Which company's AI assistant is Cortana?

Cortana is Microsoft’s AI assistant.

The assistant was first introduced with Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014 and used Bing to answer questions, set reminders, provide search results, and perform other voice-controlled tasks. It later appeared in Windows 10, Xbox, Microsoft Edge, and selected mobile and productivity applications.

Its name came from Cortana, an artificial-intelligence character in the Halo video-game series. Jen Taylor, who voiced the game character, also voiced the U.S. English version of the assistant.

Cortana is often confused with Siri, Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa because they perform similar tasks, but those products belong to different companies. Microsoft gradually reduced Cortana’s role, ending standalone Windows support in 2023 as newer Copilot experiences replaced it.