Prepare for Skype video bots to take over your life, as Microsoft promises to use Cortana to create “a truly unbounded personal assistant” at Build 2016.
It sees chat applications as the most ultimate, rich canvas to insert its helping hands, by providing video mail transcripts and deploying third-party bots to pave the way for futuristic shopping and planning services.
A demo for this next-generation version of Skype was able to convert a short video message into text for Lilian Rincon, the Microsoft employee in charge of the demo.
She was able to read the transcript, respond with new emojis and tap on highlighted words to trigger a wide range of information cards from Cortana automatically.[related-posts]
Talking to chat bots 1:1
You think you’re good at multi-tasking? Skype information cards are powered by Bing, and bring contextual data like directions and background information to you without the extra step of leaving the chat to search.
At any time, Cortana can chime in, relaying questions from third-party chat bots. “I got a message from Cups and Cakes Bot,” said Cortana, asking to share Rincon’s current location for delivery.
What’s sweeter than automatic cupcake delivery and tracking? Cortana also acts as an agent, making all sorts of reservations with businesses. For example, hotels can be booked in this same conversation.
