Concierge vs. virtual assistant vs. AI: which one do you actually need?

'Personal assistant' is a category sold in three very different shapes. The marketing for each tries to look like the other two. Here's how they actually differ.

Traditional concierge services

Born from luxury hotels and high-net-worth households. You get a person who knows you, handles end-to-end execution, and exercises judgment. The trade-off is price — usually $250 to $1,500+ a month, often with deposits or task minimums. Worth it for people whose time-cost is genuinely high. Overkill for everyone else.

Virtual assistant marketplaces

You buy hours or credits and a rotating pool of contractors fulfills your tasks. Cheaper than concierge but with two structural costs: the assistant doesn't know you (you re-explain context every task), and complex work often runs out of credits halfway through. Good for clearly defined, bounded tasks. Frustrating for anything that needs follow-through.

AI assistants

Free or cheap, very fast at certain things — research summaries, drafting messages, recall. Not actually doing the work. An AI can draft a cancellation email; it can't sit on hold with the gym retention department. It can plan a trip; it can't call when the hotel double-bills your card. Useful as a tool, not a replacement.

How to pick

• If your work is bounded and you can fully spec it, a virtual assistant marketplace is fine.
• If you need someone who knows your history and exercises judgment without re-briefing every time, you want a dedicated human.
• If you only need research and drafts, an AI tool is plenty.
• If you need execution — calls, escalations, follow-through across days or weeks — you need a human accountable for the outcome, not a tool that hands the work back to you.