How Virtual Assistants Use AI in 2026: 10 Tasks That Now Take Half the Time
By DevDey Editorial Team · September 17, 2026 · 4 min read
Two years ago the fear was that AI would replace virtual assistants. What happened instead is that the best VAs absorbed it. They still run the inbox, the calendar and the follow ups, but the first draft of almost everything now comes from a model and the VA spends their time on judgement: what matters, what is wrong, what the client would want. On DevDey, 27 virtual assistants already list AI tools among their skills. Here are the ten tasks where that shows up most.
1. Inbox triage and first replies
A model reads the morning's email and sorts it into needs the client, VA can handle, and ignore, with a one line summary of each. The VA checks the sort, drafts replies for the middle group with the model's help, and sends only what they have read. Thirty minutes of triage becomes ten, and nothing goes out unread.
2. Meeting notes and action lists
Transcription tools turn a call into text, and a model turns the text into decisions, owners and dates. The VA's job moves from typing during the meeting to checking the list against what was actually agreed and chasing the owners afterwards, which was always the part that mattered.
3. Research summaries
Comparing five suppliers, three venues or ten competitor pricing pages used to take an afternoon of tabs. A VA now asks a model to structure the comparison, then verifies every figure at the source before it reaches the client. The verification step is not optional; models get numbers wrong with total confidence.
4. Document formatting and cleanup
Turning a rambling voice note into a clean brief, a spreadsheet dump into a readable table, or a long policy into a one page summary is now minutes rather than an hour. The VA edits for the client's voice and checks nothing important was dropped.
5. Calendar and scheduling logic
AI features inside scheduling tools now propose times across time zones and draft the invitation. The VA still decides which meetings deserve the client's morning and which can wait, because the tool does not know that Thursday's investor call matters more than the vendor check in.
Tip: Keep a prompts document per client: the instructions that produce replies in their voice, the format they like for summaries, the rules for what never goes into a model. It makes your work consistent and makes you far harder to replace.
6. Social media and newsletter drafts
A month of post ideas from a single brief, captions in the client's tone, a newsletter first draft from three bullet points. The VA schedules, edits and removes the lines that sound like a robot, which is a real skill in 2026.
7. Data entry and extraction
Receipts, forms and PDFs become spreadsheet rows through AI extraction, with the VA spot checking totals and catching the ones the model misread. Bookkeeping handoffs that took a full day now take a morning.
8. Travel and event planning
Itinerary options, packing lists, comparison tables and confirmation emails come from the model. Booking, budget decisions and the phone call when something goes wrong stay with the VA.
9. Customer support first responses
For clients with a help centre, a model drafts answers grounded in the actual policies and the VA reviews before sending. Response times drop without the client ever receiving a made up refund rule.
10. Personal admin for the client
Gift ideas, appointment reminders, form filling drafts, renewals tracking. Small tasks that used to fall through the cracks get a first pass from the model and a final check from the VA.
How to work this out with a client
Agree three things in the first week: which tools are allowed, which information never goes into a prompt, and which outputs the client wants to review before they go anywhere. Write them down in the shared workspace. Clients relax once they can see the rules, and the VA gets to use the tools without second guessing every task.
What does not change
Knowing the client. Noticing that an email is angrier than it looks. Deciding what to escalate. Keeping a follow up alive for a month. Protecting confidential information. These are the reasons clients hire a person, and AI makes the person better at them by taking the typing away.
The model writes the first draft. The VA decides whether it should be sent at all.
Show it on your profile
If you are a VA, list the tools you actually use and describe one workflow you have sped up on your DevDey profile. If you are hiring, browse virtual assistants and look for the ones who describe outcomes rather than tools, then use 12 Interview Questions That Predict a Great Virtual Assistant to find out how they think.
Frequently asked questions
Will AI replace virtual assistants?
Not the good ones. AI handles first drafts, summaries and reformatting well, but it does not know your clients, your priorities or when something feels off. VAs who use AI for the mechanical parts and keep the judgement for themselves are getting more done and charging more, not less.
Which AI tools should a virtual assistant learn first?
A general assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude for drafting and summarising, the AI features inside the tools the client already uses such as Gmail, Google Docs and Notion, and a transcription tool for calls. Three tools used well beat a dozen used badly.
Is it safe for a VA to put client information into AI tools?
Only with the client's agreement and only in tools with a clear data policy, usually a paid business plan that does not train on your inputs. Sensitive data such as passwords, card numbers and personal identifiers should never go into a prompt. Agree the rules in writing in the first week.
Should a VA charge more for AI skills?
Charge for outcomes, not for the tool. A VA who clears an inbox in half the time and turns a two hour meeting into a clean action list within minutes is delivering more value per hour, and rates on DevDey are set by the VA themselves. Show the result in your profile and let clients see the difference.