Fast Company

WHY MICROSOFT WILL WIN

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ESTIMATED 2017 REVENUE

$96.2 billion

MARKET CAP*

$569.5 billion

EARLY INTEREST IN AI

In 1993, the company hired Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Xuedong Huang to lead its speechreco­gnition efforts; in 2016, Huang and his team’s algorithms exceeded humans’ transcript­ion capabiliti­es.

PHILOSOPHY

Machines will work with humans, not against them.

REVEALING QUOTE

“AI is at the intersecti­on of our ambitions,” CEO Satya Nadella told an audience of Microsoft partners in September 2016, suggesting that it will let the company “reason over large amounts of data and convert that into intelligen­ce.”

KEY ACQUISITIO­N

Linkedin ($26.2 billion, 2016).

The business network gives Microsoft a deep well of company and employee data to make it smarter.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMEN­T

Microsoft debuted a real-time AI system for its enterprise cloud customers in August, which could help it win business from companies that want to deploy initiative­s such as dynamic pricing and retail personaliz­ation.

WHY IT IS AHEAD

Microsoft is the tech giant most focused on converting AI directly into revenue, helping companies in a wide range of industries be more productive and effective.

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