How To Use an AI Personal Assistant for Work: Top 8 Tools

Ever had a to-do list so full you have to choose between two important tasks? Don’t let the daily tug-of-war get you down. An AI personal assistant can handle certain tasks for you and give you more time for the important ones, helping you get more done without working overtime.

Let’s explore how AI personal assistants for work streamline your day by tackling the repetitive stuff. Discover how AI assistants boost your productivity and check out the best virtual assistants on the market.

Getting started with AI virtual assistants

AI personal assistants are like digital sidekicks that are always ready to help. These tools take on everyday tasks — drafting emails, scheduling meetings, and generating reports — so you can focus on high-value, strategic work. 

Using a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms, AI virtual assistants understand your requests and respond more effectively with every new interaction. NLP is the technology that helps virtual assistants process and respond to text or voice commands like “schedule a meeting next Tuesday.” And machine learning lets them adapt to your habits, like knowing you prefer afternoon meetings or flagging emails related to your next all-in. 

How to use AI personal assistants for work

AI personal assistants handle a surprising range of work tasks, making them a full-service tool to streamline your workday. Here are 10 ways they can support you: 

1. Scheduling and calendar management

AI assistants schedule meetings, set reminders, and help you avoid double bookings. And over time, they learn your preferences, like blocking off morning focus time or avoiding late afternoon calls. 

2. Email management

Do you struggle to hit inbox zero? AI personal assistants draft replies, sort messages, and flag emails that need immediate attention, emptying your inbox faster. They can even suggest responses and mimic tone based on previous emails. 

3. Task prioritization

When your to-do list feels overwhelming, AI virtual assistants prioritize your workflow by deadline, urgency, and importance. They analyze tasks based on your goals and even suggest what order to tackle each item. 

4. Data analysis and reporting

These tools can analyze spreadsheets and generate detailed reports in a few minutes. Instead of crunching numbers and sorting through documents by hand, AI-powered tools extract the most valuable insights in a single click. 

5. Document drafting

Business proposals, contracts, meeting notes — an AI assistant can draft documents quickly and accurately. They can even format them according to your preferred template and style, requiring little oversight before hitting send. 

6. Meeting support

AI tools like Otter can prepare agendas, take notes, and transcribe calls in real time. You stay productive during meetings without missing a single detail. 

7. Project management

AI assistants empower project managers to have their eyes everywhere at once, tracking progress, setting reminders, and assigning tasks. They can even spot possible bottlenecks and suggest adjustments, helping projects stay within scope. 

8. Skill development

Whether you’re upskilling or training your team, AI-powered assistants can recommend resources, create study plans, and break down complex topics into easy-to-read summaries. 

9. Research assistance

Need quick data or a deep dive into a specific topic? AI assistants can source relevant articles and summarize lengthy documents to kickstart your work.

10. Customer communication

AI virtual assistants and chatbots automate responses to customer inquiries, ensuring fast replies 24/7. They can also draft personalized follow-ups based on past interactions, sales goals, or customer needs. 

8 best AI personal assistants for work

Plenty of virtual assistants that can streamline your workflow, but each one shines in different departments. Here’s a breakdown of eight of the best AI assistants for work and what makes each stand out:

1. Otter.ai

Otter.ai is an AI-powered meeting assistant designed to make every conversation more efficient. It automatically transcribes meetings, generates summaries and action items, stores notes, with the Otter AI Chat feature answering questions and generating content for users specifically related to their meetings. 

For sales teams, OtterPilot for Sales optimizes integrations with CRM software, streamlining prospecting and client follow-up. It’s ideal for teams who want to automate meeting management and empower everyone to focus on the conversation rather than their notes. 

Pricing: Basic free version, $8.33 per month per user for Pro, $20 per month per user for Business

2. Google Assistant

For those who depend on the Google ecosystem, Google Assistant is a practical choice. With seamless integration into Google Workspace, it handles scheduling, sets reminders, and sends emails — all with simple voice commands or by analyzing notifications on your device. But its functionality as a productivity tool is most limited to the Google realm, creating silos for users with a large toolbox of non-Google apps. 

Pricing: Free

3. Siri

Apple’s AI virtual assistant excels at making life easier if you’re all-hands-on-deck on the Apple ecosystem. Siri integrates with OpenAI and ChatGPT, allowing it to draft emails and turn notes into visual reports, alongside more day-to-day tasks like scheduling meetings or drafting emails. For best use, Siri’s functionality requires an Apple device, making functionality across devices pretty limited. 

Pricing: Free on Apple devices

4. Alexa

Alexa is mostly known for its smart home capabilities. It also offers basic work functions like managing your calendar and email. While it’s great for workers who need help managing to-do lists and finding the best playlist for productivity, its focus on personal tasks lacks the advanced workflow features of other AI assistants. 

Pricing: Free, but requires purchase of Alexa products like speakers and smart lights

5. Microsoft CoPilot 

Microsoft CoPilot (formerly Cortana) can automate routine work tasks like email management, document creation, and scheduling. It also integrates with several external tools, including Asana and Salesforce, to manage more complex workflows. But while CoPilot has plenty of app integrations, it doesn’t have the same flexibility with tools outside of Microsoft 365, which can limit its usability. 

Pricing: Microsoft CoPilot is free, although you may need a Microsoft 365 subscription, which costs $6.00 for basic and $22.00 for advanced subscriptions per user

6. Reclaim

Reclaim is an AI-powered assistant designed to build work-life balance by intelligently managing your schedule. It automatically prioritizes tasks, finds time for meetings, and allocates focus time, all while syncing with personal habits like exercise or meeting-free days. It’s ideal for professionals who want to optimize their time but has little functionality outside calendar optimization and time management. 

Pricing: Free basic plan, $8 per user per month for small teams, $12 per user per month for large teams (up to 100), $18 per user per month for teams over 100 

7. Clockwise

It’s not easy to align everyone’s schedules. Clockwise helps you make the most of everyone’s calendars, automatically booking or reorganizing meetings based on your team’s availability. Clockwise can also transform your to-do list into time blocks for deep work. While its automation improves productivity and teamwork, the tool’s primary focus is calendar management for teams.

Pricing: Free basic plan, $6.75 per user per month for teams, $11.50 per user per month for companies 

8. Zapier

Zapier is a web automation tool that interconnects your entire work toolkit. It works best for enterprises that depend on a large suite of tools. Zapier has a steep learning curve, but its new AI-powered CoPilot does make the process easier. The main con is that this tool is expensive.

Pricing: Free basic plan, $19.99 per month for individuals, $69 per month for teams

What to look for in an AI personal assistant

Finding the most advanced AI assistant might not solve all your workflow challenges. It’s about understanding your needs and searching for the right fit. Here’s how to choose the best AI assistant for work:

• Automates routine tasks: A strong AI virtual assistant takes repetitive tasks out of your workflow, including scheduling, email management, and drafting quick messages. Otter.ai excels at automating meetings and generating summaries of your conversations, making it a great choice for saving time.
• Real-time collaboration: Look for an assistant that enhances teamwork. Real-time collaboration tools, like Otter’s ability to edit transcripts and meeting notes in real-time, let teams fully engage with one another. 
• Integrations with existing tools: The best AI assistants communicate with other tools. Choose an app that smoothly integrates with your existing software, mitigating knowledge silos or unnecessary manual work. Otter.ai works with a wide range of productivity, organization, and CRM software so you don’t need to switch back and forth between apps. 

Otter helps you work smarter, not harder

Ready to take your productivity to the next level? Otter’s here to help. 

Otter AI-powered meeting assistant transforms the way you manage meetings, teamwork, and communication. Whether you need to automate note-taking or streamline your sales pipeline, we have you covered. 

Don’t let routine tasks slow you down. Let Otter lend a helping hand.