Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella announced an intention to “aggressively” innovate in the contact center and healthcare spaces during an earnings call.
The statement follows the completion of its Nuance acquisition in March, which opens up a realm of new AI-driven opportunities for Microsoft in these arenas.
Shedding more light on these plans, Nadella stated:
For me, the thing that’s exciting is Nuance is a platform layer for these AI-driven applications that are getting deployed, whether it’s in healthcare or even in the enterprise contact center… You’ll see us pretty aggressively go innovate there and grow the impact of these solutions.
Already, Nuance is a widely-recognized leader in conversational AI and voice biometrics. Combining these capabilities with the Dynamics 365 Customer Service CCaaS platform – unveiled in November 2021 – is likely to be another longer-term goal for Microsoft as it ramps up its native capabilities.
Such a trend came to the fore last month as Microsoft extended the reach of its Dynamics 365 contact center applications by launching native numbers in the UK and Denmark. Effectively, this enables companies to build a Dynamics 365 contact center in both countries.
However, the Nuance deal will open up further avenues for innovation. As Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud & AI Group at Microsoft, said:
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.
A specific example of how Microsoft will use AI to benefit healthcare experiences is to reduce physician burdens, which Nadella highlighted on the earnings call. However, Nuance also offers an array of healthcare professional, diagnostic, and professional solutions to transform experiences for patients and employees, which the company may now harness.
In doing so, Guthrie believes that Microsoft is paving the way for “more affordable, effective and accessible healthcare.”
