Assistant on demand

Hey Jude is a recently launched app that promises to take some of the annoying small tasks that drain time and energy off your hands, by giving you access to a team of virtual assistants — for a small fee of course. Developed and based in

SA, the team has already expanded to offer the service in the UK, UAE, New Zealand and Australia.

Typical tasks that “the Judes” can take on for you include making bookings at restaurants, finding and booking a tradesman, sourcing a product, ordering food and groceries, and even certain travel bookings. If you load up a credit card, they can even pay your bills.

Either type or talk to the app to add your task. These are then added to a task list, and responses from the Judes pop up on a thread for each task. When completed, you’re given a chance to rate the service.

During my short review period, I asked the Judes to research how long a certain drive at a specific time of day would take, and to book me a table at a restaurant. Both were quickly handled, and the service was friendly, and surprisingly thoughtful.

For example, the book- ing was a separate task, and the Jude who responded included a map to the restaurant in question

after confirming the booking. There are also useful integrations with other services, like Uber and Airbnb. I could have booked my Uber ride to the restaurant from within the thread.

The app is available for IOS and Android smartphones, and the personal membership is R199 per month “inclusive of unlimited personal requests”. Of course, “unlimited” comes with a (very reasonable) fair use policy clause, so check out the T&CS on the site. Whether this represents real value for you or not, depends on which tasks you want to farm out. Either way, the idea and implementation are great.