Microsoft's upcoming digital personal assistant gives us a glimpse into the future of how our smartphones and tablet computers will work for us: anticipating — not just responding to — our requests and our needs.
Named for an artificial intelligence life-form featured in its gaming series Halo, Cortana will launch with the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update. In its current state, Cortana is a combination of Apple's voice assistant Siri and Google Now, the Android-based version that is powered by the search giant's body of knowledge.
Cortana was announced last week. Demonstrations and reports indicate Cortana may at times act more like a person than a computer.
In designing its first digital personal assistant, Microsoft actually interviewed personal assistants. So ask her for the nearest good restaurant, and rather than giving you a list more than a dozen items deep, Cortana does research and comes back with one solid choice.
Cortana carries a digital "notebook" with some personal information and preferences, much like a real-world assistant would. If this all feels too invasive, a user can edit the notebook to limit the information Cortana receives. So she won't read your email unless you say it's OK. But what's the point of having a personal assistant if you can't trust that person — er, program — with your personal information. The ability to limit Cortana's access is likely meant to prevent the type of criticism prompted by Google Now's automatic email reading.
Much like hired help, Cortana can respond to phone and text messages, according to Microsoft.
As it learns more about you over time, Cortana becomes contextually aware, knowing who and what is important to you. For instance, you can tell Cortana, "Next time I'm talking to my wife, remind me to tell her how beautiful she is." Microsoft says Cortana will discreetly remind you just as Don Draper's assistant might do. Same thing if you ask Cortana to prompt you to get a present for your wife next time you're at the mall.
Cortana might be Microsoft's best shot at making a real dent in the smartphone market. It's the personality of Siri combined with the practicality and feature-richness of Google Now. And it has an advantage over both in that it will be a presence across all your devices — from your PC to your Xbox and Windows tablet.
Google and Microsoft are the only companies that could do something like this, and Google hasn't. Given that Microsoft is now giving Windows Phones away for free to manufacturers who want to run its software, this slow-to-grow platform couldn't do much more than it's doing to help its chances.
Over the years, lots of people have questioned Microsoft for continuing to throw money at Bing. But Bing is what allows Cortana to work. So maybe the people in Redmond really do know what they're talking about. After all, it seems they've created a personal assistant who's absorbed the entire Internet and knows what to do with it.
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