Microsoft is looking to breathe new life into Cortana by enabling its digital assistant to handle more complex queries, starting with people-centric, productivity-based ones. Here’s how this will work.
We’ve heard for at least a year that Microsoft was working to reposition Cortana from a standalone assistant like Alexa and Google Assistant, to more of an assistance aide. Details on what that meant were scarce until this week when Microsoft started sharing more about its new Cortana strategy. We had a few clues before Microsoft’s Build 2019 developers conference this week. Microsoft execs had told me that they believed they could differentiate Cortana from other personal digital assistants by enabling it to handle more complex, multi-part queries. These kinds of „turn by turn“ interactions are happening thanks to work Microsoft has done in its research labs, plus technology Microsoft acquired last year when it bought Semantic Machines.
But there’s lots more happening under the covers that Microsoft officials think will make Cortana a smarter and more useful productivity assistant. Andrew Schuman, Microsoft’s Vice President of Product for Cortana and Dan Klein, one of the founders of Semantic Machines (who is now a Microsoft Technical Fellow).
