It’s a bigger deal than just healthcare, says Microsoft, it’s about the future of AI-powered business.
Microsoft recently announced that it’s finished with its acquisition of speech recognition software maker Nuance Communications Inc. The news comes a year after Microsoft first announced plans to buy Nuance.
The deal, valued at close to $20 billion dollars, was Microsoft’s largest since its $26.2 billion LinkedIn acquisition in 2016. That is, until Microsoft announced a nearly $70 billion deal to buy game publisher Activision Blizzard earlier this year. That plan is still undergoing regulatory scrutiny. The Microsoft/Nuance deal cleared U.S. regulatory approval in 2021. But the plan was held up this past December, after the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an anti-competition investigation. The CMA finally granted its approval last week.
Burlington, MA-based Nuance Communications started life as an optical scanner company founded by famed inventor Ray Kurzweil. Through a series of acquisitions, the company, then ScanSoft, acquired speech recognition Dragon Systems in 2001, makers of a speech and voice recognition program called NaturallySpeaking. Nuance’s popular dictation and transcription software has seen broad professional use ever since, but it’s especially dominant in the healthcare industry. Doctors and healthcare workers use it to automatically transcribe patient notes and other records.
Microsoft and Nuance will use AI to create “frictionless, personalized customer experiences” – Nadella
In a press release noting the completion of the acquisition, Microsoft was careful to reassure the healthcare industry that Nuance’s products and technology will continue to serve them. But Microsoft says this deal is more than just about health care. It’s about using artificial intelligence (AI) to drive cloud-based solutions for healthcare, financial services, retail and telecommunications, said Microsoft. The company painted in broad strokes a vision of Nuance’s AI-based technology extending much further into the cloud ecosystem.
“Driven by a shared vision to build outcomes-based AI, Microsoft and Nuance will enable organizations across industries to accelerate their business goals with our security-focused, cloud-based solutions infused with powerful, vertically optimized AI. Customers will benefit from enhanced consumer, patient, clinician and employee experiences, and ultimately improved productivity and financial performance,” said Microsoft in a statement.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the acquisition helps position Microsoft to use AI to create “frictionless, personalized customer experiences” in any industry.
Microsoft said that Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin will remain in that position, now reporting to Scott Guthrie, who runs Microsoft Cloud + AI group.
