Microsoft Cortana Will Be Your New Scheduling Assistant; How To Use Calendar.Help

Meetings with contacts, especially the ones outside your company, can be bothersome when your schedule is tight. Microsoft, however, is claiming that the new Calendar.help can schedule your meetings for you really well with the help of your intelligent Windows 10 assistant, Cortana.

To use Calendar.help, all you really need to do is to send an email to your contacts then add Cortana to the CC line. The AI will automatically handle the back and forth communication it takes to schedule an appropriate meeting. Your meeting preferences, Office 365, Outlook, and Google Calendar will all be known to Cortana through Calendar.help. Cortana uses this knowledge to find you the best time.

According to the Calendar.help website, the aim is to provide a "natural, almost human scheduling experience" through Cortana who will communicate to your peers through emails - as if a real life assistant was coordinating the meeting. Cortana can understand natural language like "let's make this one 90 minutes", "sometime next week" or "make this a Skype meeting" to specify the length, date, and location of your meeting. Users can also set-up default preferences ahead so Cortana can automatically assess without additional commands.

Cortana also follows up with the recipient if she does not respond receive a response within 48 hours. Once a date is found, Cortana then then creates an event in your calendar and sends the invite to all attendees, signing off with "Warmly yours, Cortana" and "Scheduling Assistant to [your name here]."

Since the Cortana with Calendar.help service is still in beta mode, interested users still need to sign up for the preview waitlist at Calendar.help. All you need to do is provide your business email address and wait for the confirmation of your acceptance into the program. Microsoft will be using both artificial intelligence and human agents for a smooth service.