5 Awesome ways virtual assistants are aiding home automation

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So, you’ve realized that you just don’t have a lot of time in life. Between running errands, going to work, and a social life, there’s just not a lot of time to spare. You may have also heard about virtual assistants, but you’re not sure exactly how they can help you maintain your day-to-day life or assist with home automation.

Firstly, there are two kinds of virtual assistants. The first refers to real people that you can hire to handle some of your admin and day-to-day needs, with the second being the likes of Apple’s HomeKit or Amazon’s Alexa. In this piece, we’ll be looking at the latter and the types of jobs they can do for you.

Ordering your food

There is a wide range of tasks that virtual assistants can handle, but one that takes up a lot of time for most people is shopping for and ordering their groceries online. Making sure the fridge is stocked, slogging off to the shops daily or weekly, and fighting the crowds is all an absolute pain.

With online shopping, virtual assistants can make sure you receive fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, and milk on a regular basis. You won’t need to worry about having food in the fridge if someone is doing all of the online shopping for you. Of course, buying spur of the moment snacks and treats will still be left up to you.

Helping with finances

Virtual assistants can assist with your personal finances as well. Uploading your monthly statement, or taking a photo of your receipts, will enable the virtual assistants to log your purchases in a cloud-based finance program. When tax time finally comes around, everything will be easy for you, instead of scrambling to recon all your expenses.

These virtual assistants are also able to prepare monthly reports in order to break down all your finances, such as growth in savings or where you can cut back.

Creating appointments

Having to speak to people on the phone, typing up long emails, and sending calendar requests can be a time-consuming process. Not to mention a number of people that may want to chat to you over the phone, as well as trying to get hold of people and finding mutually beneficial meeting times.

Virtual assistants become, essentially, your own personal assistant and are able to handle all of your requests. It’s a much easier process than doing it yourself, and with access to your calendar, they’ll be able to populate all of your appointments and important dates. An excellent example of this is Facebook’s M.

Home automation for handling non-essential tasks

The likes of Apple’s Siri and Google Now were created with search and task functionality in mind. With these systems, users are able to search for directions to a location, play music, and construct messages to your contacts. These are freely available on pretty much any newer device running iOS or Android.

Microsoft’s Cortana is another alternative for your home automation project but has received a slower development process. The company also named its AI after a character in the Halo video game series that started off friendly and became deranged and murderous.

Researching information for you

Depending on how busy you are, or how much free time you want to have, a virtual assistant will be able to source information on a variety of topics. Say you’re in a meeting, but need to figure out where to obtain specific ingredients for a meal, the virtual assistant will be able to research this for you.

Having a virtual assistant as part of your home automation efforts can be a life changer for you. For a fraction of the cost, typically, of a full-time personal assistant, you can have a variety of things done and facilitated in order to automate your life and home.

If you’re looking for more info on home automation, have a look at our article on how a smart home system can make your life better. It details home security, lights, and even smart toilets as well. You might also be interested in reading more about the top home automation systems that were revealed at CES 2017 earlier this year.