People in the west might not know this story. Xiaoice became available in 2014, not long after Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as Microsoft’s CEO. She’s an empathetic virtual teenage girl, chatbot called Xiaoice, that’s now being spun into an independent entity.

She’s all over China, where Xiaoice boasts 660 million global users and a reach of 450 million smart devices.

“This move aims to accelerate the pace of local innovation of the Xiaobing product line and promote the improvement of the Xiaobing commercial ecological environment,” Microsoft said in the news release.

As Cortana will pulled from China, Microsoft’s ambitions in China are becoming known. Xiaoice has over the years enlisted some of the best minds in artificial intelligence and ventured beyond China into countries like Japan and Indonesia. Microsoft said it called the shots to accelerate Xiaoice’s “localized innovation” and buildout of the chatbot’s “commercial ecosystem.”

“Sometimes sweet, sometimes sassy and always streetwise, this virtual teenager has her own opinions and steadfastly acts like no other bot,” Microsoft explained in a 2018 blog post.

Xiaoice is maybe the culmination of the chat-bot hype we had a few years ago, and Microsoft’s AI strategy is blooming, not just with Azure but in China. When internet users in China are looking to chat with AI just for fun, they’re unlikely to turn to popular voice assistants like Apple’s Siri or Xiaomi’s Xiao AI, says the SCMP. Instead, China’s “fun” AI of choice actually comes from Microsoft, and it will soon be an independent company.

There’s a micro dynasty of AI chat bots forming if you weren’t aware. Xiaoice, translated as “Little Bing,” has been a big hit in China since it was launched in 2014. Xiaoice has similar counterparts available in India (Ruuh), Japan, and Indonesia (Rinna) and the US (Zo.ai), which was the successor to the ill-fated Tay.ai.

Many men in China have even dubbed Xiaoice their “virtual girlfriend.” AI as companion is a trend that caught on with some Japanese men in the last ten years as well. Clearly this is a lucrative market, when a pandemic can limit some of our social circles.

It’s a smart strategy for new AI platforms and interfaces. Microsoft plans to use the Xiaoice and Rinna brands in China and Japan, respectively, for technology productions and “commercialization.” Chinese news site Caixin reported that the Covid-19 pandemic and tensions between the US and China sped up the spin-off process. Microsoft will continue to hold an equity stake in the venture. The unit’s general manager, Di Li, will be the company’s CEO.

China is more pro mobile commerce and in a sense have consumers that are more AI-friendly. The AI-powered chatbot was infused with the personality of a teenage girl and reached cult status in the Mainland China. The system was trained using data gathered from users of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, and is integrated with a number of other chat services, including Weibo .

If you remember the Movie, Her, China especially aspires to develop AI as companionship. Unlike voice assistants designed to help users by performing specific tasks, Xiaoice is meant to be more of an emotional companion with higher emotional intelligence than other conversational AI bots. From researchers at Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu to Microsoft, this dream will be realized.

Over the years, Xiaoice has proven to be better than other chatbots at making conversation with cheeky, playful and sometimes flirtatious responses. In a time when there is economic pressure, there’s also pressure on some of our relationships. AI is there for us, even in small ways.

We have to applaud Microsoft’s ingenuity here. Microsoft has launched chatbot counterparts that can be agents of AI for good, in an uncertain time in the world. Microsoft has positioned Xiaoice, Zo, and other “social” chatbots as designed more for social conversation and entertainment, which is worthy of its own company.

Like my topics? Visit my blog at the Last Futurist, where we discuss the future, in all of its aspects. There will be another chatbot, but there won’t be another Microsoft. We need to support companies that prioritize AI for good, in all of its aspects.