PHONETIC COMPARISON FOR VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

In an approach for optimizing an intelligent virtual assistant by using phonetic comparison to find a response stored in a local database, a processor receives an audio input on a computing device. A processor transcribes the audio input to text. A processor compares the text to a set of user queries and commands in a local database of the computing device using a phonetic algorithm. A processor determines whether a user query or command of the set of user queries and commands meets a pre-defined threshold of similarity. Responsive to determining that the user query or command meets the pre-defined threshold of similarity, a processor identifies an intention of a set of intentions stored in the local database corresponding to the user query or command. A processor identifies a response of a set of responses in the local database corresponding to the intention. A processor outputs the response audibly.