Microsoft’s new Cortana chief plans to put the assistant’s smarts in more places
Cortana, where art thou? That’s what PCWorld wanted to know when we spoke with Microsoft’s recently-minted Cortana czar, Javier Soltero. The digital assistant, which made a splash in Windows 10 with her snappy comebacks and silly knock-knock jokes, is still offering to help you with your calendar and search. She’s even migrated to mobile apps for Android and iOS. But Cortana hasn’t talked her way into our homes like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have, making her staying power look uncertain.
That’s where Soltero comes in. We sat down with Cortana’s new chief in the wake of a significant management shakeup that will see senior executive Terry Myerson leave, as well as the creation of a new “Experiences and Devices” team that seemingly downplays Windows.
Does that mean Cortana has been demoted? Far from it.
If you’re used to thinking of Cortana as an assistant who lives in your search box, that’s still true to a point. But in the future Cortana will be more situational, popping up in apps where she’s never existed: Outlook Mobile, for example, or Teams. No, you won’t need a Cortana app for Cortana to appear. She just will.
