Locally-developed personal assistant app Hey Jude, which uses a blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and humans to complete users' to-do lists, now has a version for business professionals.
The Pro version will be able to organise meetings for the user, send invoices, and complete other tasks a real-life personal assistant would undertake.
The company launched its app in SA, New Zealand, Australia, the UK and UAE in May and has since had over 3 000 downloads.
Hey Jude noticed people were starting to use the service for business. For example, the service had a user book a wedding venue every other week, which suggested the user was a wedding planner.
It then decided to create a dedicated Pro version, which would enable it to negotiate better deals from suppliers for users.
The firm says it is able to put pressure on suppliers to offer better prices as there are larger numbers of customers. It currently has over 150 000 suppliers in its supply chain.
The Pro version has two options: either R600 per month for three hours of business requests, or R1 500 for 10 hours of business requests. Both include unlimited personal requests per month.
Personal users pay a monthly subscription fee of R199 to access the service 24/7.
The app works by sorting a request with machine learning into one of 50 main categories and then to one of 200 sub-categories, then it is passed to the relevant 'Jude'.
'Judes' can be asked to complete admin tasks such as sourcing of products for the home, restaurant bookings, appointments, finding unique items, courier, travel bookings, accommodation, airport shuttles, car licence renewals, locksmiths, electricians, plumbers, and dealing with local councils on their behalf.
The company says the only proviso is that requests have to be legal and morally acceptable to most people.
Credit card details are securely stored within the app and used by the personal assistant to complete payments on the user's behalf. Hey Jude used to charge a 5% fee on every transaction, but has since dropped this.
Leighton Curd, CEO of PLP Group, which owns Hey Jude, says SA swimmer Ryk Neethling used the service to pick up his passport from his house after he had forgotten it beside his bed before a holiday. He sent a request to the service, and someone from the company went to his house, was able to 'break-in' following Neethling's instruction, and get the documents to him just in time.
Curd says some of the craziest requests include managing a child's birth (liaising with doctors and alerting all the relevant family members) while the father was away on business, and arranging an ambulance for a customer's brother who was having a heart attack and local medical services did not arrive in time.
The company says it previously offered a similar service via telephone. The difference between the services is that the requests received via the app are a lot more complicated, as people are more comfortable typing than they are talking.
Curd says new users generally start with basic requests like booking a plumber, or a hair appointment, and quickly move onto more complex asks, like arranging travel or buying a car.
Hey Jude says its system, over time, learns which areas are performing best, and what areas the company is missing knowledge on - such as kite surfing in Durban. The company will then seek out new employees with those skill sets and direct future requests of that specific nature to them.
A desktop version is being developed, and should be available by the end of the year.
Greener choices
Hey Jude has partnered with the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) in SA to offer its users more sustainable options when completing tasks.
"We are still going to do all the same things but on top of that we are going to provide you with a greener choice," says Curd.
"We all want to figure out how to reduce our environmental footprint. There are dozens of ways to reduce your energy consumption, waste, and to 'green up' your lifestyle. On this front, we are honoured to partner with an organisation such as WWF which will help our app users to do just that."
Users opt in to 'greener choices' when signing up. When there is a more sustainable option, it will be sent to the user and be marked with a panda.
Hey Jude will automatically contribute a percentage of each monthly subscription to WWF.
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