Alexa, Cortana form fast friendship

Voice-controlled assistants talk to each other

SEATTLE • Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. may be competing with each other in the cloud-computing market, but in the realm of voice-controlled personal assistants, Cortana and Alexa are forging a friendship.

On Monday, the two companies showed the fruits of a collaboration announced last August to let Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana talk to each other. In a demonstration, Cortana executive Megan Saunders used Alexa to order milk and then had the assistant wake Cortana to check her schedule and send email.

Then Alexa Senior VicePresident Tom Taylor demonstrated using Cortana at work to check on his reservation before asking Cortana to raise Alexa to order an Uber. Alexa even declared that she likes Cortana, although neither assistant sang The Turtles’ hit Happy Together.

The mashup is still being tested, but was shown Monday at Microsoft’s annual Build conference for developers in Seattle. Technically the integration is running a little late — it was supposed to be available by the end of last year.

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BOTH COMPANIES ARE TRYING TO GET THEIR VOICE ASSISTANTS INSTALLED IN CARS.

see voice-activated digital assistants as a way to extend their reach, and their products, into consumers’ lives whether at home, work or in their cars. Research firm Tractica estimates the enterprise market alone for voiceactivated digital assistant software will reach US$7.7 billion in 2025.

The companies’ collaboration stems from a suggestion Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos made to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a meeting last year, The New York Times reported in August when the partnership was announced.

Despite Monday’s demonstration of cooperation, the relationship between the two companies might be headed toward “it’s complicated” territory. In November, Amazon announced Alexa for Business, a focus that takes it more squarely into territory held by Cortana and Microsoft Office.

Both companies are trying to get their voice assistants installed in cars, and Amazon is striking deals with PC makers to pre-install the software, another encroachment on Cortana’s patch in Windows.