Brightcrowd -- helps you find meaningful professional connections Capsule.ai Abi -- your virtual health assistant Ada -- can help if you're feeling unwell Airi -- personal health coach Alz.ai -- helps you care for loved ones with Alzheimer's Amélie -- chatbot for mental health Bitesnap -- food recognition from meal photos to help count calories doc.ai -- makes lab results easy to understand Gyan -- helps you go from symptoms to likely conditions Joy -- helps you track and improve your mental health Kiwi -- helps you to reduce and quit smoking Tess by X2AI-- therapist in your pocket Sleep.ai Amazon Echo / Alexa -- everyday personal assistant for in-home Apple Siri -- everyday personal assistant on iPhone and Mac Cortana-- everyday personal assistant on PC and Windows devices Facebook M -- competitors to Siri, Now and Cortana Focus -- helps you focus, get tasks done and prioritise your day Gatebox -- a holographic anime assistant in an espresso machine Google Assistant -- everyday personal assistant Hound -- everyday personal assistant Ling -- similar to Amazon Echo Mycroft -- is the world's first open source voice assistant Remi-- like Siri with an interface Spoken -- virtual assistant with an interface Viv -- like Siri but 10x better Clara -- meeting scheduling assistant Julie Desk -- meeting scheduling assistant (aimed at C-Suite) Kono -- meeting scheduling assistant Mimetic -- meeting scheduling assistant My Ally -- handles meeting scheduling and manages calendar SkipFlag -- automatically discover and organise your work Vesper -- virtual assistant aimed at C-Suite x.ai-- meeting scheduling assistant Zoom.ai -- personal assistant to help you at work Jottr -- content and news app that learns what you like and don't like News360 -- learns what you enjoy and finds stories you'll like Entrupy -- helps detect if high-end designer products are authentic Fify -- helps you shop for clothing GoFind -- helps you find clothing online by taking a photo Mode.ai -- helps you find clothing online Abe -- fast answers about your finances Andy -- a personal Tax Accountant Ara -- helps you budget Bond -- helps you achieve your financial goals Mylo -- rounds up your everyday purchases and invest the spare change Olivia -- helps you manage your finances Responsive-- institutional-grade active portfolio management Roger -- helps you pay bills easily Wallet -- AI for your daily finance decisions Xoe.ai -- AI lending chatbot Firedrop -- websites designed automatically, just add content and publish Hashley -- ironic hashtag and comment generator for your photos Millions.ai Aerial -- home activity, movement and identity sensor Bridge.ai Eli -- helps you learn a new language from conversations through your day Kick.ai

Cisco today announced plans to acquire AI startup MindMeld for $125 million. Cisco decided to acquire MindMeld, a company that's been called "Siri on steroids," because many bot experiences today are disappointing, IoT and applications VP Rowan Trollope wrote in a blog post today. "Bringing the MindMeld team to Cisco is a giant leap forward in helping our customers experience the next generation of interactive, conversational interfaces." Cisco collaboration software competition includes other enterprise chat players including Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Chat, and Slack.

Microsoft is planning to turn Windows 10 PCs into smart home hubs in next major update, scheduled for September. According to internal documents seen by The Verge, HomeHub will support devices from Philips Hue, Nest, SmartThings, Insteon, and Wink. The update is aimed primarily at'kitchen-PCs' that are used by all the family, and Microsoft is reportedly working with HP and Lenovo to create PCs similar to Amazon's Echo Show, announced a few days ago. Shared calendars, to-do lists, notes, and apps will also be part of the update. Users will be able to change settings on smart home devices from across the room with Cortana, Microsoft's own virtual assistant.

The networking technology company said Thursday that it plans to buy MindMeld, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence, for $125 million. The deal is expected to close in early 2017. MindMeld, founded in 2011, builds software tools for coders to create chat bots that can recognize and respond to human voices. Music-streaming service Spotify, for example, has experimented with MindMeld's technology for people to search and play songs by talking to their smartphones. Considering MindMeld has roughly 20 employees based on the company's website, it's likely Cisco is buying the startup for its workers.

After already two decades, the Internet giants -- speaking of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Alibaba and Baidu -- are still collecting tons of data, filling their databases with information of everyone's knowledge, opinions, recommendations, locations, movements, buying behavior, relation status, lifestyle etc. This is not a secret and nothing new. And there is no end in sight. On the contrary, almost every month, new services or devices are released to provide a better user experience, make our life more convenient and increase our dose of digital addiction. Amazon, Google, Facebook and Co. have become ubiquitous in our life. And thanks to the Internet of Things, the gap between our analog and digital life is getting smaller and smaller.

With Amazon's Alexa getting smarter every day, soon enough you won't have to do much yourself. American Express is the latest company to tap into the virtual assistant's skills, allowing customers to use voice commands to check their account balance, review recent charges or make a payment. Alexa devices will also connect to Amex Offers, which is going to let card members browse limited-time deals that may be available through their card. It's worth noting American Express isn't the first financial service to bring these kind of features to Amazon's platform; Capital One started doing something similar earlier this year. If you have an Amex card, as well as an Alexa-enabled device, you can learn how to set this up right here.

The system alerts you when the meeting starts, and allows you to join or to indicate that you are running behind with a single click or tap. It provides a visual roster of attendees, late-comers, and those who skipped out entirely. It also provides broadly accessible mute controls in case another participant is typing or their dog is barking. Finally, Echo Show delivers high quality noise-cancelled audio and crisp, clear HD video that works across all user devices and with most conference room video systems. If you are not amiable to take the Video Call, the system will record a message and transcribe the audio into text, with the potential to overlay it in real time synchronization in the future.

When Microsoft brought its Office suite to Apple's iPad in 2014, many observers viewed it as a move to strengthen the company's presence in the mobile space -- even if it meant working with a fierce rival. It was also a sign that then-new CEO Satya Nadella was committed to extending his company's reach beyond laptops and desktops, where its Windows software already dominated the market (and still does.) Three years later, it's clear that Nadella remains committed to that plan. During this week's Build conference, an annual Microsoft event for software developers, the Redmond, Wash.-based firm showed off a new version of Windows, a new controller for virtual reality experiences, and improvements for its Cortana artificial intelligence software. Yes, Microsoft missed the boat on mobile.

A Halo-fan has built his own holographic virtual assistant based on the character Cortana from the Halo video game series. Developer Jared Archer released a teasing video this week showing off what his 3D companion could do. The hologram is seen seamlessly moving just like the real video game character and tells Mr Archer the weather forecast while interacting with a virtual screen. She is a smart artificial intelligence hologram that periodically appears in the player's visor, giving them hints and tips on the world around them. As the Halo series has progressed, the character has become one of the franchise's most beloved regulars.

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