Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPA): Examples and Use Cases
An intelligent personal assistant (IPA) – also known as a smart or virtual assistant – is an AI-driven software program that helps people complete basic tasks. Typically, an IPA will answer questions and perform actions based on natural language voice commands and location awareness.
Popular IPAs
Today’s most popular IPAs are:
Amazon Alexa – A cloud-based voice service available on more than 100 million Amazon devices, Alexa is mainly used through Amazon Echo, a line of hands-free speakers.
Apple Siri – A voice-controlled assistant available on devices using Apple’s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS operating systems.
Google Assistant – A voice-controlled assistant available on Android devices.
Among the emerging IPA offerings are:
Microsoft Copilot – A chatbot built into Microsoft Bing and Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft Copilot
Note the warning that “Microsoft Copilot is powered by AI, so surprises and mistakes are possible.”
Samsung Bixby – An AI assistant serving primarily mobile devices, but also some smart refrigerators.
Mycroft AI platform – “Mycroft is the first open source voice assistant that can be run on any platform, including desktops, automobiles, and even on a Raspberry Pi. It focuses on voice-enabling any device to turn it into a smart personal assistant.”1
Use Cases
Intelligent personal assistants are typically deployed as:
Home automation aids, allowing voice-activated control of indoor and outdoor lighting, room thermostats, and exterior security cameras.
Mobile device aids, facilitating scheduling, navigation, and information retrieval.
Virtual customer service agents, “[handling] diverse queries, [resolving] issues, and [delivering] personalized support, [thus] contributing to improved customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.”2
The generic applications of IPAs, as catalogued by analysts Kinza Yasar and Bridget Botelho, include:
- Adding tasks to a calendar
- Providing information that would normally be searched in a web browser
- Controlling and checking the status of smart home devices, including lights, cameras, and thermostats
- Making and receiving phone calls
- Scheduling meetings
- Creating text messages
- Getting directions
- Hearing news and weather reports
- Finding hotels or restaurants
- Checking flight reservations
- Streaming podcasts
- Setting reminders
- Workflow management
- Assisting in e-learning and training
- Calling an Uber or Lyft
- Listening to music
- Playing games3
IPA Technology
No technology evolves overnight. While intelligent personal assistants like Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Copilot emerged only fairly recently, IPAs, as analyst Courtney James reminds us, “have been around for over 60 years,” adding that “one most notable personal assistant was only text-based, and it was called ELIZA, which Joseph Weizenbaum created. Now this sophisticated program was ahead of its time because it did allow a decent conversation between humans and machines which is now a normal interaction, and even though it wasn’t audible, it was the earliest version of an intelligent personal assistant.”4
As for today, IPA technology resides at the intersection of four critical capabilities:
1. Natural Language Processing – As the engineering arm of computational linguistics, natural language processing (NLP) is “focused on making human communication, such as speech and text, comprehensible to computers.”5
2. Context Awareness – The ability of a system to gather information about its immediate environment and act in accordance with that data, identifying, for example, the names and locations of local restaurants in response to the query, “Where can I eat?”
3. External Service Integration – The ability of a system to access and interact with various application programming interfaces (APIs) and databases to acquire and process relevant information.
4. Personalization – The ability to adapt to individual user preferences, behaviors, and “historical interactions” to deliver tailored responses.6
As described by Lark Technologies, “The technical architecture and design elements of intelligent personal assistants encompass the integration of speech recognition engines, conversation management systems, and intelligent response generation modules. These components work in tandem to create a cohesive and intuitive interaction model, enabling users to engage with the assistants effortlessly.”7
IPA Market
According to Grand View Research (GVR), the intelligent personal assistant market, valued $3.07 billion in 2023, should reach $14.10 billion in 2030, achieving an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.3 percent during the 2023-2030 forecast period.
Among GVR’s major findings are the following:
Customer Service – “The need for increased efficiency across service-based businesses, and the integration of [IPAs] across numerous devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones, is expected to boost product demand. [IPAs] can fulfill various customer service roles, like offering product information, [providing] ease of navigation, helping consumers in paying bills, and directing problem queries to human agents in customer service.”
Multilingual Capacity – IPA providers are working to provide support for regional languages, thereby expanding an IPA’s reach.
Home Security – Amazon purchased Ring, a company that produces home security systems featuring video doorbells. The acquisition will allow Amazon to augment Ring’s video capabilities with voice-based components.
Safe Driving – “The [IPA] is crucial in mitigating driver distraction as various infotainment commands can execute through voice-enabled [systems].”
Superior Healthcare – “[IPAs] in healthcare [enable] connectivity and interaction between providers and patients, resulting in increasing demand across the segment. [They provide] continuous tracking of [patients’ conditions] through their smartphones and [capture] data through their voices. Furthermore, hospitals use [IPAs] to perform tasks, such as scheduling appointments and requesting lab results. This improves patient engagement and reduces healthcare inefficiencies.”8
IPA Issues
Like most technologies, IPAs possess certain characteristics that may limit their utility and cause concern among current and prospective users.
Information Quality
As expected, a new generation of IPAs is being powered by ChatGPT. As intelligent systems expert, Dr. Nitin Saini, observes, “Intelligent personal assistants powered by ChatGPT excel at handling complex queries and providing detailed responses. ChatGPT can comprehend intricate questions, perform data analysis, and generate comprehensive answers. This capability makes it an ideal tool for users seeking in-depth information or requiring complex tasks to be executed.”9
Unfortunately, ChatGPT and other generative AI programs currently suffer from occasional “hallucinations”, meaning their output can’t be totally trusted. Until this malady is cured, IPA information quality will be suspect.
Privacy & Security
While acknowledging the undeniable benefits of intelligent personal assistants, many IPA users are nonetheless nervous about:
- Privacy, including the possible public exposure of personally identifiable information (PII); and
- Security, since the integration of IPAs with external services and platforms enlarges the overall malware attack surface.
IPA Addiction
Users can become dependent on – even addicted to – their IPAs, leading to a loss of productivity if an intelligent assistant malfunctions or becomes disabled. To be prepared, IPA users should consider how they might cope if their IPA device or system suddenly became unavailable – especially for a protracted period.
Job Loss
Although IPAs will enhance enterprise productivity, a cost will be borne by workers who lose their jobs to technological progress. This is a major issue in today’s economy when politicians are anxiously seeking methods to create employment opportunities, not destroy them.
IPA Future
“The computer interface envisioned in Star Trek is about to become a reality.“
– Bart Perkins, managing partner, Leverage Partners, Inc.10
Despite some issues, like privacy and security, which impact all digital transformation initiatives, the future of intelligent personal assistants appears promising. As reported by analysts Kinza Yasar and Bridget Botelho, “Experts predict that AI assistants will continue to become humanistic and able to provide more personalized experiences as AI technology advances.
“According to Gartner, by 2025, these AI assistants will become more ubiquitous with about 50% of knowledge workers using a virtual assistant on a daily basis. However, the widespread use of AI assistants doesn’t obscure the growing worries about the privacy and security risks associated with them. Companies are being urged to address these concerns transparently in their policies to build trust with users. The future of virtual assistants might also be tied to the metaverse, with companies exploring new ways of integrating these assistants into virtual reality environments.”11
The IPA As the Universal App
Expressing perhaps the most optimistic view of IPAs, Bill Gates predicts that, “In the next five years, [our reliance on multiple, independent apps like Microsoft Word and Google Docs] will change completely. You won’t have to use different apps for different tasks. You’ll simply tell your device, in everyday language, what you want to do. And depending on how much information you choose to share with it, the software will be able to respond personally because it will have a rich understanding of your life. In the near future, anyone who’s online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that’s far beyond today’s technology.”12
Web Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/
Apple: https://www.apple.com/
Google: https://www.google.com/
Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/
References
1 Kinza Yasar and Bridget Botelho. “Virtual Assistant (AI Assistant).” TechTarget. October 2023.
2 Lark Editorial Team. “Intelligent Personal Assistant.” Lark Technologies Pte. Ltd. December 23, 2023.
3 Kinza Yasar and Bridget Botelho. “Virtual Assistant (AI Assistant).” TechTarget. October 2023.
4 Courtney James. “A Brief History of the Intelligent Personal Assistant.” Linkedin. July 17, 2023.
5 Coursera Staff. “What Is Natural Language Processing? Definition and Examples.” Coursera Inc. November 29, 2023.
6 Lark Editorial Team. “Intelligent Personal Assistant.” Lark Technologies Pte. Ltd. December 23, 2023.
7 Ibid.
8 “Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market Size, Share & Trend Analysis Report By Technology (Text-to-Speech, Text-based), By Product (Chatbot, Smart Speaker), By Application (IT & Telecom, Consumer Electronics), And Segment Forecasts, 2023 – 2030.” Grand View Research, Inc. 2024.
9 Dr. Nitin Saini. “Using ChatGPT to Create Intelligent Personal Assistants.” Linkedin. September 18, 2023.
10 Bart Perkins. “Get Ready for Virtual Digital Assistants in the Enterprise.” IDG Communications, Inc. December 22, 2015.
11 Kinza Yasar and Bridget Botelho. “Virtual Assistant (AI Assistant).” TechTarget. October 2023.
12 Bill Gates. “AI Is About to Completely Change How You Use Computers.” The Gates Notes LLC. November 9, 2023.