Microsoft Buys Up AI Calendar Service Genee For Office 365

Microsoft has acquired artificial intelligence-powered scheduling service Genee, and plans to integrate the software with Office 365 to give users more calendar power.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Microsoft will shut down Genee’s standalone service on September 1, before plugging it into Office 365 to act as a personal assistant when booking meetings.

Language processing

Genee only got off the ground in 2014, and claims the acquisition is a result of the company being at the forefront of natural-language processing, AI, and chatbot technologies.

Microsoft gave some details about how Genee’s software will work in Office 365 in a blog post by Rajeesh Jha, corporate vice president of Outlook and Office 365.

“Say you want to meet a potential customer, Diana, for coffee. Simply send an email to Diana and copy Genee, like you would a personal assistant. Genee understands that you want to ‘Find a time to meet with Diana for coffee next week’ and will streamline the process by emailing her directly with appropriate options that work with your calendar and preferences. Genee will even send out the meeting invite on your behalf – freeing up your time. A coffee meeting scheduled in a snap,” he said.

As for existing Genee users, their time is up. The Genee service will shutter in a week’s time. On a blog post announcing the sell, Genee co-founders Charles Lee and Ben Cheung said: “We were extremely fortunate to find many who believed in the vision and supported us with their resources, talent, time, and advice along the way, which made Genee possible.

“A new beginning means the end of another. The Genee service will shut down on September 1, 2016.

“We consider Microsoft to be the leader in personal and enterprise productivity, AI, and virtual assistant technologies, so we look forward to bringing our passion and expertise to a team that is committed to delivering cutting-edge language and intelligence services.”

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