What is a virtual agent? Benefits, use cases,
and more

As Bill Gates said in one of his blogs, an agent is a "type of software—something that responds to natural language and can accomplish many different tasks based on its knowledge of the user" and their goals.

Though there are no universally accepted definitions, simply put, virtual agents or virtual assistants are software designed to mimic human conversations and engage with users via chat or voice tools. They leverage AI technologies like natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to interpret user intent, draw on a wealth of data, provide contextual information in response to queries, perform actions, and guide users through various tasks.

Chatbots and virtual agents often get conflated. A couple of factors that contribute to the confusion are their overlapping functions and similar conversational interfaces.

What differentiates them is their capabilities.

A basic chatbot follows predefined scripts and can only respond to predefined queries. This means that its scope is limited as the bot requires an exact keyword in the prompt to be able to provide the required details to the user.

Virtual agents are smarter. With them, finding what you're looking for is far more effortless. Powered by AI and ML, these agents go beyond scripted responses and are more versatile. They understand a broader range of queries, retrieve information from various sources, provide nuanced answers, learn from past user interactions, and only get better over time.

From a service delivery perspective, there are numerous ways in which virtual agents can help end users and technicians alike. They not only empower end users to find solutions on demand but also free up technicians to focus on bigger things.

A service desk with conversational AI can help you:

• Scale your IT support: When the volume of your support requests keeps increasing, relying solely on human technicians can lead to burnout. Since virtual agents can communicate with multiple people simultaneously and instantly, you have the flexibility to scale your support up or down.
• Provide uninterrupted assistance: Since these agents work around the clock, your teams need not worry about queries slipping through the cracks during non-business hours, weekends, or holidays.
• Handle frontline interactions: Instead of having your technicians bear the brunt of routine L1 inquiries, you can deploy virtual agents on your service desk's front lines and guide end users with realistic conversational assistance. If a request calls for additional assistance, then the ticket can be escalated to a live technician.
• Cater to a broader audience: By offering multilingual support, virtual agents are the ideal solution for service desks that handle diverse userbases. Virtual agents break down communication barriers by interacting with users in their preferred language.

Choosing the right virtual agent requires careful consideration of its ability to deliver intelligent, contextual, consistent support.

The ideal aspects that you should look for in an ITSM solution's virtual agent are:

• Personalization: When an end user is greeted by the virtual agent, the interaction should immediately feel personalized and on-brand. Providing tailored responses based on the context and past interactions reassures users that they are not engaging with a vanilla chatbot that lacks true understanding. By aligning the agent’s name and visuals with your company’s style, you can also reinforce your branding and create a familiar experience.
• Multilingual support: When end users are communicated with in their preferred language, it significantly enhances the overall support experience and eliminates delays caused by misunderstandings. They are more likely to articulate their issues effectively and understand the resolutions provided, leading to faster resolutions.
• Multichannel deployment: When the service desk's virtual agent is deployed across different digital touchpoints, end users can interact with it through their preferred channels (a website, communication and collaboration platforms, or a mobile app). This flexibility enhances user convenience and engagement by meeting users where they are, without requiring them to switch platforms.
• Self-service: With NLP capabilities and access to various data sources, virtual agents can provide accurate answers to FAQs and assist with routine tasks. By streamlining access to information and automating repetitive tasks, virtual agents empower end users to address their own needs.

Continuing on how to evaluate a virtual agent, it's also essential to consider its ability to handle a variety of use cases. Here are a few real-life scenarios that show how a virtual agent can help automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and provide instant support.

It's Monday morning, and the service desk is already overwhelmed with a surge of incident tickets. Technicians are racing to categorize and resolve issues, end users are seeking quick solutions to their IT disruptions, and process owners need a clear view of incident trends and their impacts. When everything is done manually, inefficiencies build up—delays in resolutions, misrouted tickets, and a flood of repetitive queries. A virtual agent can change this dynamic by streamlining incident management for every stakeholder, automating triage, enhancing response accuracy, and providing data-driven insights to improve overall service delivery.

For technicians

A virtual agent for technicians transforms the way IT teams handle common incidents or service requests by enabling them to perform critical tasks on the go, whether through conversational messages or voice commands. With a virtual agent, technicians can quickly access solutions, eliminating the need to sift through lengthy documentation. They can also filter out tickets based on the priority, category, or status, ensuring they focus on what matters most.

Technicians can add notes to tickets they're handling, allowing real-time updates without switching between interfaces. Beyond individual tasks, a virtual agent assists with generating dashboards and insights, helping technicians get a quick snapshot of the workload distribution, SLA compliance, and incident trends—all from within the chat interface.

For end users

A virtual agent can serve as an intelligent self-service assistant, enabling users to resolve common incidents instantly through conversational AI. Whether users need to troubleshoot connectivity issues, reset a password, or fix an application error, the virtual agent can retrieve solutions from both internal and external knowledge sources and deliver precise, context-aware responses. Instead of simply linking to solution articles, it can leverage retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to extract and summarize relevant information, ensuring users get quick, actionable insights. Available through text and voice support, a virtual agent not only reduces the incident volume but also enhances the user experience by providing instant, reliable assistance.

Here are some metrics you can analyze to improve your performance, user satisfaction, and ROI.

• The usage rate: Measure how often end users interact with the virtual agent compared to traditional channels like email or phone support.
• First contact resolution (FCR): Measure the percentage of requests that are resolved without human intervention. A higher FCR indicates that the virtual agent is more efficient.
• The user satisfaction score: The tickets being resolved by the virtual agent is just one side of the coin. Are your end users truly satisfied with the resolutions provided? That's the metric that gives you the bigger picture. To gauge this, you can embed a rating scale at the end of every conversation to measure the user's satisfaction with the virtual agent interaction.
• The reduction in the ticket volume: Measure how much the virtual agent reduces the volume of tickets reaching your human technicians. This reflects its impact on service desk workloads.
• The escalation rate: Measure the percentage of interactions that require escalation to a human technician. This indicates areas where the virtual agent may need improvement.