19 Popular Artificial Intelligence Assistants Everybody Needs to Know About

Today, there's an AI Assistant for just about everything, from helping with simple things like setting reminders to creating more complex travel itineraries. An AI assistant is software that can provide information and carry out certain tasks using artificial intelligence. 

The technology behind AI Assistants, including large language models and natural language processing, can understand speech or text input from humans and then generate the most relevant responses in a fluent and conversational manner.

Top AI Assistants in 2023

• Siri 
• Alexa
• Google Assistant
• Cleo
• Jasper
• Fireflies
• Otter.ai
• WriteSonic

AI assistants, which are otherwise known as VAs (virtual assistants), are the key tools that can connect humans with the technology they use like never before. They have been designed to simplify lives while amplifying a human's output and efficiency. The sector is only becoming more sophisticated thanks to ground-breaking new AI-powered generative tools such as ChatGPT. 

Artificial intelligence assistants can perform a wide range of tasks, from organizing personal finances to planning out meetings and so much more. 

Siri (AI Personal Assistant)

Siri was developed by Apple, and it first arrived in 2011. It's recognized by many as the world's original AI personal assistant. Anyone with an iPhone, MacBook, iPad, or AirPods has it built into their device. 

The system is based on voice recognition, and some of its main functions are answering questions, sending text messages, and coming up with recommendations, to name just a few. One of the things that makes Siri so popular is that it's incredibly personalizable, with the ability to adapt to each user's preferences, searches, and language.  

Siri key features:

• Free personal AI assistant built into most Apple devices

• Activated by the "Hey, Siri" voice-based command
• Can carry out a wide range of tasks, including giving directions, organizing calendars, and identifying songs

Alexa (AI Personal Assistant)

Since Alexa hit the scene in 2014, it has become one of the world's most well-known personal voice-activated AI assistants. It comes built-in to most smart devices by Amazon and carries out numerous tasks, including ordering products directly from Amazon, playing music, responding to questions, planning, and creating to-do lists. 

To activate this AI assistant, users have to say the word 'Alexa.' In an effort to make it better at conversing with people and less transactional, Amazon also plans to revamp the tool with more generative AI capabilities. 

Alexa key features

• • Free personal AI assistant built into most Amazon products and devices

• Can control a wide range of smart devices found in the home, such as televisions, thermostats, and even automobiles

• Predominantly used via Amazon Echo – a line of hands-free speakers brought to you by Amazon

Google Assistant (AI Personal Assistant)

This AI assistant can interact with users via text and two-way conversation using voice commands and carry out many tasks, such as responding to questions, controlling smart devices, and setting alarms. 

A recent report from Axios revealed that Google will be improving the technology with generative AI capabilities, which is already used to power its Bard chatbot. The company is also revamping the Google Assistant to carry out more personal tasks, such as tutoring, planning, and even giving out important life advice. 

Google Assistant key features

• • Free personal AI assistant built into most Android devices

• The user can initiate tasks via voice commands or text

• Compatible with over 1,000 smart home devices from equally as many brands

Cleo (AI Financial Assistant)

Cleo is fantastic for aiding in budgeting and offering financial advice using natural language generation. It can give a more accurate and personalized response because it's directly linked to the user's bank account. Cleo users can even manage the tone of information it provides. 

In other words, if the user wants to be uplifted, Cleo can point out how good their behavior has been recently, or, for example, if they want a wake-up call, they can have Cleo point out their recent bad spending habits and get them to take stock of it. The system also comes with a couple of traditional fintech features that can help build credit, among other things. 

Cleo key features

• Free personal AI assistant available on Google Play and the App Store
• It can help users keep track of their spending, set financial goals, and create effective budgets, among other things
• Users have the ability to alter Cleo's voice tone while it doles out advice to users

Jasper (AI Writing Assistant)

Jasper is an extremely popular AI assistant with social media teams, marketing professionals, and content creators. 

It has a unique set of tools that have been designed to optimize and rank the content produced by writers, and it comes with a varied selection of writing templates to cater to everything from long-form blog posts to social media posts. 

It even has the ability to learn a company's brand or a specific user over time by tracking their tone and voice. 

• Has the ability to learn user tone and a company brand over time
• It comes with more than 50 templates for writing anything from long-form blog posts to social media posts
• Monthly subscription fees start from around $39, and unlimited word generation is offered in all Jasper plans

Fireflies (Top AI Work Assistant)

Fireflies is one of the best AI meeting assistants that essentially eliminates the need to take notes. It allows users to summarize relevant information from the meeting, transcribe, record, and search through audio files or live recorded meetings with relative ease. It can focus on the main insights made by the speakers and consolidate topics and opinions. 

Multiple users can access the same transcript simultaneously. They can flag certain key parts of the meeting and add comments. 

Fireflies key features

• There is a free plan available, along with the ability to upgrade
• Consolidates key speakers' information, general sentiment, and major talking points of meetings
• Records and transcribes meetings instantly 

Otter.ai (AI Work Assistant)

Otter.ai is the ideal AI assistant for automatically transcribing anything from telephone calls to video conference calls. Conversations are then compartmentalized with relevant time stamps, highlighting the discussions' main topics and talking points.  

Integrating the Otter.ai assistant into various market-leading platforms, such as Slack, Dropbox, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, is also now possible. 

Otter.ai key features

• There is a free plan available, along with the ability to upgrade
• Key talking points and themes in a conversation are transcribed, compartmentalized, and time-stamped 
• It can be integrated into Slack, Dropbox, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet

WriteSonic (AI Writing Assistant)

WriteSonic is the best AI assistant for crafting unique, plagiarism-free, SEO-friendly marketing content for anything from website landing pages and social media ads to long-form blog posts and articles. 

Additionally, WriteSonic comes with Photosonic – an AI art generator tool, an AI chatbot assistant called ChatSonic, powered by GPT-4, and Botsonic – a responsive and reliable customer support bot. 

WriteSonic key features

• There is a free plan available, along with the ability to upgrade
• Generates guaranteed plagiarism-free, SEO-friendly content
• AI Chatbot powered by one of the biggest AI language models, GPT-4

Honourable mentions

Some of the other popular AI writing assistants out there today are Hoppy Copy and Rytr. You also have Samsung's AI personal assistant, Bixby, and a couple of AI work assistant tools – Motion and Clara. 

If you're specifically looking for AI financial assistants, you may like to try Fyle, Tykr, or Ally Financial, and if you're looking for AI travel assistants, try Eddy Travels, Maya, and ABHI.