Microsoft announced the purchase of Artificial Intelligence specialist Nuance Communications for $16 billion.
Nuance Communications and Microsoft announced in 2019 a collaboration in the development of ambient clinical intelligence technologies. Microsoft's acquisition of the company is aimed at developing cloud computing technologies for healthcare.
Nuance has provided services to about 77% of hospitals in the United States, including technologies in clinical speech recognition, medical transcription and medical imaging. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft explained that, "Nuance provides the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery and is a pioneer in the real-world application of enterprise AI."
Nadella explained, that AI, is the technology with the highest priority and that its medical application is urgent and explained the plans they have at Microsoft following the acquisition of Nuance. "Together, with our partner ecosystem, we will put advanced AI solutions into the hands of professionals everywhere to drive better decision-making and create more meaningful connections, as we accelerate growth of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and Nuance.”
Mark Benjamin the CEO of Nuance, explained the importance of AI, in the latest projects they have developed, "Over the past three years, Nuance has streamlined its portfolio to focus on the healthcare and enterprise AI segments, where there has been accelerated demand for advanced conversational AI and ambient solutions."
Nuance was an important part of the launch of Siri, Apple's virtual assistant. Some of its products include technologies for making radiology reports through the analysis of doctor-patient conversations.
