NEW YORK: Microsoft has obtained a messaging-app founded by an Indian as the US-based software company aims to improve its position in the new age of amalgamating the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence.
Microsoft obtained California-based Wand Labs, a startup which builds messaging technology for apps, founded in 2013 by IIT-Delhi alumnus Vishal Sharma, who was earlier the vice president, products at Google. The terms of the acquisition were not made public.
“This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for ‘Conversation as a Platform’ which (India-born CEO of Microsoft) Satya Nadella introduced at our Build 2016 conference,” Corporate vice president, Information Platform Group at MicrosoftDavid Ku stated in a statement.
During the Build conference, Nadella informed thousands of developers that he envisages a technological future where computer software can learn the human language and have natural conversations with people.
Nadella had stated that Microsoft wants to take the power of human language and apply it more pervasively to all of the computing interface and interactions.
Ku stated Wand Labs’ technology and talent would strengthen Microsoft’s position in the “emerging era of conversational intelligence where we bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence, connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways”.
The acquisition builds on and extends the power of the Microsoft’s search engine Bing, its cloud computing platform Azure, Office 365 and Windows platforms to improve developers everywhere.
Ku stated Wand’s expertise around services mapping, third-party developer integration and conversational interfaces make it a “great fit” to join the Bing engineering and platform team.
Expressing Sharma as an “experienced leader and entrepreneur” in the field of search and knowledge, Ku stated the Wand team will make advantageous contributions to Microsoft’s innovation of Bing intelligence.
Sharma stated it is an “exciting time” to be working in the area of semantics and conversation, an area that Nadella has highlighted as core to the future.
“Making experiences for customers more seamless by harnessing human language is a powerful vision and one that motivates me and my team,” Sharma stated, adding that Wand’s experience with semantics and messaging are a “natural fit” for the work already underway at Microsoft, especially in the area of intelligent agents and cognitive services.
Microsoft Obtains Messaging Startup Founded By Indian
