BARCELONA: Spanish mobile operator Telefonica on Feb 25 launched a voice-activated assistant, called 'Aura', in six countries, using artificial intelligence to interact with its customers. Telefonica, present in 17 markets across Europe and Latin America, is offering its assistant in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and Britain. They also face a struggle to keep up with so-called platform companies like Amazon, Google or Facebook that have proven highly adept at using customer data to sell products, services or advertising online. It will soon be integrated with Google Assistant, as well as Microsoft's Cortana in 2019, Telefonica said. It also said it was working with Deutsche Telekom of Germany, Dutch KPN and Orange of France on a so-called data-portability initiative.

Source: The Star February 26, 2018 04:41 UTC