Microsoft

Redmond, WA

The Microsoft Azure cloud computing service has 58 regional offices worldwide

www.microsoft.com/en-ushttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/

Core technologies: Speech recognition (SR), Speech synthesis (TTS), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Speaker Recognition (SKR), Translation, Machine Learning (ML)\

Analytics

Device and equipment control: Industrial equipment (IND)

Scope: Full, Specialized (SPC)

System: Cloud-based (CLD), On-Premises (PRM), , Hybrid, Edge



Summary

  • Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing service, includes support for many categories of applications. Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services includes options most related to the focus of the Bots&Assistants web site.
  • QnA Maker in Cognitive Services lets a company create a conversational question-and-answer layer over existing data.
  • Industries Microsoft lists as particular verticals include government, manufacturing, financial services, retail, health and life sciences, and energy.
  • Cognitive Services include Natural Language Processing (“Language Understanding”), speech-to-text (speech recognition), text-to-speech, speech translation, and speaker recognition.
  • Azure Language Understanding (NLP) can be used in creating apps, bots, and IoT devices.
  • The analytics option in Azure includes personalizing customer experiences.
  • Windows 10 development frameworks provide speech recognition, speech synthesis, and conversation support for developers building Windows applications.
  • Text Analytics detects sentiment, key phrases, and named entities.

Delving Deeper

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing service, where a company can run applications on servers managed by Microsoft. Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services is a category of applications that Azure supports most related to natural language uses such as bots and assistants. Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services includes Natural Language Processing (“Language Understanding”), supporting building natural language understanding into apps, bots, and IoT devices. It also includes speech-to-text (speech recognition), text-to-speech, speech translation, and speaker recognition. QnA Maker in Cognitive Services is a cloud-based API service that lets a company create a conversational question-and-answer layer over existing data. It can build a knowledge base by extracting questions and answers from semi-structured content, including FAQs, manuals, and documents. It answers users’ questions with answers automatically derived from the Q&As in the knowledge base andcontinually learns from user behavior.Also in Cognitive Services, Text Analytics can detect sentiment, key phrases, and named entities in unstructured text. Translator Text can detect and translate more than 60 supported languages. Text Translation can detect and translate more than 60 supported languages. A “Content Moderator” can detect potentially offensive or unwanted content. Bing Custom Search can create a custom search engine with ad-free results.Windows 10 development frameworks provide speech recognition, speech synthesis, and conversation support for developers building Windows applications without requiring using cloud services.