What are digital assistants?

Digital assistants are software systems that receive requests in natural language by voice or text, understand them, and respond with an answer or a completed task. Well-known digital assistants are Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and Gemini, as well as AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Companies also use digital assistants in customer service and in internal processes.

Term profile

How do digital assistants work?

Digital assistants work in 4 steps: They capture the input, understand the intent, retrieve the right information, and give an answer or carry out an action.

1. Capturing the input: With spoken requests, the device waits for a wake word such as “Hey Siri” or “Alexa”. Speech recognition then converts what was said into text.
2. Understanding the intent: Natural language processing recognizes what is wanted and which details belong to it. “Set an alarm for seven o’clock” becomes the intent “set alarm” and the detail “7:00 a.m.”.
3. Retrieving information: The assistant draws on its own knowledge, a web search, connected apps, or company data. Modern AI assistants use a large language model for this, which turns the information found into an answer.
4. Answering or acting: The assistant reads the answer aloud, displays it as text, or completes the task, such as sending a message, turning on the lights, or adding an appointment.

Depending on the system, the dialog runs over several rounds. If someone first asks about the weather in Hamburg and then “And tomorrow?”, the assistant relates the second question to the first. This form of search in conversation is called conversational search.

What types of digital assistants are there?

There are 5 types of digital assistants that differ in input, place of use, and degree of independence.

The boundaries are blurring. Voice assistants are getting generative AI, AI assistants are getting voice control, and both are developing into agents that complete tasks independently. When an agent shops on behalf of a user, this is called agentic commerce.

How have digital assistants developed?

In around 15 years, digital assistants have developed from voice-controlled helpers for simple commands into AI systems that take on complex tasks. The most important milestones:

• 2011: Apple introduces Siri with the iPhone 4S, the first voice assistant for a broad audience.
• 2014: Amazon launches Alexa together with the Echo smart speaker, and Microsoft launches Cortana.
• 2016: Google presents Google Assistant, which replaces Google Now.
• 2022: OpenAI releases ChatGPT in November and makes AI assistants based on language models suitable for the mass market.
• 2023: Microsoft discontinues Cortana as a standalone app and focuses on Copilot instead.
• 2025: Amazon introduces Alexa+, a generative version of its assistant, and Google announces that it will replace Google Assistant on smartphones with Gemini.

With every step, the ability to understand open questions has grown. Early voice assistants mainly recognized fixed commands. Today’s assistants answer open questions, summarize sources, and hold a conversation over several rounds.

What is the difference between a digital assistant and a chatbot?

A chatbot is usually limited to one provider and one subject area, while a digital assistant works across topics and can carry out tasks in several services.

In practice, the two terms are often used interchangeably. A modern customer service chatbot can be based on a language model and therefore seem like an assistant, but it remains tailored to its operator’s offering.

Where do digital assistants get their answers from?

Digital assistants get their answers from 4 sources, namely their own knowledge, web search, business directories, and connected services. For companies, this question is decisive because it determines whether an assistant mentions their brand.

1. Own knowledge: AI assistants have learned from training data, and Google also relies on its Knowledge Graph.
2. Web search: For current and specific questions, many assistants search the web and summarize the results. For knowledge questions, Google Assistant often reads out a featured snippet.
3. Business directories: Assistants answer questions such as “Which bakery nearby is still open?” from map services. Google draws on the Google Business Profile for this, and Apple on the data from Apple Business Connect, which feeds into Apple Maps and Siri.
4. Connected services: Calendars, music, smart home devices, and apps supply data and receive commands.

For news content, Google introduced the Schema.org property speakable in 2018. It marks sections of a page that are suitable for being read aloud by Google Assistant. The feature is still labeled as beta and is limited to English-language news sites in the US.

What do digital assistants mean for SEO?

Digital assistants usually give only one answer instead of ten results, so what counts for companies is being the source of exactly that one answer. This results in 5 tasks:

1. Maintaining business data completely: Opening hours, address, phone number, and category must be correct in the Google Business Profile and in Apple Business Connect. Inconsistent information in directories confuses assistants. The basis is consistent NAP data.
2. Answering questions in one sentence: An answer that is read aloud has to stand on its own. Short, complete answer sentences under a question as the heading work best for this.
3. Taking spoken language into account: Users speak whole questions instead of keywords. The article on voice SEO describes how content can be prepared for these queries.
4. Appearing in AI answers: AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini name brands they know from many consistent sources. Optimizing for such answers is called answer engine optimization.
5. Securing local visibility: Many assistant queries have a local reference. For businesses with customers on site, local SEO is therefore the prerequisite for being mentioned at all. Our page on local SEO services shows what this looks like.

The article on AI search summarizes which systems deliver answers instead of results lists. Our page on AEO (also known as GEO) and AI visibility describes how companies become visible in the answers of AI assistants.

Frequently asked questions about digital assistants

Is ChatGPT a digital assistant?
Yes. ChatGPT is an AI assistant based on a large language model. It accepts questions by text, voice, and image and can also carry out tasks through extensions.

What is the difference between a voice assistant and a digital assistant?
A voice assistant is a digital assistant that is operated mainly by voice, such as Alexa or Siri. “Digital assistant” is the umbrella term that also includes text-based AI assistants and chatbots.

Are voice assistants always listening?
Smart speakers constantly listen for their wake word and only transmit speech to the provider after that. Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) recommends, among other things, muting the microphone when needed and checking the device’s privacy settings.