Microsoft is hitting the reset button on the company’s digital assistant. After years of development and investment, Cortana will be phased out in favor of an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to help users with their digital queries.
The move comes as Microsoft refocuses its efforts around AI. While successful, Cortana didn’t quite measure up to the competition that includes Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa. It hasn’t been able to keep up with the ever-evolving intelligent agent landscape.
In an announcement, Microsoft stated, “We’re no longer focusing on developing Cortana as a standalone consumer service. The goal of Cortana today is to become more of an AI-powered assistant available across Microsoft 365.”
Microsoft’s strategy for AI is to make it the backbone of many of their other products and services. While Cortana will be removed from their current lineup of services, AI will still play an important role in future products. Microsoft is reportedly investing heavily in natural language processing and conversational AI for language understanding and customer insights.
The company will integrate AI into their software, such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and the soon-to-be-released Office 365 and Azure products. It will be used in collaboration, research, query, and intelligence tasks. Instead of competing with the other digital assistants, Cortana will play a supporting role in these programs.
The effort to develop AI-assisted products and services has been in the works since 2015. Microsoft has acquired and invested in many AI-related businesses over the last few years, including Semantic Machines and SwiftKey. It’s clear Microsoft wants to stay competitive in the hyper-competitive AI landscape.
In the end, the move promises to be very advantageous to Microsoft. By phasing out Cortana, they are able to refocus their efforts on a more advanced AI model that will be able to provide customers with more tailored products and services. With this transition, Microsoft is setting itself up for a potential revolution in the AI industry.
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