Microsoft launched Cortana as an AI assistant and the flagship function of Windows 10 in 2015. Now, eight years later, Microsoft is pulling the plug.
In a help doc, Microsoft stated that it’s ending help for the Cortana app, Cortana’s solely remaining presence inside Windows. Instead, Microsoft stated it will encourage customers to make use of different AI-powered options, whether or not it’s inside a standalone app or just a part of Windows or Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft did say that Cortana will nonetheless be out there inside Outlook Mobile and varied variations of Teams, together with Microsoft’s conferencing answer, Teams Rooms. Microsoft has used Cortana to supply a “daily briefing,” summarizing your Outlook emails in a glanceable synopsis. That performance is now branded as Microsoft Viva, nevertheless.
“We know that this change may affect some of the ways you work in Windows, so we want to help you transition smoothly to the new options,” Microsoft stated.
What killed Cortana? AI. Microsoft didn’t explicitly say so, however it seems that the corporate believes that different AI-infused providers, akin to Windows Copilot and the Bing Chat providers inside Microsoft Edge Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot can fill the invoice.
The writing on the wall outlining Cortana’s demise was etched years in the past, when Microsoft started phasing out Cortana’s presence: eradicating it from the Windows shell and separating it into an app, then gutting it to the purpose (initially) the place it couldn’t do primary math. In 2020, Andrew Shuman, Microsoft’s company vp in command of Cortana, advised PCWorld that Cortana’s growth was pinched between the pandemic and the dearth of accessible on-site sources. It was then that Microsoft made the pivot from utilizing Cortana as a private AI app to creating it merely consultant of Microsoft’s productiveness push.
In 2015, Cortana was one thing new and unbelievable, the flagship function of Windows 10. Now, she’ll simply be one other Microsoft client initiative that fell by the wayside. RIP.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor
As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft information and chip expertise, amongst different beats. He has previously written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.
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