Could Cortana be the personal assistant we’ve be waiting for?

Microsoft later this year will offer its Cortana personal assistant as a standalone app for iOS and Android devices, Reuters reported in March. The Cortana personal assistant was inspired by the AI character Cortana in the Halo video game series.

Microsoft is working on a version of Cortana that will incorporate artificial intelligence advances developed in a research project named “Einstein,” according to Reuters.

Google makes money not off Android but on the ad revenue connected mostly to search, and Cortana is essentially a smart search program. So, if Microsoft can get Android to use Microsoft’s Bing search, it could take another good chunk of Android’s revenue. Microsoft currently gets a large amount of their licensing revenue from Android over IP rights.

Microsoft has been working on the engine behind Cortana for decades, and it is arguably better than Siri or Google Now simply because it’s far more mature and comprehensive. Siri and Google Now are ingenious speech-to-text search engine interfaces, but neither of them is particularly smart. Cortana was designed out of the digital assistant work that goes back to the early 90’s and possibly has far more potential. A lot of this “potential” hasn’t been released yet. The biggest issue Microsoft is going to have is marketing. Cortana will need to be properly marketed if it is going to succeed on iOS and Android platforms.

Given that iOS and Android both have voice search already, it seems like a natural move for Microsoft to make. Remember that Microsoft gave free access to Office apps on iOS and Android last year. I believe that was partly due to escaping bets against the Windows OS failing to gain further traction with the mobile market. A big part of growing Microsoft is for it to remove themselves from depending on their OS. It looks like Microsoft is removing this aspect so that they can be a key mobile player no matter what the platform.

For Microsoft, mobility goes beyond devices to include productivity experiences and Microsoft wants to put multiple applications on every home screen. Productivity experiences will go beyond individual applications to deliver vast intelligence that spans applications. Microsoft has long been working to get shared code running in their applications across platforms, even outside of Windows. Realistically, we are looking at Microsoft platforms, Apple platforms (iOS and OS X), Android including some Amazon devices and some applications in major Web browsers.

Although Apple and Google also are competing for dominance in the personal assistant arena, Google likely will allow users to install the Cortana app on their devices. Microsoft is not afraid of a little litigation, and blocking their app would raise questions about antitrust and unfair competition, industry specialist say. Microsoft might siphon off some ad revenue connected to search and get people to consider it as an alternative in the mobile world if people were to opt for Cortana on iOS or Android.

With that being said Windows users who like Cortana could also find it easier to move to iOS and Android, as more and more key Microsoft apps run on them.