Microsoft is shutting down its digital assistant app Cortana this month, having now put more of its give attention to modern-day AI advances, like its ChatGPT-like Bing Chat and other AI-powered productivity features across Windows and its web browser Edge. A support page confirms the top of Cortana as a standalone app in Windows, starting in August 2023.

The corporate also confirmed to TechCrunch the page was first published earlier in June, but declined to share more of its pondering on the matter beyond what was referenced on the page itself.

Nevertheless, reading between the lines from the explanation provided, it seems that Microsoft sees Cortana as something that was a stepping stone toward this latest AI future, where users will as an alternative depend on a better chatbot running GPT-4, powered due to Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. The corporate also announced in May that it could construct this latest ChatGPT-based Bing experience right into Windows 11.

Within the meantime, Windows users will likely be in a transitional period where Cortana will still be around in some form, though the standalone Windows app will now not be supported. For now, nonetheless, Cortana will proceed to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display and Microsoft Teams rooms, the corporate notes.

Those Cortana-powered experiences is probably not long for this world either, as Microsoft has already detailed its plans to bring Bing Chat to the enterprise, where Microsoft 365 Copilot will likely be integrated into its productivity software, plus Outlook, Teams and more.

“We all know that this variation may affect a number of the ways you’re employed in Windows, so we wish to provide help to transition easily to the brand new options,” Microsoft explains on the support page. “As an alternative of clicking the Cortana icon and launching the app to start using voice, now you need to use voice and satisfy your productivity needs through different tools.”

The corporate then points users to Cortana alternatives like Windows 11 voice access, which lets users control their PC with voice commands, the brand new AI-powered Bing, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Windows Copilot, which offers centralized AI assistance for Windows users.

The web site Windows Latest (not affiliated with Microsoft) was the primary to report on the Cortana app’s shutdown, having noticed that the most recent update for the Cortana Windows app caused the app to stop working. Upon launching the app, a message informed users that “Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated” and pointed to the support page through a “Learn More” button.

Microsoft’s shift to Bing Chat from its first-gen assistant Cortana could also be later mirrored by other Big Tech firms.

This week, The Information reported, for instance, that Amazon promoted its head scientist for Alexa, Rohit Prasad, to run a team developing artificial general intelligence. That signals that Amazon, too, could also be enthusiastic about how Alexa could evolve into something more capable than the digital assistant it’s today. Apple has also been developing its own generative AI tools, Bloomberg reported, but hasn’t yet decided how they might be released to customers.