What does a virtual assistant provide?
A virtual assistant is a remote person who takes tasks you delegate: scheduling, inbox triage, research, travel, data entry, and whatever else comes up. They bring human judgement, can hold a conversation with a client or a vendor, and adapt to instructions on the fly. A good one becomes an extension of the person they support.
Their constraints are those of any person: hours, time zone, the need for a brief per task, and the fact that their knowledge of your business is in their head.
What does a Digital FTE provide?
A Digital FTE provides a worker for a defined function, such as search visibility, reconciliation, screening, or support, working inside your systems daily on its own cadence. It works from a written remit rather than a brief per task, holds a Brand Brain memory of your business with provenance, proposes every action with evidence, and reports against targets.
It is not a general assistant. It does not take whatever task comes up; it owns a function and does that function well. And it does not hold a conversation on your behalf with a person, which a virtual assistant does.
How does the work differ?
The work differs in shape. A virtual assistant's work is varied and delegated: a stream of different tasks, each briefed. A Digital FTE's work is a function, defined once in the remit and executed daily, with the manager's involvement shifting from briefing to approving.
That changes the manager's time. Briefing an assistant well is a skill that takes ongoing effort; approving an FTE's proposals is fast once the remit is right, and the approval record is how the remit gets right.
- Shape: varied delegated tasks versus a defined function
- Instruction: brief per task versus remit and memory
- Cadence: working hours versus daily, on its own schedule
- Conversation with people: yes versus escalated to a person
- Record: messages and files versus audit trail with evidence
How does governance differ?
Governance differs in what you can see and revoke. A virtual assistant works with access you grant, often a shared login, and their actions are visible in the systems they touched, if you look. A Digital FTE works with scoped, encrypted, revocable credentials, every action passes an approval gate until earned otherwise, and the audit trail records who approved what.
For a function that touches money, customers, or candidates, that difference matters. The credential guide on ftes.ai explains why a shared login is the wrong way to give anyone, human or AI, access.
When do you want which?
You want a virtual assistant when the work is varied personal support that needs a person: managing an executive's calendar and inbox, handling calls, coordinating with people who expect a human. You want a Digital FTE when there is a defined function that needs an owner and runs on evidence: reconciling, screening, resolving, publishing.
The two can coexist. An executive with a virtual assistant for personal support and Digital FTEs owning the functions their team used to do by hand has both a person to talk to and functions that run, which is the combination most small teams actually need.
What does the handover from assistant tasks to a Digital FTE look like?
The handover starts with the assistant's own task log. Sort a month of it into tasks that belong to a defined function with a checkable right answer, such as CRM updates, invoice matching, or first-line replies, and tasks that are varied personal support, such as calendar management, calls, and coordination with people. The first group is a Digital FTE's remit in draft; the second stays with the assistant, whose role becomes clearer for the sorting.
Give the FTE the first group one function at a time, with the assistant as an approver for routine categories, because they know the standard better than anyone and approving proposals with evidence is faster than doing the tasks. Their corrections at the weekly review tune the remit. Over a quarter the assistant's hours shift toward the work that needs a person, the functions run on their own cadence with an audit trail, and the executive has both a person to talk to and functions that do not depend on that person's day. The change management guide on ftes.ai covers how to say this to the assistant early.