This will be the year of Amazon Eco and its personal assistant Alexa, if the Consumer Electronics Show last week is any indication. However, Microsoft, another Washington-based titan technology, has its own master plan to conquer the market for upcoming helpers and voice applications.
Much of this strategy is the Personal Assistant Cortana of Windows 10. In December Microsoft announced a new set of tools for developers to start building Cortana in their own applications and materials, with a Harman Kardon announced Cortana's powerful propulsion speaker to take over The dominant Amazon Eco.
And at CES 2017, Microsoft announced a new set of services for automakers, with Nissan as the first all-in customers - meaning that its upcoming Nissan may have Cortana on the dashboard.
But as Microsoft CEO Ryan Gavin told me at CES 2017, the entire Microsoft ecosystem has a role to play in the "battle for the future" Cortana - Microsoft Office, Microsoft Azure cloud at $ 26.2 billion , To, yes, the dashboard of the car.
The vision behind Cortana is simple, Gavin said: "Everyone deserves to have their own personal assistant."
And that means that Microsoft will take on Amazon, Google and other competitors in the emerging voice market and this "battle for the future," focusing on helping people to be productive, which is already the company's main goal.
Search Engines, LinkedIn, Outlook and Beyond
While Amazon is so focused on using Alexa to conduct trading, and Google is focused on the search - its "strengths" - Gavin actually sees Cortana stand out among the crowd as a productivity tool.
Not that Cortana will be just so Gavin called "prosumer" he said. As Amazon Eco, Cortana will be able to control the selection of smart home equipment. And will continue to make predictions of the NFL and Oscar.
To this end, Microsoft considers commands as necessary the notion of voice, with the company to invest in China like Xiaoice beloved chatbots, the famous xenophobic Tay, or the most politically correct Zo. These robots, Microsoft learns more to help Cortana to maintain a human conversation, to serve better assistant.
However, this type of so-called "natural language" is not "the defining part" of such systems, says Gavin. If Cortana is to be your assistant, it is not a novelty, you should know not only your life or smart home gadgets, but in your work. What, not by chance, is the sweet spot for Microsoft.
"She really knows my place of work," Gavin said.
With Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, Cortana has a view on email messages and calendars that users work with. With the cloud service in Microsoft Office 365, little by little you get the power to search for files and display relevant documents.
And, sooner rather than later, they will begin feeding Cortana LinkedIn more general information about the people they meet. In addition, Microsoft provides developers with the tools not only to hang their applications to Cortana, but also to use Microsoft Azure cognitive services to give similar levels of artificial intelligence.
