https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/20/because-someone-had-to-make-the-first-cortana-smart-speaker/

People often stop after Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant when rattling off the list of smart assistants. Cortana really gets no love at all, outside of stories about Windows 10. The oversight can be chalked up, at least in part, to the fact that AI has been mostly desktop-bound. It’s true that Microsoft has launched Android and iOS apps for the assistant, but while all of the excitement in the space is happening on mobile and smart speakers, no one’s really bothered to take Cortana to the next level.

Microsoft certainly isn’t taking the initiative. The Surface team is too focused on its ever-growing line of convertibles. But hey, why build your own product to promote your smart assistant when someone else will do the heavy lifting? Harman Kardon is a pretty logical first company to bring a Cortana speaker to market. After all, the audio conglomerate is pretty platform-agnostic when it comes to AI.