Virtual assistants a real, big help

A personal assistant should no longer be a privilege for only the rich or the powerful - that is the philosophy behind Wang Guanchun's creation, an artificial intelligence-based Chinese-language app called Zhuli Laiye (Laiye in short, meaning 'Here comes the assistant'.)

With a few taps on the phone, users can text or speak out instructions to get everything from coffees to flowers delivered on demand and for free.

A startup from Microsoft's incubator program Accelerator, Laiye received series-A funding last year with the tech giant itself leading the investors. Among all of the tech giant's graduate programs, Laiye is the first Chinese startup to receive Microsoft's investment.