Microsoft revealed during the Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) conference in Shenzhen, China that Cortana would be coming to IoT devices via Windows 10 IoT Core as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update.

While Windows 10 IoT core is designed primarily for smart home and devices such as smartwatch, robots, with the Anniversary Update haven arrived during the Windows 10 November Update in 2015, on both PCs and IoT devices.

The new Windows IoT Core already has inspired many Cortana-powered smart speakers from third parties, albeit, Microsoft itself doesn’t seem to be interested in making smart speakers at present.

Microsoft, however, have continued to improve on its Home Hub project, even though it appears to be backing away from hardware.

The Windows IoT Core features that are needed for a Cortana-powered speaker to be possible is already available, as the company has implemented far-field speech communication and wake-on-voice functionality to Windows 10 IoT and the PC version of the Creators Update.

And the first Cortana-powered IoT devices are expected to roll out in late 2017 around the holiday shopping seasons, perhaps.

Microsoft's bringing Cortana to Smart Home and More IoT Devices

Microsoft revealed during the Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) conference in Shenzhen, China that Cortana would be coming to IoT devices via Windows 10 IoT Core as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update.

While Windows 10 IoT core is designed primarily for smart home and devices such as smartwatch, robots, with the Anniversary Update haven arrived during the Windows 10 November Update in 2015, on both PCs and IoT devices.

The new Windows IoT Core already has inspired many Cortana-powered smart speakers from third parties, albeit, Microsoft itself doesn’t seem to be interested in making smart speakers at present.

Microsoft, however, have continued to improve on its Home Hub project, even though it appears to be backing away from hardware.

The Windows IoT Core features that are needed for a Cortana-powered speaker to be possible is already available, as the company has implemented far-field speech communication and wake-on-voice functionality to Windows 10 IoT and the PC version of the Creators Update.

And the first Cortana-powered IoT devices are expected to roll out in late 2017 around the holiday shopping seasons, perhaps.