Microsoft has announced that it will remove Cortana as a standalone app in Windows 10 and 11 later this year. This move marks another chapter in the decline in popularity of this digital assistant, which never managed to be of paramount importance to users of the Redmond company’s operating system. This assistant made its debut in 2014 as a response to Apple’s Siri and Google’s development, but from the beginning it was seen that it was not widely used -something that became more evident when Windows for phones was cancelled-. Come on, it was not a great surprise that its use was not very great. To the surprise of almost everyone, Cortana has lasted longer than expected. But this development was doomed when Microsoft separated it from the Windows search service and also removed it from the system installation tool, where its presence was confusing for many. And, to top it off, Alexa came to the operating system of the North American firm, so there was practically no escape for Cortana, which was not a bad development, but it simply did not work. A completely announced goodbye to Cortana From what has become known in the publication we are talking about, the Cortana application will be discontinued in Windows, although its technology will continue to be available as a productivity assistant in some applications -such as Outlook and Teams -. But everything indicates that this is temporary because Redmond is already working on offering a substitute to make life easier for users and that it will be an integral part of the entire operating system over time. Yes, we are talking about ChatGPT where Microsoft has invested a lot because they think that the future is going this way… and, apparently, they are not wrong. The fact is that the end of Cortana was sung. Even Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella himself acknowledged on some occasions that virtual assistants like Cortana were a dead end. Even that “everyone was stupid”, he being especially critical of Cortana: “we had a product that was supposed to be the new interface for handling information, but it didn’t work.” Now, the bet is another: Artificial Intelligence. Windows will take advantage of the use of AI This will be the case even in the new interface that will be a reality in Windows in not long (known as Copilot). This will be in charge of controlling the operating system and the installed applications, and they will be much more intuitive with the implementation of the AI ​​provided by ChatGPT. Additional options where Cortana gives way to AI will be Windows 11 voice access, which will allow you to control the PC in a more comfortable way; the additional implementation of artificial intelligence with ChatGPT in the Bing search engine, which will allow asking questions and getting answers using natural language; and, even, the implementation in Microsoft 365 will also be much more complete and proactive so that users are favored. >
