Microsoft is bringing bots to Skype -- and everywhere else

Microsoft's recently launched, A.I.-powered bot Tay may have embarrassed the company when Twitter users taught the machine how to be racist, but Microsoft hasn't given up on the future of bot development. At Microsoft's annual Build conference in San Francisco today, CEO Satya Nadella unveiled the company's plans to bring the world of bots to "conversational platforms" – meaning not only Skype, but also other communications tools like Slack, Outlook, LINE, and more. News of the bots' unveiling was previously reported by Bloomberg, but today's onstage demonstrations revealed how bots, including Microsoft's own virtual assistant Cortana, aim to help pave the way for the future of communication, productivity, and interactions with businesses and brands. In Skype, the company showed off rich Cortana integration which put the assistant directly into the app where she could help users do things like identify the persons, places and things in your messages, underline them, and then display more info in a card-like interface when clicked. She is also able to help you perform a variety of tasks, like adding items to your calendar, booking travel or hotel rooms, or even pre-populating conversations to friends with text.