If you’re a business owner or other professional, you’re probably well aware that there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get everything done. You’ll also know that it’s usually the little foxes that destroy the vineyard – specifically, replying to the hundreds of emails that arrive in your inbox every day.
Despite our best intentions to communicate efficiently, all the other aspects of running a business often get in the way of replying to emails in a timeous fashion. Consequently, important emails often slip through the cracks and important meetings are left unscheduled. Do you wish you could afford an assistant to help you schedule meetings and run your day to day?
Thanks to the evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning, a virtual assistant can now help your business run more efficiently and save you some time.
x.ai, Amy and Andrew
Software company x.ai has developed an email management and calendar scheduling tool that helps businesses manage their calendars and appointments with ease. Virtual assistants respond to emails about meetings and calls without alerting the sender that they are not human assistants. This is done by using AI and chatbots called Andrew and Amy.
How it works
The principle is exactly the same as having an actual human assistant. For instance, you receive an email requesting a meeting with a potential client requesting that a meeting be set up concerning a matter that has been previously discussed.
If you’re signed up with x.ai, you reply to the email saying that you’ll have Amy or Andrew check your calendar for a suitable date or time, and CC Amy or Andrew in the email. Amy or Andrew then reply to the client on your behalf, suggesting potential dates and times. The client replies with their answer, and Amy or Andrew schedule an appointment in your calendar.
This technology can be used for any scheduling tasks that use email-based communication, and the tone of the chatbot’s conversation is so clear and natural that whoever they’re talking to will probably never know that they’re having a conversation with a chatbot.
The development of chatbots has been exponential over the past few years. Experts say that the human-like conversational style of chatbots has improved vastly over the past 12 months, and predict that the adoption of chatbots and virtual agents is set to double over the next two years.
For more information about x.ai and its use in business, have a look at this.