Game for a chat with your PC?
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft wants you to talk more with your computer — and have more useful conversations.
The giant software company is promoting new uses for Cortana — its voice-activated answer to Apple’s Siri digital assistant — including the ability to interact with software “bots” that can have limited conversations with users and help with tasks such as booking a hotel room, ordering a meal or arranging a delivery.
Voice-activated services such as Siri, OK Google or Amazon’s Alexa can already perform tasks for users such as playing a song at a request or answering a question. Bots are smarter than traditional software apps, though, using artificial intelligence to respond to a wider range of commands and in a convenient, conversational way.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, at the opening on Wednesday of the company’s annual conference for software developers, touted the power of “conversational intelligence” as he outlined a longterm vision in which Cortana, a central feature of Windows 10, becomes a digital concierge for other online interactions.
“Bots are the new apps,” Nadella told developers.
Demonstration
Lilian Rincon, a programme manager for Microsoft’s Skype service, demonstrated how this might work. After receiving a video message from her boss that mentioned an upcoming conference in Dublin, Rincon used Cortana to mark the dates on her calendar. Cortana then used Skype to contact a hotel chain’s bot, which suggested a room and helped Rincon make a reservation for those dates.
Integrating Cortana with other companies’ bots could increase the use of Microsoft’s services, and make them more valuable, said analyst Ross MacMillan, who follows tech companies for RBC Capital Markets.