Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant has lagged behind Alexa and Google Assistant over the past year, and now the company's experts will take a seemingly different approach to the competition.
ΜSpeaking to reporters at a media event last week, CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Microsoft no longer sees Cortana as a competitor to Alexa or Google Assistant.
"Cortana should be that (unique) feature for anyone who subscribes to Microsoft 365", Explains Nadella, referring to the new promotion of subscriptions for Microsoft consumers. "You should be able to use it in Google Assistant, you should be able to use it in Alexa, just like you use our apps on Android and iOS, so at least we're thinking about how we would like it to go (from now on)".
Microsoft has already partnered with Amazon to integrate Cortana with Alexa, and at the start of the partnership, Nadella, comparing digital assistants to Internet browsers, argued that they need to be interoperable and have access to similar information. It is now clear that Nadella sees Cortana as an application or service that will run across multiple platforms, rather than competing with Cortana on consumer-centric devices (see smart speakers). Microsoft needs to convince Google that integrating Cortana is a good idea.
Instead of competing with Alexa, Nadella admitted that it was a big challenge to create hardware and software that would be unique in the competition. Microsoft has chosen to make Cortana "a valuable skill that one who uses Alexa can callInstead of competing with smart speakers, which is why we've probably not seen many such speakers from Cortana.
Microsoft moved Cortana out of the AI research division as well as from the Experiences and Devices Working Group late last year, signaling Nadella's commitment to Cortana as an assistant on products and platforms. The move coincided with the departure of the head of Cortana from Microsoft and was indeed a difficult year for the "digital assistant". Microsoft made Skype calls available to Alexa, just as the Xbox One now normally supports Alexa.
Microsoft is in the middle of reinstalling Cortana in Windows 10, including separating it from the search feature and keeping it "silent" during installation.
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