A woman and a virtual agent work together on a project.

What Is a Virtual Agent?

Virtual agents are software entities that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help people. They can perform tasks, interact with users, and make decisions with little or no human help.

Justin Lafferty, Senior Editor

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Virtual agents FAQs

Virtual agents are AI-powered conversational interfaces designed to simulate human interaction, primarily for customer service, support, and information dissemination.

They use natural language processing (NLP) to understand user queries, access knowledge bases or data, and generate relevant responses or perform actions.

Benefits include 24/7 availability, instant responses, handling high volumes of enquiries, reducing wait times, and lowering operational costs, while improving customer satisfaction.

Virtual agents can answer frequently asked questions, provide product information, assist with troubleshooting, guide users through processes, and collect customer feedback.

They improve the customer experience by providing quick, consistent, and personalised support, empowering customers to find answers and resolve issues independently, leading to a more efficient service journey.

The terms are often used interchangeably, but “virtual agent” sometimes implies a more sophisticated, AI-driven system capable of maintaining context and handling more complex interactions than a basic chatbot.

Virtual agents often integrate with CRM systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, and customer service ticketing systems to provide comprehensive and context-aware support.