Virtual assistant piloted at some government agencies

Several state agencies such as the People's Committee of HCM City, the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will be the first to use virtual assistants in the near future.

An Android phone virtual assistant. (Photo: Hai Dang)

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has issued Decision No. 943a/QD-BTTTT on building and testing virtual assistants in a number of state agencies.

Virtual assistants are the next generation of search engines that will provide specialized information in a specific field to users when they ask questions.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is the first state agency to use virtual assistants from August 1. Other agencies including the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuracy will apply this in August and September.

Large domestic technology groups including Viettel, VNPT, FPT IS, VNG, and Vbee will coordinate with the above agencies to implement virtual assistants.

The virtual assistant is a new generation search engine that returns a concise, direct answer to the user's question. Virtual assistants are used to solve the overall problem, with the data being the store of world knowledge.

Meanwhile, the virtual assistant in this pilot program in Vietnam will focus on specialized knowledge in a specific field. This is also the development strategy of Vietnamese virtual assistants: focusing on each area of specialized knowledge.

Like other computer systems using artificial intelligence, the more virtual assistants are used, the more intelligent they become, and understand the context and individual users.

The Ministry of Information and Communications assigned the Vietnam Institute of Software Industry and Digital Content to lead and coordinate activities related to deploying and testing virtual assistants for state agencies. This institute will connect stakeholders to build requirements for each specific field to have the right virtual assistant.