Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA), also known as Intelligent Digital Agents or Conversational (or Dialog) Systems, are playing a significant role in both personal lives and increasingly also in the business world. The fundamental technologies of VPA have been advanced by Artificial Intelligence and have empowered intelligent and intuitive product offerings in the market. This drives the user’s expectations of using VPA to enhance digital interactions and potentially make their lives more efficient. These expectations then boost the demand for the industry, bring the technologies to the next level, and thus form a virtuous cycle, resulting in creating more advanced solutions at cheaper prices.
This report analyses the current state of VPA development and explores the key challenges and opportunities for this potentially transformative set of technologies.