Microsoft and Amazon recently announced their partnership that will allow the Alexa intelligent personal assistant to talk to the Cortana AI assistant and vice versa. The two digital assistants will soon be able to work together with Amazon’s Echo smart speaker.

Satya Nadella’s statement regarding the collaboration

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, stated that ensuring the Cortana AI assistant is available for their customers is the company’s main priority, according to Business Wire. Nadella added that in bringing all of Cortana’s features to Alexa is a huge step toward the company’s goal.

Users of Amazon Echo smart speakers will be able to utilize the features of Cortana by asking Amazon’s intelligent personal assistant.

In the same way, users can use the features of Alexa by asking Cortana to control smart home gadgets as well as to shop at Amazon’s official website.

Amazon Echo hands-free speaker owners on Windows 10 will be able to give a direct command to Alexa to open Cortana. If Windows 10 users ask Cortana to open Alexa, users will be able to access more than 20,000 features created by third-party developers. Users of Amazon’s hands-free speaker can also access the functions of Windows 10 by utilizing Cortana.

However, Microsoft and Amazon did not reveal the exact date when their respective digital assistants will be able to work together. But, Cortana Engineering Corporate Vice President, Andrew Sherman, made it known that these intelligent personal assistants working together will be first experienced on Windows 10 PCs.

Microsoft and Amazon have been coordinating silently to make their intelligent personal assistants work together since May 2016, according to The New York Times. The companies plan to officially launch the Alexa and Cortana collaboration before 2017 ends.

The collaboration between Microsoft and Amazon seems to indicate that artificial intelligence from different companies should act like partners instead of competitors.

Google and Apple might join the partnership

Nevertheless, tech analysts are expecting Google and Apple to join the partnership. Nevertheless, that seems to be unlikely as the Google and Siri intelligent personal assistants are deeply rooted in Google and Apple’s operating systems. In spite of that, the Microsoft CEO stated that Apple and Google will always have a room in the Microsoft and Amazon collaboration.