Imagine you are at home and ask your virtual assistant to recommend a recipe. Not only does it understand your voice, but it also uses the camera to recognize what ingredients you have in the refrigerator and, incidentally, detects that you are a little tired from the tone of your voice. It combines all of this and suggests something nutritious and quick, even showing a video with the preparation steps.

This is the world of multimodal agents, those that are no longer limited to processing text, but integrate different forms of perception: words, images, sounds, gestures and even emotions. They are agents that, in a way, begin to have a “body”, even if it is digital or robotic, because they connect different senses to better understand the environment.

The impact of multimodal agents on interaction

Multimodality completely changes the interaction experience. A text chatbot can answer a question, but a multimodal agent can look at an X-ray, listen to the doctor’s explanation, and generate a coherent report that combines both sources. Or it can interpret a photograph of a damaged product, process the customer’s complaint, and automatically file a claim.

These agents function as a bridge between language and perception. The challenge is no longer just to understand what we say, but to interpret how we say it and what else our other communication channels contribute. This opens up possibilities in a wide variety of fields:

• In education, a virtual tutor that understands the student’s voice, analyzes their gestures of frustration, and adapts the pace of the class.
• At home, an assistant that integrates voice commands, image recognition, and physical device control to provide a more natural response.
• In healthcare, a system that combines reported symptoms, medical test images, and sensor data to support diagnoses.

To speak of multimodal agents is also to speak of the link between body and mind. The “body” is in the sensors and devices that capture information from the world; the “mind” is in the AI models that interpret that data and decide what to do. Separately, they function in a limited way; together, they give rise to agents that are much more powerful and closer to the way we humans perceive reality.

Strategic integration and the future of collaboration

At SMS Sudamérica we see this evolution as a natural step in the digital transformation. It is not about creating isolated assistants, but about integrating agents that can read documents, interpret images, process audio and connect all of this with decision making. From records management to industrial process control, multimodal agents enable greater accuracy, efficiency and, above all, a much richer user experience.

The challenge, of course, lies in coordination. The more senses an agent has, the greater the complexity of integrating them coherently. But therein also lies the opportunity: to design systems that not only react to separate stimuli, but also combine them to build a deeper understanding of the environment.

Ultimately, multimodal agents are a step towards machines that can perceive and act more fully, almost like a human collaborator. They do not replace, but amplify what we can achieve together, by combining the speed of the machine with the richness of our communication.

Note by: María Dovale Pérez