Qi Lu, ex-Microsoft employee revealed the mistakes Microsoft committed that made Amazon’s Alexa the winner of the AI market. Qi Lu worked on Cortana for four and a half years. He clearly stated that Microsoft underestimated Alexa and believed Cortana is far better. “I worked on Cortana four and a half years ago. At the time we all were like, “Amazon, yeah, that technology is so far behind”. But one thing I learned is that in this race to AI, it’s actually more about having the right application scenarios and the right ecosystems.” he writes.
As Microsoft was focusing on phone and PC as a platform for Cortana, Amazon’s decision to make Alexa an AI-first device was brilliant. Amazon launched the devices that are designed for artificial intelligence, unlike Cortana and Google’s Assistant.
“Google and Microsoft, technologically, were ahead of Amazon by a wide margin. But look at the AI race today. The Amazon Alexa ecosystem is far ahead of anybody else in the United States. It’s because they got the scenario right. They got the device right. Essentially, Alexa is an AI-first device,” he added.
Qi Lu believes that Microsoft and Google made the same mistake of choosing PC and mobile as a platform for their AI. While on other hand, Amazon’s Alexa on Echo smart speakers worked out.
Microsoft is now trying their luck with HK Invoke Cortana-powered. After all, it’s never too late to begin again.