The rumours claim that Microsoft may be in the process of axing the digital assistant Cortana, but that doesn’t appear to be the whole picture. Andrew Shuman, corporate vice president of Cortana engineering says that the firm is just playing a “long game with Cortana”.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, Microsoft’s Andrew Shuman, corporate vice president of Cortana explains that the company is playing a long game with Cortana as the market of voice assistants is in the very early stages.
“It’s a long journey to making a real assistant that you can communicate with over a longer period of time to really be approachable and interesting and better than the alternative,” Andrew Shuman, corporate vice president of Cortana engineering said in an interview with GeekWire.
“That is our journey, to make some make some great experiences that shine through, and recognize that long haul. You start to see the promise there of really starting to be able to count on Cortana. And it’s just the infancy of that because it’s such a human need, and there are so many more ways we can make it easier and simpler,” he added.
Microsoft recently announced a partnership with Qualcomm, TONLY and Synaptics to install Cortana digital assistant on their voice-powered assistant, but none of the new initiatives is consumer-focused. While we are reaching a point where consumers will have digital assistant devices in their home and offices, Microsoft still believes that the voice assistant market is in the very early stages.
“We’ve also partnered with industry leaders including Allwinner, Synaptics, TONLY and Qualcomm, to develop reference designs for new Cortana experiences. Sign up today to start building with the Devices SDK and bring Cortana to your very own designs or leverage one of the many reference designs from our Cortana Device Program partners,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
