What you missed in Big Data: AI continues to gain momentum

Artificial intelligence technology is finding its way to every corner of the modern enterprise. Last week Google set out to help organizations embrace the trend faster by acquiring a startup called API.AI Inc. that has developed a cloud-based chatbot builder. The platform provides pre-packaged communications modules, a repository of encyclopedic data and other components that can be quickly cobbled together into a working artificial intelligence. API.AI claims that companies can use its service to build everything from Slack-based bots focused on a specific task to standalone virtual assistants capable of taking a wide range of different requests. Google will likely make the technology part of its public cloud in the wake of the acquisition to try to gain an edge over better-established providers like Amazon.com Inc. Oracle Corp. is pursuing a similar goal with the competing chatbot development tool that it unveiled at its annual customer conference last week.