Using a "Virtual" Assistant to Schedule Meetings

Amy Ingram is my personal assistant. She handles scheduling all of my meetings. She’s amazing and is arranging meetings, lunches, and calls for me each week.

Amy is available 24 hours per day. She works weekends and evenings. She’s willing to respond to my e-mails regardless of the time of day. She never stops for a bathroom break, nor does she stop for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Instead of my having to go back and forth about dates/times and time zones, I simply copy Amy on my e-mails, and she takes action. She presents options, gets a date/time selected, issues a calendar invite, and makes sure we’re all good to go.

Amy never drops the ball. She never forgets to move an event forward. She never fails to take the steps required to be certain that the meeting gets on everyone’s calendar. She’s good.

However, Amy is not a person. She’s a software product. She’s an artificial intelligence bot. She’s programmed to assist in arranging meetings, and she’s backed up by humans who study her interactions to perfect the system. The human engineers constantly look for patterns and integrate the lessons they learn into the software.

Amy can handle in-person meetings, calls, and meals. She’s good at one to ones as well as group meetings or calls. She’s prepared by knowing, in advance, your preferences for times of day, lengths of calls and meetings, locations, etc. She’s ready to roll when you copy her on an e-mail.

There’s no website to visit, no software to download, and no app to install. All of your interactions with Amy take place via e-mail. You simply e-mail Amy using the words you choose, and she understands your meaning. I tend to “cc” Amy when I need her help.

Amy is flexible. She’ll understand your need for buffer times between meetings and your favorite locations for lunch. She’ll even know to specify the right Starbucks when there’s more than one on the block. Amy is flexible and can do even more, as you’ll learn as you experiment with using her.

I’ve been using Amy for quite some time now. She’s still in the beta stage and will likely be officially released this summer. You can sign up for a beta invite. When Amy leaves the testing stage, you’ll have to pay (probably $8 a month). For now, however, Amy is free. Learn more about the business and technology behind Amy on This Week in Startups. You’ll learn that handling your scheduling is only the beginning for Amy. There’s lots more to come soon.

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