Microsoft is in the acquisition mode again. Just recently, the company acquired a company known as Genee, which is basically a scheduling service with an artificial intelligence core.
Genee first came to life back in 2014, and was designed to schedule and reschedule meetings. The service is also great for large groups, and especially when folks do not have access to a particular calendar.
According to the Microsoft Blog, Genee uses natural language processing along with optimized algorithms to make it feel as if talking with the virtual assistance is similar to talking with a real human being.
“Genee uses natural language processing and optimized decision-making algorithms so that interacting with a virtual assistant is just like interacting with a human one. For an example of how Genee works, let’s take a look at a common scheduling problem,” according to Microsoft. “Say you want to meet a potential customer, Diana, for coffee. Simply send an email to Diana and copy Genee, like you would a personal assistant. Genee understands that you want to “Find a time to meet with Diana for coffee next week” and will streamline the process by emailing her directly with appropriate options that work with your calendar and preferences.”
This should work wonders when incorporated into Cortana. Businesses, employees, and regular individuals will likely find something to like about this new feature. It’s now down to Microsoft to do a good job on selling the idea.
Its co-founders Ben Cheung and Charles Lee, both plan to join the Microsoft team to help usher in a new era of artificial intelligence at the company.
We expect the Genee technology to be incorporated into Cortana, though we cannot say how long this will take.
