Personal assistants were once considered a status symbol for busy professionals that didn’t have time to run errands, make notes or answer calls and while that is still partially true, almost anyone can get their hands on a personal assistant these days.
Yes, they might be digital but that doesn’t detract from how helpful they can be. When talking about personal assistants we normally hear about Alexa or Google Home but Microsoft’s Cortana may be set to take the spotlight soon.
The personal assistant market is becoming increasingly competitive due to the growing popularity of such devices but also the widely accepted future of voice search with a recent survey indicating that 60% of users are using their devices for general search questions.
With Microsoft’s Cortana scoring only a 5.1% word error rate in Switchboard it could be set to surpass marketer leader Google Home. Particularly since Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to integrate their own personal assistants to better coordinate with each other.
While Bing voice search results are more inaccurate than Google it may be an issue for another department.
Cortana may not be the most popular personal assistant in the market but it is definitely not to be overlooked, particularly with how rapidly technology is being developed.