AI won’t replace your Virtual Assistant: 5 ways AI will Enhance Your VAs Efficiency

We are in the age of AI - artificial intelligence.

But if you think AI is about to take over Virtual Assistants' jobs? Or you don’t need a VA, you can just use AI? Think again my friend.

We’re exploring how my team of VAs are embracing AI and automation for our clients, to compliment and sharpen their skills, productivity, and provide an even better service.

AI isn't replacing VAs—it’s making them more powerful and useful than ever.

I love AI, use it daily in fact, and I’ll be sharing 5 ways we use it in our business every day, for our clients - instead of running away from it.

Get ready to take notes!

Firstly Virtual Assistants can be a broad term, because people will call Siri and Alex Virtual Assistants, believe it or not.

However today and in this context when I say Virtual Assistant or VA for short, I’m talking about actual living breathing, thinking humans, and in my realm and my VA agency, we provide experienced and skilled Virtual Executive Assistants and Virtual Lifestyle Assistants. Real and super efficient humans who take exceptional care of our clients.

Okay now we’ve got that out of the way…

I guarantee by the end of this, you’ll probably be dashing to use some of these AI and automations tools.

Today I’ve 5 brilliant, short and sweet examples for you of tools we use - so let’s jump into the first tool, which is;

1️⃣ MANY CHAT: Chatbot style automations

The rise of tools like ManyChat allows a business owner to promote their service or products on social media and, within the caption, tell followers to DM a specific word (like ‘freebie’) to receive more information without lifting a finger.

Technically ruling out the need for the social or community manager to be manually responding to all those DMs, saving hours.

That ‘word’ triggers an automation set up by a human (aka the business owner), sending out a PDF or link automatically - it’s genius and so easy, and so much you can do on the free version of Manychat alone.

This saves time for the business owner, their VA, or social media manager, who no longer has to manually reply to DMs and cut and paste the same response.

But don’t forget, a human sets up this automation, and if someone DMs with questions afterward they’ve got the automated info, sometimes it still need a personal response from the business owner or VA.

So while the automation saves time, it doesn’t replace the need for a Virtual Assistant – it just frees up their time to focus on other valuable tasks and increases your businesses productivity and creates a way smoother and more slick customer experience too.

2️⃣ Zapier for recurring tasks

Zapier is a magical automation tool that connects different apps and services, allowing you to automate repetitive tasks without needing to code or doing anything complicated or faffy.

For example, say your VA handles your invoicing – they can set up a ‘zap’ that automatically creates an invoice in your accounting software (like QuickBooks) whenever a new order is placed on your website. Or, they can create one that saves attachments from Gmail directly to Google Drive.

These workflows eliminate the need to repeat manual actions, and although the automation does the heavy lifting, someone still has to create and monitor those processes. Your VA can set up the system and ensure everything runs smoothly, while you benefit from hours saved on admin!

3️⃣ ChatGPT for meal planning and research

ChatGPT can generate meal plans for clients based on their dietary preferences, budget, or time constraints – but that’s not all. VAs can use AI tools like this for research tasks, whether it’s gathering information on competitors, summarizing a book, or even creating podcast show notes.

For instance, if you run a podcast, your VA can use ChatGPT to generate summaries of each episode or extract the key takeaways for social media posts. While the AI drafts the content, your VA adds the final human touch, ensuring it reflects your brand voice and vision.

4️⃣ Automated meeting scheduling

Tools like Calendly, which integrate directly with Google Calendar or Outlook, make scheduling meetings a breeze.

Your VA can set it up so clients or team members simply pick a time that works for them from your availability. The automation does the scheduling and even sends handy little reminders, but your VA manages the setup and ensures all participants have what they need.

Our clients also love Motion, which is another AI-powered productivity app that helps our clients manage their schedules and tasks by automatically organising to-do lists, meetings, and deadlines.

Using intelligent algorithms it rearranges priorities in real-time, allowing our clients to focus on what’s most important without having to manually adjust their calendar.

For example, if a meeting gets canceled or a deadline changes, Motion shifts other tasks around to optimise your day.

For VAs, Motion can serve as a time-management tool, ensuring that client schedules stay on track, but it still requires the VA’s oversight to manage unexpected nuances or personalised asks or tasks that AI can't handle.

These tools streamline processes, but they’re only part of the puzzle.

These sorts of scheduling AI and automation tools make the VA faster and more efficient, but they don’t offer the personal touch, creative problem-solving, or nuanced judgment and common sense that a VA provides.

5️⃣ Automated meeting scheduling

One of my personal favourite tools is Fathom, which is an AI-powered meeting assistant that takes notes for me during virtual calls.

It integrates with platforms like Zoom, automatically recording and transcribing conversations in real time. I take very few notes now on client or team calls, I’m able to sit, absorb and be present - it’s been a life saver and means I make a heck of alot more eye contact on calls, instead of scribbling away and looking down, which I love.

And not is it able to capture all the key moments from the call as it happens, like action items, decisions, or questions, but it also organises them, making it easy to review or share with team members later. Chef’s kiss!

When we get our clients into using tools like this in their day to day, especially for things like Board meetings, it’s a game-changer.

Instead of focusing on taking detailed notes, the VA can be fully engaged in the meeting.

And while the AI handles the transcription, a VA still ensures the final notes are polished and contextually accurate, that last level of personal touch that the AI can’t replicate.

💡 To sum it up…

Someone said to me, think of AI as your intern and they do the first draft for you, but it still needs your eyes, your tweaks to make it make sense for you, your business and your own personal ways.

At the end of the day, AI and automation are here to help, not to replace the human touch or Virtual Assistants.

I can’t tell you how awesome they are for my team and clients, due to the sheer amount of time they free up time from repetitive tasks.

Simply allowing your VA or you to focus on the work that truly moves the needle – be it building relationships, providing personalised support, or handling complex projects.

The human touch will always be needed, especially when it comes to understanding people’s unique needs and delivering exceptional service.

So, embrace the tech, don’t be so scared of it and never underestimate the value of a skilled VA with all these tools at her fingertips to make you ten times more productive.