Did you know that a virtual assistant by the name of Sgt. Star was introduced back in 2006 as a revolutionary new way for the U.S. Army to communicate with potential recruits and their families? It’s true – Sgt. Star would regularly share personal information with users, and has been so highly favored that it has been asked and answered over 11 million questions since its humble beginnings – ranging from general inquiries to personal problems.

But the times they are a-changin’ as individuals increasingly turn to their mobile devices for everything from shopping to social media to watching movies.

In light of this, it was revealed yesterday that Sgt. Star’s creator, Next IT, a provider of intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) technology, has now translated this program into a robust new mobile platform, which boasts the first ever kind of conversational technology applied to a virtual assistant, or in this case, a recruiter for promising candidates to defend our country.

By using the power of both natural language processing and contextual understanding for such things as voice and text, this unique new mobile platform is expected to elevate the user experience by integrating a human-like element to interactions unmatched by other popular voice assistants such as Siri and Nuance (News - Alert).

For those who are contemplating whether or not enlisting is the right decision for them, Sgt. Star is ready and willing to take them through all of the processes and questions they may have whenever and wherever they need it, as Sgt. Star is now available on Google (News - Alert) Play for Android. Examples of previous questions posed include “Will I have to serve in combat?” and “Are the showers co-ed?”

Long gone are the days where you need to nervously approach a traditional recruitment booth at your local county fair – with Sgt. Star, everything potential recruiters and their families want or need to know is now conveniently located in the palm of their hands. This can prove quite advantageous when considering the oftentimes intimate nature of discerning such a life altering decision.

“We are bringing the elegance of simplicity to consumer–brand interactions with our new intelligent mobile platform,” said Denise Caron, Next IT CTO. “Sgt. Star is an excellent demonstration of how Next IT delivers a truly conversational platform – and that’s the future of customer service.” 

Caron added that another benefit of this new mobile platform is that it is able to work with any speech recognition commodity, “since the power is in the conversational understanding.”

In the future, Next IT plans to expand its successful deployments to include a range of releases in various industries, one being healthcare.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.