A traditional AI assistant is a software system designed to perform a set of predefined or narrowly scoped tasks for a user, often using a mix of rule-based logic, if/then decision trees, and sometimes domain-specific AI models.

• It typically operates within fixed boundaries — the tasks it can perform are preprogrammed.
• It responds to explicit triggers (user voice command, text query, or button press).
• Its intelligence is domain-limited (e.g., playing music, setting reminders, looking up weather, scheduling meetings).
• Examples: Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant (pre-generative AI era), customer service chatbots with scripted flows.