Microsoft buys AI start-up that schedules meetings like a personal assistant
Start-up will shut down service next month as its founders join Microsoft's ranks
Microsoft said on Monday it has agreed to acquire Genee, an artificial intelligence (AI) app that acts as a digital personal assistant to schedule meetings.
The start-up, which was founded in 2014, will shut down its service on September 1. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by Genee founders Ben Cheung and Charles Lee, who will join Microsoft.
It's unclear whether the product will be integrated with any of Microsoft's existing applications, but comments from the company suggest Genee's expertise could be used across Microsoft's Office 365 suite of products.
"As we continue to build new Office 365 productivity capabilities and services our customers value, I'm confident the Genee team will help us further our ambition to bring intelligence into every digital experience," Rajesh Jha, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Outlook and Office 365, said in a blog post announcing the deal.
Scheduling meetings can often involve a lot of back and forth over emails, something Genee solved with its solution.
This is how the process works.