The three options
A full-time executive assistant is an employee who learns how you work and owns your calendar, inbox, travel, and a good share of your relationships. A virtual assistant is a remote contractor or agency staffer, usually part-time, who takes tasks you hand over. An AI assistant is software that reads your email and calendar and does the routine work itself, continuously.
The differences that matter are coverage, judgment, and ramp-up. A person brings judgment and can pick up a phone. Software brings coverage: it is there at 6am and at 11pm, it never forgets a follow-up, and it starts the day you connect it.
What each typically costs
Costs vary by city and by seniority, so treat these as ranges to plan with and get current quotes before you decide. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put median pay for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at about $70,000 a year in its May 2023 survey, and a senior EA in a large city earns well over $100,000, before benefits, payroll taxes, and the time it takes to hire.
Virtual assistants are usually billed hourly or in monthly blocks. Managed offshore agencies commonly quote somewhere around seven to fifteen dollars an hour, and US-based services commonly quote forty dollars an hour or more. Twenty hours a month is a typical starting block, which puts a part-time VA somewhere between a few hundred and a couple of thousand dollars a month.
AI assistants are priced like software. Aura's published plans are $20, $99, $199, and $299 a month, sized by how many inboxes you connect and how proactive you want it to be. There is no hiring process and no minimum term. The morning brief is on every plan. Unprompted follow-up and meeting-prep nudges start on Plus at $99 a month, and phone calls on Pro at $199. On Basic, Aura covers follow-ups in the brief and whenever you ask.
What a person does better
Anything that needs a voice, a relationship, or discretion. Calling a vendor to sort out a billing dispute. Knowing that one client needs a softer tone this week. Booking complicated travel with real preferences and real trade-offs. Running an event. Noticing you are overcommitted and saying so. If most of what you want to hand off looks like this, hire a person.
What an AI assistant does better
Anything that is continuous, repetitive, and lives in email and calendar. Reading everything that comes in and surfacing the five messages that matter. Keeping the list of open follow-ups so none is dropped. Drafting the routine reply in your voice within a minute of the email arriving. Preparing the context for every meeting, every day. Sending a brief at 6:45 each morning, including the day after a holiday.
It is also private in a particular way: there is no new person reading your mail. For attorneys and advisors that is sometimes the deciding factor. Aura does not use your content to train general-purpose models, asks before it sends anything, and logs what you approve.
How people combine them
The common pattern among small firms is AI first, person second. The AI assistant takes the inbox, the calendar, the follow-ups, and the brief. After a month it is obvious what is left over, and it is usually phone calls, errands, and relationship work. That is a much smaller and better-defined job to hand to a part-time VA, and they are more effective because the assistant has already organized the desk.
Executives who already have a human EA use an AI assistant differently: the EA texts it too. It becomes the EA's tool for triage and prep, and the EA spends their time on the work only a person can do.
How to decide
Write down everything you would hand off this week. Mark each item E if it lives in email or calendar and P if it needs a person's voice or judgment. If the list is mostly E, start with an AI assistant and revisit in a month. If it is mostly P, hire a VA or an EA and give them the AI as a tool. If you cannot tell, the AI is the cheaper experiment by a wide margin: $20 to $299 a month against hundreds to thousands.
AI assistant, virtual assistant, and full-time executive assistant compared
| AI assistant (Aura) | Virtual assistant | Full-time executive assistant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | $20 to $299 a month, published | Hourly or monthly blocks, commonly hundreds to low thousands a month | A salary plus benefits |
| Time to start | Same day | Days to weeks | Weeks to months |
| Hours covered | All of them | The hours you buy | Working hours |
| Inbox triage and drafting | Yes, continuously | Yes, in their hours | Yes |
| Tracks every follow-up | Yes, with unprompted nudges from Plus up | Depends on the person | Depends on the person |
| Calls to other people, and errands | No | Yes | Yes |
| Judgment and relationships | No | Some | Yes |
| Another person reads your mail | No | Yes | Yes |
Human assistant costs are typical ranges for planning, not quotes. Aura prices are from the pricing page, September 2026.
Questions, answered
Is an AI assistant cheaper than a virtual assistant?+
Yes, usually by a wide margin. Aura's plans run from $20 to $299 a month. A part-time virtual assistant commonly costs from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars a month depending on hours and location.
Can an AI assistant replace an executive assistant?+
It replaces the email, calendar, follow-up, and briefing work. It does not replace phone calls, errands, relationship work, or judgment. Many executives use both, with the human EA directing the AI.
How much does a full-time executive assistant cost?+
In the United States it is a salaried role that commonly runs from around sixty thousand dollars a year to over a hundred thousand for a senior EA, before benefits and hiring costs. Check current figures for your city.
What should I hand to an AI assistant first?+
Inbox triage, scheduling, follow-ups, and a morning brief. Those are continuous and repetitive, live in email and calendar, and are where software is strongest.
What should stay with a person?+
Anything that needs a voice or discretion: calling vendors, complex travel, events, sensitive client communication, and telling you when you are overcommitted.
Can my virtual assistant use Aura too?+
Yes. A common setup is for the VA or EA to work from the same brief and drafts, so their hours go to the work only a person can do.