The future seems to be getting closer to us, and what we saw a few years ago in sci-fi movies has now become indispensable to us. Smartwatches, which allow us to read our emails by pressing a button on our wrist, or a tiny device that can scan our body in a few seconds, are now things many of us use and without which it seems impossible to carry out our activities.

Virtual assistants, those voices heard answering crew questions out of nowhere in Star Trek-type movies that we watched with such interest and fascination in childhood, are now at our fingertips through mobile phones. 

Siri

Apple was the first company to see the opportunity to integrate such an element into the standard applications for its phones, taking the first step back in 2010.  The virtual assistant proposed by Apple is called Siri, an acronym for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. In reality, Siri is an artificial intelligence software that functions like an intelligent personal assistant and a "Knowledge Navigator," as Apple itself calls it. This "Knowledge Navigator" is a device that can access a network database of hypertext information and use software agents to assist in information searching.

In other words, Siri is a natural language interface with voice command. It uses sequential inference and context awareness to help perform personal tasks for iOS users: answering questions, making recommendations, or undertaking various actions. The program adapts to each user individually, both in terms of language and manner of address, as well as search preferences, thus returning personalized results each time.

The application is now available on several iPhone models, as well as on iPad Pro, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

Cortana

In turn, Cortana – launched by Microsoft – is also an intelligent virtual assistant which, unlike Siri, can be installed and is available for multiple types of devices, regardless of the operating system used: Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft Band, Xbox One, Windows 10, iOS, and Android. Among the features offered by Cortana are the ability to set reminders, recognize natural voice without the user having to enter a predefined series of commands, and answer questions based on information from Bing. An important element is the integration in Cortana of a service like Foursquare, which can be used to make restaurant recommendations.

Cortana can also be called from a few meters away, even if the device’s screen is locked, simply by the owner saying the phrase “Hey Cortana,” after which the device can be used normally.

Both programs are currently available in a few countries and in several languages, such as English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.