There was a time when assistant meant an actual person that followed you and helped you in finding and figuring stuff in your office. Who kept a track of your meetings, and of course your upcoming dinner plans.
But now, even though human assistants are still there, virtual assistants are working really hard to compete. No doubt Google Assistant and Siri have lead in this space but others are following too.
With Android having a huge share of the smartphone market, Google Assistant has clearly an advantage here. After that, Siri takes the rest of the market of smart assistants leaving just a fraction for others.
There is a single player dominating the desktop market– Cortana.
Microsoft introduced Cortana with Windows 10. Even though Microsoft went too far with forcing a Windows 10 update and giving Cortana a head start, users faced a tough time figuring out a true use of Cortana other than doing a Bing search using voice commands.
Recent updates of Cortana gave it a new ground of improvements. A recent study conducted by Stone Temple clearly proved that Cortana has really learned to answer questions that other assistant might not be able to. The report put Cortana at the top 2nd place in smart assistants after Google Assistant.
Now when going through where Microsoft is planning to take Cortana, I came across a really interesting patent filed by the company.
The patent also put some perspective over how collected data that everyone was worrying about in Windows 10 is going to help Cortana become smarter.
The patent reveals the ability of Cortana to predict places you might be planning to travel in the near future. The desktop virtual assistant will be able to not only predict your future travel plans but, even recommend you things like weather, ticket prices, and other attractions about the place.
I’m sure you might have already guessed how Cortana will be able to do this creepy yet impressive task. And if you guessed “Using Data, of course”, then you’re damn right.
Going through your flight search history, place search history, calendar reminders, social media posts, and personal notes; I don’t think it will be harder for anyone to predict that.
After guessing the place, it will ask you about the accuracy of the prediction. Just like I mentioned above, Cortana will also recommend you nearby attractions you can visit and other information about the predicted place. (Very much like Google Assistant).
This might bring out the old concerns of people with Windows 10 data hogging habits which, honestly, was nothing too new (looking at you, Google). Microsoft is really serious about making Cortana as smart as its other brothers and sisters in the market.
A recent announcement of launching a Google Home and Amazon Alexa rival is another proof that Microsoft has big plans for its AI powered virtual assistant’s future.
