Microsoft to deepen AI push

Consumers check out products at Microsoft's booth at a tech fair in Beijing. Microsoft Corp plans to deepen its artificial intelligence push in China by teaming up with healthcare players and empowering them with algorithms needed to prevent and detect certain diseases, according to the company's top executive in China. Through partnerships with United States pharmaceutical major Eli Lilly and Co and Chinese image cognition startup Airdoc, the tech giant plans to create an AI-powered ecosystem in China that can reduce the burden on the country's growing healthcare system, said Alain Crozier, CEO of Microsoft in China. "China is going to play a fantastic and big role in this field ... we (need to) make sure companies partner together in order to resolve some of those big challenges that not only touch China but the rest of the world," Crozier told China Daily in Shanghai. Under the agreements, Microsoft will extend its AI and cloud computing capabilities in the realm of medical imaging and disease screening to its partners, and will optimize workflow such as digitalization of medical records using natural language processing.