Microsoft Is Killing Off Cortana in Favor of AI

Microsoft announced that, starting this month, it will no longer support Cortana in Windows. The Siri-like digital assistant, named after a Halo character, will still be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms. 

The announcement follows a warning in June that the Cortana app would stop working on Windows 11. Cortana’s demise has been in the cards since March, when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed doubts about the capabilities of the first wave of voice assistants.

"They were all dumb as a rock," Nadella told the Financial Times. "Whether it's Cortana or Alexa or Google Assistant or Siri, all these just don't work.”

Microsoft ended support for Cortana on iOS and Android back in March 2021. Cortana was removed from search and silenced by default during the Windows 10 setup process all the way back in 2019. 

There are still alternatives available within Windows for voice control. Instead of clicking the Cortana icon and launching the app, Windows users can simply set up voice access to control their PCs and use voice-to-text. 

Cortana's exit from Microsoft's operating system coincides with the company's investment into AI-powered assistive tools, which it suggests users adopt in Cortana's absence. These include Bing Chat, which provides concise answers to complex questions, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, which can aid in creating and sharing Office documents.

Windows Copilot, an AI-powered tool that will help users navigate Microsoft's operating system, is currently in preview.