Microsoft no more views its assistant Cortana as Alexa, Google Assistant’s competitor

Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana once used to be a competitor of Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Google Assistant. However, according to Microsoft CEO, he no more sees Cortana as their competitor since it has fallen behind.

In a recent media event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Microsoft does not view its virtual assistant as a competitor to others like Alexa or Google Assistant. Instead, it is now taking a different approach to the competition, reported The Verge.

“Cortana needs to be that skill for anybody who’s a Microsoft 365 subscriber,” explained Nadella. “You should be able to use it on Google Assistant, you should be able to use it on Alexa, just like how you use our apps on Android and iOS so that’s at least how we want to think about where it’ll go.”

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Microsoft has already partnered with Amazon for enabling Cortana integration along with Alexa’s. Nadella now views Cortana as an app or service that will work across multiple platforms, rather than it competing in Cortana hardware for consumers.

Nadella admitted that instead of competing with Alexa, there was a challenge of creating hardware and software that is unique to compete. Microsoft chose to make Cortana ‘a valuable skill that somebody who is using Alexa can call’, instead of competing in smart speakers.

After Alexa, Microsoft now wishes to take Cortana to Google Assistant. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced last week that it is separating Cortana and Search in the taskbar on Windows 10 devices, according to Gadgets360.