(FORTUNE Magazine) – Though shopping online has been getting ever easier, it can be impossible to find answers to your questions. One software company thinks it has a solution. Meet Jill and Emily, "advisors" you can virtually rely on. No, they can't talk (at least not yet). But if you're shopping for a notebook computer on CompUSA.com's Website or seeking floral advice at Proflowers.com, they can offer instant text answers to many questions.

Jill and Emily are software created by Kana Communications, which uses focus groups, psychographics, demographics, and Bayesian mathematical computer models to create questions and answers with a human touch. (The sites even display photos of models meant to embody Jill and Emily.) Kana says the two know who likes which products and claim they can adjust to customers' changing whims. Customers relate to Emily as a person, says Jonathan Sills, a vice president at Proflowers.com, and are more likely to make a purchase if she has advised them.

We decided to see whether Emily could help me pick some flowers. I asked her what exotic, expensive bouquet I should buy my wife for our anniversary. (Okay, I'm not married and I'm not a man, but who says the Internet is about telling the truth?) After I made selections in the WHO, WHAT, WHY, and HOW MUCH categories, Emily recommended red roses (a classic), a heart-shaped wreath with gardenias (a bit flashy for my taste), and then, um, more roses. She also got sentimental, informing me that those choices "will definitely reveal the intensity of your feelings for your wife." Truth is, I hate roses. When I filled in another option, noting one flower "I'd like to avoid," Emily adjusted. This time she counseled white orchids (plausible), birds of paradise (which I was able to visualize because of a helpful photo), and a bamboo plant (perhaps not as romantic as I'd intended). When I entered a new order--flowers to apologize to my mom--Emily even remembered I don't like roses. (She has only short-term memory; she won't remember that next time I visit.)

To her credit, Emily didn't push pricey bouquets and didn't get irritated when I changed my preferences. Best of all--unlike other salespeople--she was easy to get rid of when she became annoying.

--Noshua Watson