Microsoft has announced the end of Cortana support in Microsoft Teams rooms and on their display screens. This decision was taken in view of Cortana’s low usage in this context. Users of Teams rooms have not adopted this feature en masse, which has led to the decision to end its support. Indeed, at the end of September 2023, Microsoft will no longer support Cortana voice assistance, both Push-to-Talk functionality and wake word detection, on all MTRoW devices and Teams displays, particularly Lenovo ThinkSmart View.
However, Microsoft continues to innovate and use AI to help you work smarter and faster. Microsoft is therefore working on new ways of using AI to save time, so that we can concentrate on what matters most to us.
When will this happen?
The change will take place by September 29, 2023. Users will no longer be able to call Cortana via the push-to-talk button or use the keyword (“Cortana”) when this change is implemented.
How will this affect your organization?
The removal of Cortana voice assistance may have an impact on the way users interact with the MTRoW device or Teams screens. Users accustomed to using Cortana voice assistance to perform tasks such as: joining/starting a meeting, ending a meeting, adding <name/number> and calling will have to perform these tasks manually via the device interface.
With the removal of Cortana voice assistance, the user interface of these devices will no longer feature Cortana entry points, buttons, settings and tooltips.
What you need to do to get ready
Please inform your users of this change and update any training documentation as necessary.
