Microsoft Cortana: 6 Billion queries can’t be wrong

Considering the small footprint of Windows 10 phones, compared to iOS and Android, 6 Billion queries over a year period may not look like much, considering that Siri has been answering queries on iPhones to the tune of 1 billion per week. With that said, this number does not directly correlate to mobile, but rather with how long Cortana has been available to desktop users, since July 29th 2015.

Microsoft has been the pioneer in bringing a voice activated virtual assistant to a desktop operating system, and according to recent statistics, an increasing number of Windows 10 users seem to have a use for Cortana on their desktop devices, such as Surface tablets and other Windows 10 PCs and laptops, after all. More than that, consumers are discovering the benefit of interfacing with desktop computers in a similar way as they do with their smartphones, which is creating a new level of accessibility.

Prior to Microsoft introducing Windows 10 and Cortana to the world, the concept of issuing voice commands to a desktop computer, though reasonably realistic in its application, was not a popular one, mostly due to preconceived perceptions (don’t we sound silly enough talking to a phone?), yet, with Google and Siri processing billions of queries every week, it’s now official, that virtual assistants are entering the realm of real-world Internet utility services, as worthy of their place as search engines and social media networks.

Further proof of widespread adoption of desktop-bound virtual assistants, are reports of a 60% increase in Cortana usage, since the inception of Windows 10, a year ago.

Much work to be done

In the wake of Apple announcing macOS Sierra to be launched this Fall, Siri will also be part of the experience, with deep integration into the operating system, along with iCloud, in a similar way as Cortana and OneDrive in Microsoft Windows 10.

Apple’s interest in porting its own virtual assistant to Mac users means that Microsoft needs to step up its game, and work on features capable of competing with a product very similar to Microsoft’s, but with a lot more mileage and popularity.

Cortana can do a lot of things, aside from checking the weather and help with making hotel reservations, it’s capable of starting up programs, and search for files, both locally and on the cloud, but there are some key areas in which Cortana needs to change, to better fit a desktop environment, instead of simply being a glorified version of its mobile counterpart.

The only way to render Cortana, and Siri, more useful to desktop users, is to allow a greater accessibility to the operating system. Cortana can open programs, but it cannot close them. It can search and open files, but cannot move them, delete them, or edit them within their respective applications. Also, Cortana doesn’t yet have the authority to shut down Windows 10, log off or lock the screen, as well as other functions that would make a desktop virtual assistant a lot more useful.

From what we have seen, Siri doesn’t seem to be able to have much more control on macOS Sierra than Cortana does on Windows 10, and this might be intentional, due to technical limitations and perhaps even security concerns, in light of the fact that a hacker could “talk” a computer into doing things it’s not supposed to, at least in theory. However, the current state of virtual assistants on the desktop is rather muzzled, with the potential to be much more than it is today.