The future of the digital assistant Cortana
Microsoft introduced the personal assistant Cortana in 2015 when it released the Windows 10 operating system (and even earlier on Windows Phone). Just like Microsoft tried to get a fast start with Windows 10 by offering it for free, it attempted to push Cortana by integrating it deeply into the Windows 10 operating system.
Microsoft merged search with Cortana so that any user who used search was exposed to the personal assistant at the same time at first.
Windows 10 users could use Cortana for a variety of tasks, e.g. for answering questions, set reminders, or to control music.
The tight integration was not enough to establish Cortana as a competitor to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the decision to reposition Cortana. Instead of playing catch-up with the two dominating assistants, Microsoft will now attempt to make Cortana a skill that is compatible with these devices.
The company integrated Amazon Alexa already with Cortana, and it plans to do the same for Google Assistant. Integration would improve Microsoft's reach significantly and users could integrate Microsoft products, e.g. Outlook functionality, with personal assistants that they have at home or work already.
The Verge reports that Microsoft would like for Cortana to become available as a skill of other digital assistants, like Microsoft "apps on Android or iOS".
Current Windows 10 Insider Builds confirm a change in strategy. Microsoft plans to split Search and Cortana in Windows 10 version 1903, the upcoming version of Windows 10.
Instead of launching the new version of Windows 10 with Cortana and search combined, Windows 10 version 1903 will have them split. Users who want to run searches can do so without having to deal with Cortana, and those who want to run Cortana can activate the personal assistant without having to deal with search.
Closing Words
Microsoft wants Cortana to become an essential skill, not only on Windows devices but also on mobile devices and smart speakers. Cortana could become an interface to control Microsoft services using non-Microsoft digital assistants.
Only time will tell if that strategy will be more successful, or if Microsoft will retire Cortana in the coming years.
I don't use personal assistants and have no intention of using them at this stage.
Now You: Do you use digital assistants?
Are these articles AI generated?
Now the duplicates are more obvious.
This is below AI generated crap. It is copy of Microsoft Help website article without any relevant supporting text. Anyway you can find this information on many pages.
Yes, but why post the exact same article under a different title twice on the same day (19 march 2023), by two different writers?
1.) Excel Keyboard Shortcuts by Trevor Monteiro.
2.) 70+ Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows by Priyanka Monteiro
Why oh why?
Yeah. Tell me more about “Priyanka Monteiro”. I’m dying to know. Indian-Portuguese bot ?
Probably they will announce that the taskbar will be placed at top, right or left, at your will.
Special event by they is a special crap for us.
If it’s Microsoft, don’t buy it.
Better brands at better prices elsewhere.
All new articles have zero count comments. :S
WTF? So, If I add one photo to 5 albums, will it count 5x on my storage?
It does not make any sense… on google photos, we can add photo to multiple albums, and it does not generate any additional space usage
I have O365 until end of this year, mostly for onedrive and probably will jump into google one
Photo storage must be kept free because customers chose gadgets just for photos and photos only.
What a nonsense. Does it mean that albums are de facto folders with copies of our pictures?
Sounds exactly like the poor coding Microsoft is known for in non-critical areas i.e. non Windows Core/Office Core.
I imagine a manager gave an employee the task to create the album feature with hardly any time so they just copied the folder feature with some cosmetic changes.
And now that they discovered what poor management results in do they go back and do the album feature properly?
Nope, just charge the customer twice.
Sounds like a go-getter that needs to be promoted for increasing sales and managing underlings “efficiently”, said the next layer of middle management.
When will those comments get fixed? Was every editor here replaced by AI and no one even works on this site?
Instead of a software company, Microsoft is now a fraud company.
For me this is proof that Microsoft has a back-door option into all accounts in their cloud.
quote “…… as the MSA key allowed the hacker group access to virtually any cloud account at Microsoft…..”
unquote
so this MSA key which is available to MS officers can give access to all accounts in MS cloud.This is the backdoor that MS has into the cloud accounts. Lucky I never got any relevant files of mine in their (MS) cloud.
>”Now You: what is your theory?”
That someone handed an employee a briefcase full of cash and the employee allowed them access to all their accounts and systems.
Anything that requires 5-10 different coincidences to happen is highly unlikely. Occam’s razor.
Good reason to never login to your precious machine with a Microsoft a/c a.k.a. as the cloud.
The GAFAM are always very careless about our software automatically sending to them telemetry and crash dumps in our backs. It’s a reminder not to send them anything when it’s possible to opt out, and not to opt in, considering what they may contain. And there is irony in this carelessness biting them back, even if in that case they show that they are much more cautious when it’s their own data that is at stake.