messages,
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get directions,
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hear news and weather reports,
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find hotels or restaurants,
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check flight reservations,
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hear music, or play games.
Applications

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teachers-through the use of chatbots for encouragement, reminders,
and prompt assistance to help students stay on track.
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answer questions from students registered for an online course.
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In business
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Self driving cars
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In health care
Advantages
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Automating your life gives you more free time
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Helping You Destress.
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assist drivers with directions on the road
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they help the physically disabled operate their devices with ease for
common tasks, such as sending a message, dialing a call, or setting
an alarm.
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Can get things done fast- Talking is faster compared to typing
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Assist in phone operation tasks
Disadvantages
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relying on a Voice Assistant may breed a dependence on technology
as an increasing autonomy could make us forget or unlearn common
tasks.
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A common reminder of this dependence can be found when we feel
anxiety when we are separated from our phones.
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lose concentration on the tasks in hand
Limitations
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privacy concerns about virtual assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and
Google Home, because these virtual assistants require large amounts
of personal data and are always "listening" in order to respond to voice
commands.
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increased risk of being targeted by hackers as more and more devices
in the smart home have voice assistance
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retain voice interactions and personal information to improve the user
experience.
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Physical Limitations.
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Signal Strength.
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expensive
Conclusion

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Virtual assistants are quickly evolving to provide more capabilities
and value to users.
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As speech recognition and natural language processing advances,
so too will a virtual assistant's ability to understand and perform
requests.
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And as voice recognition technology improves, virtual assistant use
will move deeper into business workflows.