Microsoft intends to significantly simplify how people find organizational information through internal knowledge networks. It's via new technology set to appear next year, revealed as Project Cortex. If Project Cortex works as Microsoft envisions, it will streamline, or in many cases eliminate, the need for individuals to interrupt their work to search for internal information. Project Cortex, introduced at this month's Microsoft Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida, was a stealth effort in the works for more than two years. Project Cortex also promises to give Microsoft's vast partner ecosystem much to digest going into 2020, particularly as customers look to utilize it to enhance their collaboration and employee productivity efforts and Microsoft begins offering training and enablement for partners.

Developing a master plan to transform John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Keeping beachgoers safe from polluted waters in New Zealand with advanced analytics. Those are just a few of the thousands of complex projects delivered each year by Mott MacDonald, a global engineering, management and development consulting firm headquartered in London. With 180 principal offices in 50 countries, the company helps solve some of the world's most urgent social, environmental and economic challenges. Because Mott MacDonald doesn't create physical products, its success relies on the knowledge and expertise of its 16,000 employees.

Announced at Microsoft's annual Ignite conference in Orlando, Fla., the tool is the first major product launch for Microsoft 365 since Microsoft Teams, an enterprise collaboration tool announced in 2017. Microsoft 365 includes Office 365, a cloud-based suite of apps including Outlook, Word and PowerPoint; Windows 10; and Microsoft's security services for businesses. The tool uses AI models to comb through millions of data points that a business stores in Microsoft services, including those found in emails, documents and calendars. It then automatically generates "topic cards" about company projects, products, customers and internal experts. "It's a way to help [employees] get access to knowledge, enterprise and learning, within the context of their work," said Jeff Teper, corporate vice president of Microsoft Office 365.