Virtual assistant vs AI staff for a UK business
A virtual assistant is usually a self-employed person who does admin for several clients, by the hour or on a monthly retainer. Our AI staff each take one defined, repeatable role in your systems, and we manage them. For a few varied hours a week, choose a VA. For steady, rule-following volume, look at AI staff.
Choose a virtual assistant when
You need a few hours a week of mixed work, such as your diary, travel, inbox and the odd document.
The work is personal to you and relies on someone who knows how you like things done.
The tasks change every week and nobody could write them down as steps.
Choose AI staff when
The same process runs every day and the hours would outgrow a retainer.
The work sits inside your business systems and you want every action logged against a role.
Work arrives outside the days your VA works for you and should not wait for them.
Side by side
The same five questions asked of each. The hourly rate is from polls The VA Handbook runs in its own Facebook group, not a national survey, so read it as that site's figure.
How you pay
By the hour
Billed by the hour or as a monthly retainer. The VA Handbook's polls of its Facebook group put the UK average at £30 an hour.
A build fee, then a monthly fee
A build fee, then a monthly fee for the role, not for hours. Our starting price is on the homepage.
Getting started
Brief them, then begin
A good VA can start within days, working from a conversation and a shared inbox or diary.
Scoped, then built
Slower than briefing a VA: the role is written down with you first, then built and tested over some weeks.
What it can do
Varied personal admin
Diary, travel, inbox, research, documents, and often a specialism such as bookkeeping or social media.
One defined role
One process in your systems, run the same way each day: chasing documents, say, or keying records.
When they are away
Ask about cover
A solo VA takes holiday and falls ill like anyone. Some have associates who step in, so ask before you rely on one.
It keeps working
The role runs on the days and hours agreed with you, and we keep it running.
When the work grows
More hours
Each extra hour is billed, and a VA with other clients has only so many to give.
The same role
More of the same work goes to the same role, within what was agreed. A new kind of work is a new role.
Weighing up a hire against an Agent Resource?
See what an AI worker costs to build and run for this exact role.
Where a virtual assistant wins
A good virtual assistant is a person who learns you. They know which client you will always take a call from, which meeting can move and how you sign off an email. They can be handed something new in a two-line message and work it out, and they can pick up the phone on your behalf. AI staff do one role that was agreed in advance, which does not suit work that is different every week.
A VA is also the better buy at low volume. If the admin comes to a few hours a week, paying by the hour for exactly those hours is hard to beat, so keep the VA. If it needs a person in the office daily, compare hiring an administrator.
Where AI staff win
A VA's time is sold by the hour, so the bill grows with the work. When the admin is one process repeated all day, such as chasing documents or keying records, the hours add up and work waits while your VA is with another client. An Agent Resource is priced as a role, not by the hour, and takes the work as it arrives.
Set up as the AI equivalent of a member of staff, it works inside your business systems with only the access its role needs, and a named person approves anything that matters. The two sit well together: the VA for the personal and varied work, the agent for the process. More in what an AI employee is.
Questions owners ask
What can a VA do that AI cannot?
The personal part, which no fixed role covers: running your diary, booking travel, knowing your preferences and working out something new from a two-line message. That work changes daily. AI staff take a repeatable process off the list, which often leaves the VA's hours for the work that needs a person.
What does a virtual assistant cost in the UK?
The VA Handbook, a trade site for VAs, puts the UK average at £30 an hour, from polls of its own Facebook group, and says the rate is rising. Most work by the hour or on a monthly retainer, so the cost follows the amount of work.
Is a virtual assistant an employee?
Usually not. Most are self-employed and work for several clients. GOV.UK describes a self-employed person as running their own business, paying their own tax and National Insurance, and getting no holiday or sick pay. HMRC publishes a tool for checking employment status.
We only need a few hours a week. Are AI staff worth it?
Probably not. For a few hours of mixed work a VA is the better buy, and we would say so. AI staff start to make sense when one process repeats every day and the hours it takes are still growing.
An Agent Resource compared with
Hiring an administrator
Hire for the front desk, the conversations and the judgement calls, and leave the keying and chasing to an Agent Resource.
An Agent Resource compared with
Outsourcing or offshoring
When a whole function needs people, outsource it; an Agent Resource takes one repeatable process that follows rules.
An Agent Resource compared with
A temp
Book a temp for next week's gap or a job that needs a person. Hand never-ending admin to an Agent Resource.