When Microsoft talks, the market listens.  But what about when Cortana calls you on your cellphone to ask you some questions in a survey?  Will you listen?  “Cortana” is the name Microsoft has given to a new digital assistant it is creating that will make automated calls or appear in web browsers to conduct political and other polls. It’s a creative attempt to use cellphones and the internet to improve survey research, even as survey researchers are watching response rates decline dramatically in traditional phone surveys.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/upshot/microsoft-begins-a-push-into-the-polling-world.html