Alexa X Cortana Demo Video: Microsoft And Amazon, BFF
Amazon and Microsoft just combined forces officially, tag-teaming their personal assistants Alexa and Cortana through the future. These two voice-activated smart assistant overlord software and cloud intelligence systems will work together on devices of all sorts. In short, it would seem that Alexa is going to handle "personal" stuff while Cortana's going to handle all the "business."
The first place this system team-up was announced to be integrated was with Microsoft 365. There, Microsoft promised multi-sense, multi-device experiences. To make this a reality, Microsoft spoke of the features of a future Cortana:
Cortana Features/Abilities:
• Built into Windows
• Built into Outlook (email)
• Built into Teams
• Schedule Meetings
• Transcribe Meetings
• Keep Commitments
• Roll with Alexa real smooth-like
"We want to make it possible for our customers to be able to get the most out of their personal digital assistants and not be bound to a single walled garden and for developers to work with the maximum number of users," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
In the first demonstration of this pairing, Alexa seemed able to run through the same interface as Cortana fairly seamlessly, and vice-versa. One calls the other. During BUILD 2018, two perfect examples of functionality that'd otherwise be impossible (for whatever reason).
• Check schedule with Cortana on an Amazon Echo device.
• Hail an Uber with Alexa on a Windows 10 PC.
The first at-home demo of Cortana / Alexa integration is live now for SOME users. Ask Alexa the following question: "Alexa, what do you think about Cortana?" The answer should be (or will be soon): "I like Cortana. We both have experience with light rings, although hers is more of a Halo."
Users – or potential users – were invited to check out the Microsoft sign-up site to learn more about Cortana and Alexa, the future partnership. This announcement, like the others, was made during Microsoft Build on the 7th of May, 2018. Microsoft Build was announced to last until the 9th, and it would have been a darned shame if we didn't learn more about this tag-team before then.