Modern ICT solutions are capable of assisting dependent people at home and therefore able to replace the physical presence of a caregiver. However, the success of such solutions depends on an intuitive access to services. By proposing a speech-operated system and devices that facilitate this voice-based interaction, vAssist aims at a solution that corresponds to a virtual butler. The goal is to build a system with whom elderly users can interact naturally and even build up a social connection. Integrating modern language technology with a human-operated call center should allow for coping with current imperfect solutions and consequently offer the necessary reliability and user experience. vAssist is planned to be launched for German, Italian and French