Microsoft's Cortana is now in the hands of millions of new users around the globe with over 18 million installs of Windows 10 having been completed since the release of the OS. While Cortana is quickly learning traits about you to bring you more personalized information, Microsoft is saying that she is now also integrating with Wolfram Alpha (WA) which means she should be able to handle more complex questions.
The integration, which Microsoft announced today, allows Cortana to do math, which is a bit odd as she has been able to do this for some time and can easily answer basic math questions. More so, if you do ask a math question, it returns the result from Bing, not WA; and if you ask a question like "How many days between today and December 25th", it results in a Bing search instead of WA returning the correct answer.
So did Microsoft actually integrate WA into Cortana or are they simply marking off this item as complete as the personal digital assistant can already do basic math, which is what the admin who responded believes is what WA is used for?
Unless the feature is still rolling out - although in the past when a new Cortana feature was enabled it was typically instantly, since it is on the backend - it does not appear that Wolfram Alpha is actually integrated into the digital assistant.
We have reached out to Microsoft to get clarification on the integration.
[Update] Microsoft has confirmed that Wolfram Alpha is not integrated into Cortana and that Bing is powering the math experience behind the digital assistant.
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