Microsoft Brings AI to Power BI, Acquires Startup Bot Developer

Microsoft seeks to bring artificial intelligence and chatbots as a mainstream part of the workplace and it's taking steps to make it easier for partners to deliver AI capabilities directly into its popular Power BI reporting tool. At an event in San Francisco Wednesday, company officials revealed new AI capabilities coming to its Power BI self-service analytics tool with its new Azure Cognitive Services containers for partners without deep data-science development skills to deliver intelligent apps. Also looking to make it easier for partners to develop bots, Microsoft announced it has agreed to acquire XOXCO, a startup with expertise in conversational AI. Founded in 2013, XOXCO created the first commercial chatbot for Slack, a meeting scheduling app called Howdy. XOXCO is also known for its Botkit developer tool for building chatbot apps and providing native integration with messaging platforms.