Here’s Microsoft’s new plan to keep Cortana alive and differentiated

Cortana is an interesting offering from Microsoft and this update from long time Microsoft analyst Mary Jo Foley provides new insights into where Microsoft is headed with "assistance." Not long ago Microsoft leadership elected to remove Cortana from the consumer grade God Bot Assistant playing field in order to stay out of direct comparison to Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant (and to perhaps play a slightly different game in providing help to users). Microsoft is using terms like "assistance aide" instead of Assistant in order to clarify where Cortana can add value to a users experience. If you think that sounds a little bit like trying to describe the difference between flavors of vanilla ice cream, I would agree with you. Read on to better understand what is happening in the Redmonites' quest for Assistant Assistance.