Amy is the future of human resources. I met Amy because she works for Abby. I met Abby through HR UndergroundX. Abby told me about a new technology she was using to recruit candidates for her startup clients. "Abby – It was nice meeting you the other night. I'd love to get together and have coffee. "…Amy CC'd has my schedule and will reach out to coordinate with you.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it has acquired an AI startup called Genee for an undisclosed sum. The startup, founded in 2014, has built a platform that aims to help people manage their busy lives by acting as their virtual assistant and helping them to schedule meetings. It aims to remove the pain of emailing back and forth to find a time and a place that works for everyone. It is particularly well suited to organising large groups, Microsoft claims. Founded by Ben Cheung and Charles Lee, (who will now join Microsoft), Genee uses natural language processing and optimised decision-making algorithms to make the virtual assistant as similar to a human assistant as possible.

The blending of home-based diagnostic platforms with medical care at home is arriving. The Tricorder XPRIZE competition is well underway, with several teams set to compete in the final stages. Leading contenders include CloudDx and Scanadu, a company started at our first Exponential Medicine program, have successfully leveraged crowdfunding to enable their clinical trials. Gale by 19Labs is a next generation "first aid kit meets home health center" (see the below video for a demo) exemplifying how integration of home diagnostics paired with menu-driven (and potentially AI-driven) assistance and optional telemedicine connectivity can provide increased access to home-based diagnosis, triage and management of minor bumps and scrapes and also more complex medical conditions. Interactive and engaging, from coaching on diet and nutrition to reminding you to take your medications or offering psychological support and follow up -- the chatbots are on their way.

Tech giant Microsoft has acquired artificial intelligence (AI)-based scheduling service Genee that simplifies the scheduling and rescheduling of large group meetings for companies. Microsoft will integrate the AI technology into Office 365 before shutting down Genee. Co-founders Ben Cheung and Charles Lee, who plan to join Microsoft, started Genee in 2014 to simplify the time-consuming task of scheduling (and rescheduling) meetings. "It's especially useful for large groups and for when you don't have access to someone's calendar," Jha added. Genee uses natural language processing and optimised decision-making algorithms so that interacting with a virtual assistant is just like interacting with a human one.

Microsoft has bought a startup to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities, and rival Apple confirmed it has boosted its health focus with an acquisition of its own. Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of its deal to buy Genee, which specialises in using machine smarts to handle the time-sucking task of scheduling meetings. "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," Outlook and Office 365 corporate vice president Rajesh Jha said in a blog post. For example, Genee can be copied into an email exchange to act as a virtual assistant of sorts to pin down a time for a business or social meeting. Jha touted Genee as having designed "an intelligent virtual assistant specialized in the appointment decision."

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On Monday, August 22, Microsoft Corp. has announced the acquisition of intelligent scheduling startup Genee, as part of the company's efforts to embed artificial intelligence in its digital experiences. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft's Genee acquisition is part of the company's strategy to use artificial intelligence (AI) in order to improve the digital experience of its customers. The purchasing of the startup company and its app Genee will be used by Microsoft mainly for enhancing the intelligent capabilities of its Office apps suite. At the moment the details of the acquisition are not known, as the deal's terms were not yet disclosed. The vice president of Microsoft's Outlook and Office 365 business, Rajesh Jha, explained in a blog post that Genee is a startup that provided a virtual assistant for scheduling appointments and the acquisition will help building new Office 365 productivity services and capabilities.

By 2020, we will all have an Invisible Friend. Whether we call it Siri, Alexa, OK Google, or a chatbot, we are entering a world where an intelligence assistant recognizes our "intent." This could spawn a massive consumer behavior shift, as AI-influenced bots would mean far fewer Google searches by humans. This invisible friend would learn from its mistakes, maintain context, and continue to expand into new areas of expertise through judicious use of Knowledge Management (see below landscape). Although 2020 is our destination, now is a time of heightened activity among the companies that provide the elements of Intelligent Assistance.

Back in June, reports came out that Amazon plans to launch a 10-a-month standalone music service similar to Spotify, Apple Music and other subscription-based options out there. According to Recode, though, the tech titan is also gearing up to introduce a second, cheaper offering that will only cost you 5 a month. It will only work with the company's Alexa-powered Echo speakers. Other than that, Recode says it's just like your typical paid music service: you can choose what to play, and you won't get interrupted by ads. Amazon's Echo speakers can already play music from various sources, including Spotify, Pandora and its very own Prime Music.

Microsoft has acquired Genee, a startup that provided a virtual assistant for scheduling appointments. The deal, announced Tuesday, will bring the Genee team into the Microsoft fold and put them to work on bringing intelligence into Office 365. Genee's service lets users loop in an artificial intelligence assistant that could interpret sentences like "set up lunch at some point this week" and turn them into calendar appointments. Acquiring Genee is part of Microsoft's ongoing crusade to build intelligent productivity software and services using AI. The company has focused on that area under the tenure of CEO Satya Nadella, with features like Office Delve, which finds documents shared within an organization that are relevant to a user, and Focused Inbox in Outlook, which filters unimportant email into a separate tab so it's not cluttering a user's experience. The Genee service will be shutting down on Sept. 1 as part of the deal.