Microsoft has completed its $19.7 billion acquisition of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) expert Nuance Communications.
With the acquisition, which is Microsoft's largest since it bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016, the company aims to expand its cloud services for healthcare.
Mark Benjamin will remain Nuance's CEO and will report to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and AI group.
The combined cloud-based AI solutions from Microsoft and Nuance will help address healthcare organizations’ critical needs, from reducing burnout among clinicians to improving early disease detection, treatment, and care.
“Completion of this significant and strategic acquisition brings together Nuance’s best-in-class conversational AI and ambient intelligence with Microsoft’s secure and trusted industry cloud offerings,” said Guthrie.
“This powerful combination will help providers offer more affordable, effective and accessible healthcare, and help organizations in every industry create more personalized and meaningful customer experiences. I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome the Nuance team to our Microsoft family,” added Guthrie.
In addition, Microsoft will leverage Nuance’s secure omnichannel customer engagement solutions to enhance organizations’ ability to better serve consumers, patients, and employees by providing them with the services they need, through the channels of their choosing.
“Combining the power of Nuance’s deep vertical expertise and proven business outcomes across healthcare, financial services, retail, telecommunications and other industries with Microsoft’s global cloud ecosystems will enable us to accelerate our innovation and deploy our solutions more quickly, more seamlessly and at greater scale to solve our customers’ most pressing challenges,” commented Mark Benjamin.
“As Microsoft and Nuance come together as one organization, we are excited about the opportunities ahead for our technology, employees, customers and partners.”
