Microsoft accelerates digitalization of healthcare industry According to Bloomberg, it seems that Microsoft talks to buy artificial intelligence and speech technology company Nuance Communications. In fact, talks are ongoing and […]
According to Bloomberg, it seems that Microsoft talks to buy artificial intelligence and speech technology company Nuance Communications. In fact, talks are ongoing and the discussions could still fall apart. However, it seems that agreement could be announced as soon as in the week of April 12th. Nuance laid the groundwork for the voice software used in Apple’s Siri, and is an almost $13 billion market value.
Note: The deal was officially announced on April 12th
Since 2019, Microsoft and Nuance are working together to improve their technologies. For example, they offer the technology that allows doctors to capture voice conversations from patient. In addition, they can enter the data into electronic medical records. As a result, the deal can help Microsoft accelerate the digitalization of the health-care industry.
Nuance Communications is an American multinational computer software technology corporation. Its head office is in Burlington, Massachusetts, Boston. The US tech company offers speech recognition and artificial intelligence.
According to its homepage, Nuance Communications’ purpose is to elevate its alliances. They build technology that frees users to be their best selves and enables businesses to do their best work. In doing so, they continually bring out the best in each other. As a result, Nuance had net income of $91mn and earned $1.48bn revenue in 2020.
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company and its head office is in Redmond, Washington. The US tech giant develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers and related services. It offers various famous software including the operating system of Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer.
Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. According to its homepage, Microsoft has more than 160K employees in the world, as of December 31st, 2020. When it comes to function, Engineering, Global Sales and LinkedIn accounts for 49.3%, 16.9% and 9.4% of its workforce, respectively.
A deal for Nuance would rank as Microsoft’s second-largest acquisition. This is because its largest acquisition was LinkedIn Corp in 2016, and the deal was $24bn, in fact. Microsoft has enhanced its artificial intelligence (AI) capability since decades ago. For instance, the US tech giant has assigned thousands of employees to its AI work. As a result, the company offered tools that allow customers to build applications understanding and translating speech, recognizing images and detecting anomalies.
Masayoshi Son, who is the founder of Softbank, mentioned in the other article, “The Internet revolutionized only advertisement and retail industry.” Furthermore, he stated that these industries accounted for small ratio of our GDP. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has much more potential to disrupt and improve various industries including healthcare, education, and mobility.
The further collaboration between Microsoft and Nuance Communications is a good example that AI revolutionizes the healthcare industry. Thus, we can expect Microsoft might be a game changer in the industry, too.
