I tried booking Star Wars tickets with digital assistant apps. The Force wasn’t with me.

I’m no Star Wars fanatic. But, caught up in the hype, I promptly decided to book two movie tickets to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

I figured it’d be challenging as it was premiere week and cinemas would be fully booked. So I thought: what better way to snatch those seats by getting someone else to do it for me?

Enter Djenee and Belazee. If you’ve not heard of them, they’re online services in Singapore that promise to do everything for you, at a fee. They do mean everything – legal of course – whether it’s buying a plane ticket, ordering groceries, or sending flowers.

They’re called “digital assistants” or “personal concierges,” and the idea was popularized by a Silicon Valley startup called Magic. Facebook is now emulating the concept with “M,” and we’re seeing similar ideas emerge across Asia.

Making it work requires Titanic-sized ingenuity. The startups would need a myriad of processes to handle the diverse requests flooding in.

They’d need artificial intelligence, natural language processing, well-trained human operators, and generously-oiled integration with logistics to please customers. And to appeal to the broadest base, fees must be as low as possible.

So I decided to test if Djenee (pronounced “genie”) and Belazee are up to the task. I pitted them against each other by sending simultaneous messages to get me the coveted Star Wars tickets. It wasn’t that difficult an ask: the requests were made three days in advance.

Now, let’s see how they did (Belazee’s in green, and Djenee’s in purple):

It’s nice for both to start off with a prompt reply. You can see their priorities diverge. Djenee replied within a minute. Belazee took longer but sounded less robotic. I prefer prompt, but it wouldn’t hurt to be friendly either.

I didn’t hear back from Belazee for a while. It was all Djenee for 15 minutes:

Attack of the clones