Late last month, Amazon unveiled "Alexa for Business (opens in new tab)" – the company's latest foray into digital assistant space. Targeting the workplace, the new version of Alexa is tailored for businesses looking to automate the office, with commands for starting conference calls, handling appointments and hooking directly into other enterprise services.
This announcement follows an earlier partnership between Amazon and Microsoft, where plans were outlined to merge the company's two rival assistants in select scenarios, covering a wider range of skills. While Alexa has found strong roots in the home, Cortana has gained a reputation for productivity with its Windows 10 integration. This would push for a solution that leverages multiple skill sets, delivering further functionality to both assistants.
Despite this previous partnership, Alexa for Business fails to even bring attention to Microsoft's services with its latest announcement. A discussion surrounding this recently sparked on the Windows Central forums, with many wondering if Microsoft dropped the ball – and what potential Cortana really had in a workplace setting. Should there be a "Cortana for Business?"
Very interesting article. I agree that Microsoft should have been far ahead of this and yet again was not. Amazon will now take the lead on these devices in business as well as home which it already has. Thoughts? https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2017/12/06/amazon-microsoft-alexa-for-business-cortana/#4895744a2160
Mark Kaplan
But we want to hear from you. What do you think of these recent events? Would you be interested in Cortana for the workplace? If not, why do you feel Cortana is best avoided in these situations? Make sure to drop into the forum thread linked below and share your thoughts with the community!
Matt Brown is a senior editor at Future for Windows Central. Following six years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he’s focused on the world of Xbox and Windows PCs. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.
