Cloud giant Microsoft has announced it is to acquire software developer
XOXCO. XOXCO, which has headquarters in Austin, Texas, United States, is considered a startup and was established in 2008. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) company builds digital products (including apps, websites, and workflow tools) and allows its customers to focus on core competencies by enabling them to launch software solutions. Microsoft’s motivation for the acquisition was to enhance its bot development and conversational AI capabilities. This is the fourth AI company Microsoft has acquired in 2018.
XOXCO created ‘Howdy’ - Slack’s first commercial bot which enables users to schedule meetings. XOXCO has also been an active contributor to GitHub, which Microsoft acquired in June of this year. “With this acquisition, we are continuing to realize our approach of democratizing AI development, conversation and dialog, and integrating conversational experiences where people communicate,” explained the Corporate Vice President, Conversational AI, Lili Cheng on the Microsoft blog.
XOXCO’s technology will feed into Microsoft’s recently announced Virtual Assistant Accelerator solution. The solution utilizes the Microsoft Bot Framework (which is available as a Microsoft Azure service), answers basic questions, and helps users find information on local services.
“Our goal is to make AI accessible and valuable to every individual and organization, amplifying human ingenuity with intelligent technology,” explained Lili Cheng, also on the company’s blog. “To do this, Microsoft is infusing intelligence across all its products and services to extend individuals’ and organizations’ capabilities and make them more productive, providing a powerful platform of AI services and tools that makes innovation by developers and partners faster and more accessible, and helping transform business by enabling breakthroughs to current approaches and entirely new scenarios that leverage the power of intelligent technology.”
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