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Buyer's Guide: AI Agents For Business Operations
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Microsoft Copilot, seamlessly integrated into Microsoft products without browser access.
Users find Microsoft Copilot extremely helpful, enhancing productivity and simplifying tasks across Microsoft 365 applications.
Users praise Microsoft Copilot for its efficient integration with Microsoft 365, boosting productivity through smart automation.
Users report inaccuracy in Microsoft Copilot's suggestions and pricing, leading to frequent need for edits and corrections.
Users express a poor understanding of Microsoft Copilot, struggling with model distinctions and context for effective use.
Users find usage limitations in Microsoft Copilot, as creative responses and chat sessions are restricted.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Retell AI, highlighting its intuitive interface and quick setup process.
Users appreciate the easy and intuitive interface of Retell AI, highlighting its simplicity and seamless integration.
Users appreciate the easy-to-use interface of Retell AI, making their experience enjoyable and efficient.
Users find the missing features of Retell AI, such as limited transcribers and voices, quite disappointing.
Users note a notable learning curve for new users, impacting their ability to fully utilize Retell AI's features.
Users find Retell AI's limited features restrictive, expressing a need for improved functionality and workspace flexibility.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users love the ease of use of Synthflow, highlighting its friendly UI and quick setup process.
Users praise the setup ease of Synthflow, highlighting its intuitive, no-code UI for quick deployment.
Users appreciate the easy integrations with various platforms, enhancing their experience with seamless AI interactions.
Users find the expensive pricing of Synthflow limits its accessibility and requires additional third-party apps for improved functionality.
Users find the cost limitations of Synthflow significant, feeling the pricing structure is not well-balanced.
Users struggle with a steep learning curve, feeling overwhelmed by complex queries and inadequate onboarding resources.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use with Jira, finding it efficient for tracking tasks and managing projects.
Users value the efficient project management in Jira, thanks to its accurate tracking and organization features.
Users appreciate the accurate task tracking of Jira, which enhances project focus and keeps teams informed.
Users find the learning curve challenging, with complex setups and unclear workflows causing confusion and frustration.
Users find Jira's complexity challenging, with a difficult-to-understand interface and overwhelming task management for beginners.
Users find Jira to have a steep learning curve, making it challenging for new users to navigate efficiently.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Guru to be user-friendly and intuitive, making daily tasks and information retrieval seamless and efficient.
Users find the seamless access to information in Guru invaluable for enhancing their knowledge and support efficiency.
Users value the comprehensive information in Guru, enhancing their productivity with clear and concise knowledge access.
Users find inefficient searching in Guru frustrating, as locating specific articles often requires exact keywords.
Users find the search functionality inadequate, often struggling to locate specific GURU cards efficiently.
Users find the inefficient search in Guru makes locating specific cards and managing content challenging.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Podium, facilitating seamless payments and customer communications.
Users appreciate the timely communication facilitated by Podium, leading to increased review completion and reduced no-shows.
Users love the effective communication capabilities of Podium, facilitating quick and professional interactions with clients.
Users struggle with messaging issues in Podium, finding it hard to keep track of large volumes of messages.
Users find the missing features frustrating, as updates hide options and lack essential tools for their needs.
Users find Podium's limited integration options and features hinder their ability to effectively manage communications and reports.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find ClickUp’s ease of use remarkable, appreciating its intuitive design and powerful automation features for seamless teamwork.
Users appreciate the versatile task management features of ClickUp, which greatly enhance workflow and team collaboration.
Users admire ClickUp's extensive features, enhancing collaboration, productivity, and streamlined task management across teams.
Users feel that there are missing features in ClickUp, hindering their experience and overall efficiency.
Users find the learning curve steep due to complexity and lack of initial guidance for new users.
Users find ClickUp has limited features and face challenges with organization and necessary functionalities.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Kore.AI to be user-friendly and easy to implement, making chatbot development accessible for beginners.
Users highlight the intuitive features of Kore.AI, emphasizing its user-friendly interface and ease of bot creation.
Users find the user-friendly templates in Kore.AI make chatbot development easy and accessible for beginners.
Users find the learning curve challenging, requiring more time to grasp features and settings effectively.
Users report usage limitations in Kore.AI, including server issues and scalability concerns that hinder long-term effectiveness.
Users experience slow performance with Kore.AI, finding it challenging to troubleshoot NLP configurations due to lag.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the ease of use in IBM watsonx Orchestrate, enabling effortless natural language interactions.
Users value the easy integrations of IBM watsonx Orchestrate, enjoying seamless connections within the IBM ecosystem.
Users value the easy automation capabilities of IBM watsonx Orchestrate, enhancing workflow efficiency without deep coding knowledge.
Users find the learning curve steep, especially regarding integration with complex systems and mastering advanced features.
Users find the complexity of IBM watsonx Orchestrate challenging, particularly with integrations and workflow management.
Users find the integration issues challenging, citing a steep learning curve and tedious processes with complex systems.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users highlight the exceptional customer support from Qualified’s team, significantly enhancing their overall experience and success.
Users highlight the massive support from Success Architects at Qualified, enhancing lead generation and team efficiency.
Users praise Qualified's outstanding customer service, noting exceptional support and responsiveness that enhances their overall experience.
Users note a significant learning curve with Qualified, particularly for those unfamiliar with conversational marketing and sales tools.
Users find the lack of intuitive reporting and reusability features cumbersome, hindering efficient data management and insights.
Users find the steep learning curve of Qualified intimidating, but support helps ease the process.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Jotform AI Agents, enabling smooth onboarding and efficient workflow automation.
Users praise the efficiency of Jotform AI Agents, facilitating easy onboarding and saving time and money.
Users find the easy setup of Jotform AI Agents greatly simplifies onboarding and enhances workflow automation.
Users experience limitations in flexibility and options with Jotform AI Agents, leading to frustration in usability.
Users express frustration with the limited AI capabilities, noting issues with data interpretation and off-topic responses.
Users desire limited features in Jotform AI Agents, seeking enhanced customization and integration options for better functionality.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users highlight the ease of use of HubSpot Marketing Hub, enjoying its intuitive interface and centralized features.
Users appreciate the powerful and user-friendly features of HubSpot Marketing Hub for efficient marketing and lead generation.
Users value the user-friendly email marketing features of HubSpot, enjoying seamless collaboration and effective campaign execution.
Users note missing features in HubSpot Marketing Hub, particularly with conditional logic and integration limitations for B2C needs.
Users find the learning curve challenging due to overwhelming data and frequent updates on HubSpot Marketing Hub.
Users find HubSpot Marketing Hub has limited features and steep pricing as their needs and contact list grow.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use in Zendesk, enjoying its intuitive interface and seamless multi-channel integration.
Users appreciate the robust and flexible features of Zendesk, enhancing customer service across multiple channels seamlessly.
Users appreciate the excellent customer support of Zendesk, noting its quick response times and user-friendly interface.
Users find the missing features in Zendesk, like limited log retention and unresponsive tools, quite frustrating.
Users find Zendesk's limited features frustrating, requiring extensive time and research for effective customization.
Users find the learning curve steep for Zendesk, especially with advanced features requiring technical knowledge.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the flexibility and efficiency of Workleap's compensation management, streamlining processes and enhancing decision-making.
Users commend the intuitive design of Workleap, enhancing their compensation management experience significantly.
Users find Workleap's ease of use exceptional, thanks to its intuitive interface and seamless implementation process.
Users desire more flexibility in report features and budget adjustments, wishing for direct changes in the system.
Users express a need for insufficient features, particularly regarding reporting and flexibility in comp cycle settings.
Users desire more flexibility in Workleap's reporting features and budget adjustments post-cycle launch.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users love the ease of use of Revscale AI Agents, seamlessly integrating and automating essential tasks for efficiency.
Users praise the top-notch customer support of Revscale AI Agents, enhancing overall satisfaction and ease of use.
Users praise the exceptional automation and support from Revscale AI, transforming workflows and enhancing productivity significantly.
Users find the learning curve challenging as the tool fails to deliver as advertised, causing frustration.
Users experience software bugs that hinder functionality, such as repetitive messages and features not working reliably.
Users find the limited features of Revscale® AI Agents restrict dynamic messaging on platforms like LinkedIn.
Businesses interact with clients, customers, and internal stakeholders across various channels which include telephone, email, websites, and social media platforms. Historically, businesses needed to manually engage with humans, who would provide support and communication. However, in this current age of digital transformation, conversational agents of different flavors have emerged which are helping businesses be available and at the ready 24/7.
One particular instantiation of this technology is chatbots. These tools provide a simple conversational interface where users input text (or speech) and receive a canned or scripted response. With chatbots, a company is enabled to scale its functions, such as IT support and recruitment with limited resources, both in terms of money and time. If a company has more time and energy, as well as fiscal resources, it is wise for them to explore intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs), which provide the same basic capabilities of chatbots and more. With IVAs, users are enabled to have natural conversations via a host of different channels to solve their business problems. In addition, this advanced software has the ability to use the conversations to update systems such as a CRM, an ERP, or human resource management systems.
Key Benefits of Intelligent Virtual Assistants Software
IVAs should be part of a broader automation strategy, one in which a business considers areas where they increase efficiency with minimal effort and expenditure. For example, for a shoe selling business to be successful, they need to look for ways to increase margins, sell more shoes, and hire in a smart manner. They may want automation to streamline processes through tools such as robotic process automation (RPA) software, and make an effort to dynamically change pricing with retail pricing software. A prong in this automation strategy could be IVAs, which could help automate interactions between the business and customers, current or prospective.
The medium of this interaction is variable, depending on the software being used, as well as the particular use case. Thus, the business may choose to provide an IVA on their website as well as via email and telephone. These virtual agents engage with customers across all of these various channels. At times, they are even able to replace legacy systems such as interactive voice response (IVR), engaging customers for the purposes of identity verification, for example. The impact of IVAs vary greatly based on industry and use cases.
Unified and uniform experience — IVAs help maintain consistency across channels and various touchpoints. This presents business users with a unified experience for all support in areas such as IT and human resources (HR).
Cost saving — Businesses looking to cut costs and handle inefficiencies from operations, call centers, internal functions can look to IVAs. With this software, they can scale in a fiscally smart manner.
Customer satisfaction — Net promoter score (NPS) is a core metric which businesses track to keep tabs on how their customers feel about them. Providing a successful conversational solution in the form of an IVA helps businesses maintain customer satisfaction. With their always-on capabilities, IVAs provide a tailored customer experience. This personalization is likely to improve satisfaction.
IVAs are impacting all industries across various use cases and are affecting any touchpoint where businesses communicate with people. It is beneficial for businesses to explore how it impacts their industry and particular use case.
Banking and finance — IVAs are a hot commodity in the financial sector in which there is frequently a high volume of interactions with customers. For these industries, IVAs interact with customers on the phone, provide information regarding transactions and deals, and verify identity.
Telecommunications — Within the telecommunications sector, IVAs replace outdated automated voice systems in contact centers to improve resolution times and customer satisfaction. This gives customers a more natural interface for communicating with the business.
Hospitality — The hospitality industry is being transformed by IVAs, with businesses using them to increase customer loyalty through on-demand support and personalized service.
Other uses in the hospitality sector include making reservations, enabling personalized services—preferred room features or local restaurant recommendations—supporting customer engagement and retention.
Retail — Retail and e-commerce stands to benefit greatly from the deployment of IVAs to enhance customer engagement and drive sales. They also deliver a personalized e-commerce experience for customers.
Travel — The travel sector is adopting IVAs to assist in customer bookings and provide customer support and complaints resolution, thus acting as a personal assistant to customize a traveler’s itinerary and experiences.
Business leaders of all stripes can reap the benefits of IVAs, transforming their strategy with digital transformation. Focusing on sales and marketing, IT support, HR, and customer service use cases, businesses can communicate with their internal and external stakeholders in a supercharged manner. A successful deployment of IVAs can help businesses scale with the ability to engage in thousands of conversations.
Scale is not the only important factor to keep in mind. Intelligence is also key—the ability for the virtual assistant to respond to queries in a personalized fashion based on past interactions and stored data. Budget holders exploring different solutions should evaluate this level of intelligence through sustained conversations across various areas. Below are some prevalent use cases:
Customer service — Similar to IT virtual assistants, virtual customer service and customer success agents are able to resolve issues, problems, and concerns at scale. By conversing with current and prospective customers, IVAs quickly defuse difficult situations and reach resolutions. Frequently, they interact with both customers as well as human customer support teams. When an IVA does not have an adequate response at the ready, they escalate the conversation to a human agent. All of these benefits lead to faster response time, personalized self-service interactions, 24/7 support, and a unified automated experience across channels.
Sales and marketing — IVAs help engage buyers by initiating contact, empathizing intelligently to interpret replies, and responding with a tailored response. These assistants are useful throughout the entire customer journey, from determining interest to activating unresponsive demand and to winning back former customers.
HR — Businesses are able to deliver immediate, simplified, and intuitive access to HR applications with IVAs to improve employee experiences. They help employees find resources and information quickly, improving efficiency and user satisfaction.
Specific use cases within the HR function include travel and expense management, benefits management, and absence management. For example, an employee can converse with an IVA in a natural manner and ask them about vacation days or benefits. The benefits of this deployment include improving employee net promoter score (eNPS) and allowing the employee success team to focus on higher-level strategic engagements.
IT — Employees always have IT-related problems. In a typical organization, they submit a ticket to an IT professional (whether internal or outsourced), who takes time to evaluate the problem and respond properly. With IVAs, tasks such as password resets, access permissions, server diagnostics for IT support personnel, and more can be automated end to end.
IVAs help eliminate jammed ticket queues and provide quick resolutions for end users. These agents are trained to handle IT services use cases to ensure IT support staff remain one step ahead of the most common issues employees face. They handle queries at any time of day, meeting demand, and improving ticket processing times.
With the use of machine learning and deep learning, IVAs grow intelligently and understand a wider vocabulary and colloquial language as well as provide more precise and correct responses to requests. In addition, IVAs are able to provide personalized answers based on segmentation or other information provided. Below are some features:
Personalization — IVAs provide personalized responses to interlocutors based on segmentation or past responses.
Route to humans — The software has tools (e.g., dashboards and reports) to better understand conversations IVAs have had.
Natural language understanding (NLU) — With NLU features, the software can have a natural, human-like conversation with an interlocutor. The degree of intelligence and understanding differ between IVAs. For example, some providers have built robust sentiment detection capabilities that allow the assistants to communicate in a tailored way based on the person’s sentiment. This gives it some degree of emotional intelligence which is key for a successful conversation.
Conversation editor — This feature allows businesses to edit conversations to meet their unique needs. This includes aspects of process design, along with some tools that empower intelligent process execution to enable more dynamic conversations.
Integration — The integration feature gives users the ability to update systems, like CRM, based on conversations.
Human-in-the-loop — The software allows users to maintain and observe the accuracy and viability of IVAs by keeping human agents in the loop.
Avatars — Some IVAs provide life-like avatars, which communicate in a strikingly human fashion. These avatars come in various forms and formats, such as on-site customer support agents. Some companies even choose to roll out these avatars in store as shopping assistants. In terms of the look of these avatars, some providers provide the ability to customize them to fit a particular business.
Other features of intelligent virtual assistant software: Alexa Capabilities, Google Assistant Capabilities, Microsoft Teams Capabilities, Skype Capabilities, Slack Capabilities, SMS Capabilities, Social Media, Video, and WhatsApp Capabilities.
Preference for human agents — Although IVAs are great at many tasks, some contexts, such as those which require a significant amount of empathy, may be better served by a human agent.
Transparency — Despite the fact that IVAs might be better suited for repetitive tasks, users still deserve to know that they are speaking to an IVA, not a human. Legislation is catching up to this human desire and is requiring bots to state that they are not human in certain U.S. states like California.
Effective handoffs to humans — Sometimes, IVAs do not have an answer to a question from the user. It is critical that the system is designed in a way to successfully resolve this problem. Typically, the best way to solve this issue is to transition the user to a human agent.