Top 10 AI Virtual Assistants for Startups and Businesses (2024)

Amidst the hot debate over AI taking over, I’d rather prefer to stay distant and use it for my leverage. You?

I say you should do the same.

If you’ve ever used newly accessible AI virtual assistants, you’ve most likely realized how efficient and time-saving they can be.

They can finish tasks in minutes that used to take us hours to complete.

Planning to utilize AI virtual assistants for business growth?

Here’s our list of the top 10 AI virtual assistants for your business. It has tools for content writing, financial planning, task management, calendar scheduling, and more.

Sounds good? Let’s start our guide by determining what AI assistants you need.

Figuring Out What AI Assistance You Need

Today, there are AI assistants for various tasks and objectives, be it business planning, content writing, task management, HR, or project management. That’s why it’s critical to identify your requirements and understand what AI assistance you need.

So, here are a few things for you to consider while choosing an AI technology for your business:

The core feature of the AI assistant

It’s the first step—understand the primary purpose of this tool, what it has to offer, and what you want it for. For instance, ask yourself if you need an AI tool for business planning, administrative tasks, scheduling appointments, or performing any other job.

Set of tasks you can perform

The next step is identifying what related simple or complex tasks the artificial intelligence assistant can perform. For instance, Upmetrics is a business planning app, but it can also help with pitch deck creation and financial projections.

Having a tool that performs related tasks saves time, money, and other resources.

Level of Customization

Consider the level of customization you want from the virtual assistant and compare it with the amount it has to offer.

For instance, some AI virtual assistants provide only generic services and can’t be customized for personalized recommendations. Prefer tools with customization options.

Budget

Determine how much you can afford to spend on an AI assistant. Consider its pricing plans and compare them with its offerings. You may look for other product alternatives to find the best deal possible.

That settles figuring out what AI assistance you need. So, let’s head straight to our list of best AI virtual assistants for businesses in 2024.

Best AI Virtual Assistants for Businesses (2024)

1. Upmetrics

Upmetrics is a popular AI business planning assistant that helps startups and small business owners write and prepare their business plans.

Isn’t that all the business plan software does?

Yes, but it’s a different story with Upmetrics AI Assistant.

Upmetrics’ writing assistant helps you auto-write, re-write, correct, and translate sections of your business plan, whereas the forecasting assistant simplifies financial projections with AI-powered suggestions.

It also has a virtual assistant that reads and comprehends your entire business plan and answers any questions you have regarding your business plan.

For instance, you may ask when my business will break even or ask to perform a task—re-write the executive summary section of my plan. You may ask anything.

(literally anything)

If you’ve no business planning experience and don’t know where to begin, Upmetrics would be a worthwhile investment.

Upmetrics best features

Upmetrics pricing:

Check out Upmetrics’ pricing plans:

Starter	Premium
$7/month	$14/month

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: 4.9/5.0
• Capterra: 4.8/5.0

2. ClickUp

ClickUp is a cloud-based project management software that helps individuals and small, medium, and large-scale organizations streamline project management, plan tasks, and track them.

It’s the AI virtual assistant you need for effective and productive project management.

It can help you write and summarize content and threads, break down complex tasks into subtasks, translate text in multiple languages, and create project summaries.

If you’re looking for an AI assistant for writing and effective task planning, ClickUp would be your on-the-go tool.

ClickUp best features

ClickUp limitations

• AI features and assistance are not available on its free plan.
• Steep learning curve to access the potential abilities of the app.
• Automation can sometimes be tricky to implement.
• Limitations in terms of messaging and communication between coworkers.

ClickUp Pricing

Check out the pricing plans for Notion AI. You may visit their pricing page for detailed information.

Free forever	Unlimited	Business	Business Plus	Enterprise
$0	$10 user/month	$19 user/month	$29 user/month	Custom

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: 4.7/5.0 (8,300+)
• Capterra: 4.7/5.0 (3700+)

3. Otter AI

Otter is an AI-powered meeting assistant that helps you transcribe user interviews, write notes & generate summaries, create audio files, and record conversations, making your meetings more efficient and productive.

You may connect Otter to your Google or Microsoft calendar, and it will automatically join and record your meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.

Furthermore, you can chat live with Otter and teammates in the meeting, ask questions, and get instant answers to your questions.

Let’s have a look at some of Otter’s best features and critical limitations.

Otter AI best features

Otter AI limitations

• Otter lacks a contextual understanding of transcriptions.
• The pricing structure may not suit occasional app users.
• Noisy environment may affect the accuracy of the tool.
• Heavy accents or multiple speakers may lead to inaccuracy.

Otter AI Pricing

Basic	Pro	Business	Enterprise
Free	$16.99 user/month	$30 user/month	Custom

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: 4.1/5.0 (110+)
• Capterra: 4.5/5.0 (67+)

4. Wally

Wally is your personal AI assistant who helps you save time on your most common tasks, such as drafting email responses, summarizing YouTube videos, replying to social media messages, and more.

You can integrate Wally with your other software and tools like Gmail, Chrome, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube to make the most out of its feature offerings.

Since all the Wally AI tools are still in beta, their offerings may be updated soon. Here are some of Wally’s best features:

Wally best features

Wally limitations

• Almost all its features are in beta testing.
• No verified user reviews on platforms like Capterra and G2.

Wally Pricing (billed monthly)

Level Up	Rocket Boosters	Lightspeed
$9.99/mo	$19.99/mo	$39.99/mo

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: N/A

5. Clara

Clara is an AI virtual assistant designed to operate like an actual human assistant. It can manage all your scheduling needs, coordinate with your meeting recipients, respond to their emails, and send follow-up emails.

All you need to do is—CC Clara on an email, and it will take care of the rest, everything from organizing the calendar to sending follow-up emails and keeping track of meeting cancellations.

While Clara uses natural language processing(NLP) algorithms to interact with everyone in natural language, they also have a team of human experts to evaluate any schedule conflicts.

Here’s an overview of the best features Clara has to offer:

Clara best features

Clara limitations

• The bot’s name cannot be changed when responding to recipient emails.
• No verified user reviews on platforms like Capterra and G2.

Clara Pricing

New pricing coming soon.

Ratings and Reviews:

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: N/A

6. Amazon Alexa

Amazon Alexa is an interactive voice assistant that helps you with common day-to-day tasks, making your life easier and more convenient.

It is available on multiple devices, including smart speakers, displays, and phones. You may use Alexa to perform various tasks, like providing weather updates, playing music, controlling smart devices, and answering general knowledge questions.

It’s an AI-powered virtual assistant that follows your voice commands. All you need to do is—say “Alexa” or “Amazon,” which will be activated to respond to your queries.

Here’s an overview of the best features of Amazon Alexa:

Amazon Alexa’s best features

Amazon Alexa limitations

• Amazon limits each developer account to 75 Alexa-hosted skills.
• Integration limitations when using it on certain devices.
• Some Alexa features are limited to its international version.

Amazon Alexa Pricing

Free with compatible Amazon devices.

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: N/A

7. Jasper

Jasper is an AI writing assistant cum copilot for enterprise marketing teams, helping them scale their marketing efforts by increasing their speed and performance.

This AI assistant can be used to write long-form articles, blog posts, product descriptions, marketing copies, social media posts, and other forms of content.

If you are looking for an efficient, easy-to-use, and cost-effective solution for content creation, Jasper is your go-to solution.

Let’s have a look at some of its best features and critical limitations:

Jasper best features

Jasper limitations

• The platform is costly compared to its market alternatives.
• Keeping track of multiple documents within the app can be overwhelming.
• Proofreading and fact-checking information is a must.
• Some users had better results with shortening from Grammarly.

Jasper Pricing

Wordkraft AI has a free plan but comes with a 1,000-word limit, so you will definitely need a subscription moving forward.

Free Plan	Creator	Teams	Business
No	$49/month	$125/month	Custom

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: 4.7/5.0 (1,220+)
• Capterra: 4.3/5.0 (1,700+)

8. Cortana

The next on our list of AI-powered virtual assistants, we have Cortana.

Cortana is among the most popular voice assistants available today. Microsoft’s personal productivity assistant helps you save time and focus on essential matters—as they say.

Similar to Google Assistant or Alexa, Cortana understands and follows your voice commands to provide an accurate response.

You can use this personal assistant to manage your calendar, keep your schedule up-to-date, create and manage lists, set alarms and reminders, open any application on your computer, and search the internet for any facts or information you need.

Moving forward, let’s have an overview of Cortana’s best features and certain limitations.

Cortana best features

Cortana limitations

• Cortana offers limited integration with third-party apps.
• Microsoft announced the end of support for Cortana in late 2023.
• Some users may find it overwhelming to get used to its functionalities.

Cortana Pricing

Included as a part of the Microsoft toolset.

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: 4.7/5.0 (1,220+)
• Capterra: 4.3/5.0 (1,700+)

9. Parrot AI

Parrot AI is an AI knowledge space for teams that records and transcribes meetings and transforms them into knowledge that can be applied and utilized for better performance and productivity.

While other AI assistants for meetings transcribe text and take notes, Parrot AI captures, organizes, and shares knowledge from meetings, conversations, and documents.

If you’re looking for an intelligent virtual assistant to ensure everyone on your team knows everything about your organization and its next action steps—Parrot is the tool you need in your arsenal.

Here are Parrot’s best features and critical limitations you should consider.

Parrot AI best features

Parrot AI limitations

• AI may sometimes mistranscribe or identify key topics.
• It may fail to transcribe critical information during meetings.
• Its pricing plans may be too expensive for individuals and small businesses.

Parrot AI Pricing (Billed annually)

Free	Personal	Team	Enterprise
$0	$24/mo	$16 user/mo	Custom

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: N/A

10. Fyle

Fyle is an easy expense management solution for employers. You can automate expense reporting, reimburse employees, reconcile credit cards, and sync all your expenses to your accounting software.

Your employees can submit expense receipts directly via text message, mobile app, Gmail & Outlook plugins, slack, and more.

Although the above-mentioned methods are still there, you don’t necessarily need them to submit receipts anymore. Simply text the picture of your receipt to Fyle, and the AI will create the expense, fill in the data, and submit it automatically.

Here’s an overview of some of its key features, limitations, and pricing:

Fyle best features

Fyle limitations

• Some users have reported expense report issues.
• Steep learning curve to access the potential abilities of the app.
• Fyle is not the most intuitive application; some users may find it challenging.

Fyle Pricing

Standard	Business	Team
$0	$24/mo	Custom

Ratings and Reviews

• G2: 4.6/5.0 (8300+)
• Capterra: 4.7/5.0 (3700+)

Although the list ends here, it’s not the end. Let’s take a closer look at why you should consider using AI assistants for your business. Let’s head straight to it.

Why use AI Virtual Assistant Apps at Work?

9 in 10 organizations back the use of AI to gain a competitive edge in the market.  While using AI and virtual assistants at work is a no-brainer, you need to know why.

Let’s understand the benefits of using these AI assistants at work.

Automate repetitive tasks

Automation is a crucial benefit of using artificial intelligence at work.

You can use project management assistants like ClickUp to automate task planning and tracking, AI writing assistants like Jasper to scale content creation, and personal assistants like Clara to schedule appointments and respond to recipient emails.

Boost productivity, save time, and cut costs

There are AI assistants pretty much for everything, be it AI for text and speech recognition, business planning, or content creation.

Utilizing AI in business can help you and your employees be more productive and efficient and get more done in less time, allowing you to reduce workforce expenses.

Increase profitability

As I said, AI helps your workforce be more efficient and productive. It’s a no-brainer: a productive workforce will help you cut costs and increase profitability.

Although these are just a few benefits of using AI at work, they are surely enough to make you utilize AI tools in your small business.

The Bottom Line

As a recap, we listed the top ten AI virtual assistants in this article to help you simplify business operations, in one way or another.

Among the AI tools discussed were AI voice assistants, AI financial assistants, AI project management assistants, and more.

(feel free to revisit the list)

You may find something that you’ve missed earlier. Although you may or may not need all the AI tools from the list, every starting-out entrepreneur must consider having an AI business planning assistant.

Sign up now, and get the first draft of your business plan ready in no time!