Did You Miss Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence Announcement?

Microsoft's new division will also include engineering leaders and teams from Microsoft's Information Platform, Cortana and Bing, as well as Ambient Computing and Robotics teams.

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Microsoft noted in its press release that the newly formed division will build on its deep focus on artificial intelligence and accelerate the delivery of new capabilities to customers across agents, apps, services and infrastructure.

Microsoft broke down its strategy by segment:

• Agents: Use artificial intelligence to fundamentally change human and computer interaction through digital personal assistants such as Cortana.
• Applications: Infuse every single application with artificial intelligence.
• Services: Make intelligence capabilities available to every application developer in the world.
• Infrastructure: Create the world's "most powerful AI supercomputer" using Azure and make it available to everyone.

The new group will be led by Harry Shum, a Microsoft executive with two decades of experience. His new title will be executive vice president of the Microsoft AI and Research Group.

"Microsoft has been working in artificial intelligence since the beginning of Microsoft Research, and yet we've only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible," said Shum, executive vice president of the Microsoft AI and Research Group. "Today's move signifies Microsoft's commitment to deploying intelligent technology and democratizing AI in a way that changes our lives and the world around us for the better. We will significantly expand our efforts to empower people and organizations to achieve more with our tools, our software and services, and our powerful, global-scale cloud computing capabilities."

"We live in a time when digital technology is transforming our lives, businesses and the world, but also generating an exponential growth in data and information," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. "At Microsoft, we are focused on empowering both people and organizations, by democratizing access to intelligence to help solve our most pressing challenges. To do this, we are infusing AI into everything we deliver across our computing platforms and experiences."

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