The new digital assistant in Windows 10 is designed to be aware of local idioms and even more nuanced manners of speech and conversation
Microsoft’s digital assistant--Cortana--has been seeing several updates in the ramp up to the Windows 10 launch. While it was initially announced that the much-awaited July 29th launch will see Cortana being launched in seven countries (U.S., UK, China, France, Italy, Germany and Spain), the latest update shared on the Windows blog extends this to customers that are part of the Windows Insider Program in Japan and Australia, and in English in Canada and India. That’s right--Cortana will be coming to Indian users sooner than expected.
Once the mainstay of mobile platforms aimed at taking on Google’s Google Now and Apple’s Siri, Cortana’s extension to the desktop stands to significantly broaden its reach to altogether new users. With this digital assistant aimed at simplifying the way users interact with and operate their computers, nailing the nuance of language and culture in the various regions it is deployed is all important.
As Marcus Ash of the Cortana Team puts it, Cortana’s developers have taken the time to understand what’s important to users in various countries, from the tasks they carry out to the types of content they consume. Cortana’s ‘personality’ has been tuned differently for each market based on querying customer user groups to determine what they expect out of a personal assistant.
For example in India, Cortana is crafted to be aware of locally-relevant personalities, events and colloquialisms. So expect references to cricket and even Sachin Tendulkar when Cortana is used on our shores.
In China, customers lent interesting feedback stating they wanted the voice to sound like it was smiling, which also led the team to create a special animated emoji that would appeal to users in the region.
In Italy--what might be contrary to popular perception--customers were against linking Italy to scooters (think Vespa,) an association that tends to come easy to outsiders. The Cortana team therefore avoided including jokes on scooters relating to Italian culture, for example. In Japan, the culture is perceived to be more formal--almost like the voice is bowing while speaking--resulting in a things like formally pronouncing in a person’s name.
Cortana is aimed at mirroring the characteristics of the local language, including figures of speech and vocal mannerisms, while embodying the core principles that define this digital assistant: positivity, confidence, intelligence and transparency.
These qualities become especially especially relevant in common questions a user might ask of it, such as, “Tell me a joke.”
With the copious amounts of research that appear to have gone into the creation of this digital assistant, it will be intriguing to see how well it all plays out when Windows 10 hits desktops. Stay tuned as we bring you more on getting the most from this new voice-driven experience.
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