Sachin Dev Duggal, Builder.ai CEO, April 19, 2023.
Scott Mullin | CNBC
London – microsoft doubled down on its artificial intelligence efforts by investing an undisclosed amount in Builder.ai, a startup that helps companies create applications without coding experience.
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, Builder.ai falls into a group of start-ups creating so-called ‘no-code’ and ‘low-code’ platforms. Its software allows anyone from tech-savvy artists wanting to sell their work online to design professionals with limited programming experience to develop and manage apps. .
Through a strategic partnership, Microsoft plans to integrate Builder.ai’s proprietary AI assistant, Natasha, into Teams video and chat software, enabling customers to build business apps within the platform. Builder.ai will also leverage Microsoft’s AI algorithms to enhance Natasha to make her sound more human, the company said.
According to Builder.ai, the partnership will give Builder.ai and its customers access to Microsoft’s suite of Azure cloud tools, including a suite of AI services offered by the company through a partnership with US startup OpenAI. It is said that Developers on the Microsoft Azure platform can also take advantage of Builder.ai’s network of experts, he added.
“We all believe the future of software is one where customers don’t need technical knowledge,” Dougal said in an interview with CNBC. “What we really do is bring together a world where customers can build software, run software, and host software.”
“For Microsoft, this not only opens up a whole new set of customers who are digitally native, but also opens the door for customers coming into the Azure cloud, where building that software is built on the Microsoft stack. and the core part of the Builder stack and from that perspective I think it’s very holistic and its mission is to power the next 100 million software applications .”
John Tinter, corporate vice president of business development at Microsoft, said the partnership “is an extension of our mission to enable every individual and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” said something.
“We believe Builder.ai will create a whole new category where anyone can be a developer, and new and deeper collaborations powered by Azure AI will bring the combined strength of both companies to enterprises around the world.” said Tinter in a statement.
Builder.ai and Microsoft declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Microsoft has recently significantly increased its investment in AI, pouring $13 billion into OpenAI, maker of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, and embedding the company’s AI language processing software into its Bing search engine and Office productivity apps. It is reported that
The deal represents a further bid for Microsoft to step up its efforts in AI. AI has become a key focus for the company as it seeks to become a technology leader and compete more aggressively in search with fellow tech giant Google.
of alphabetThe company, owned by , has made its own investment in AI, deploying ChatGPT rival Bard, aiming to make digital entities more conversational and human-like using the LaMDA language processing model.
Microsoft already offers its own suite of no-code app development tools. The company hopes to use Builder.ai to advance its expertise in this area.
A key element of the deal for Builder.ai is its endorsement of the world’s second most valuable technology company, Dougal said.
“Imagine if we were to talk to a big company…who would ask us about our capabilities at that point?” Dougal told CNBC. “It gives us a big impact before we go to market. [strategy], which itself benefits both partners. ”
Builder.ai has raised a total of $195 million to date, according to Crunchbase data. The company is one of a number of startups to benefit from a recent resurgence of investor interest in AI technology.
At the same time, advances in technology have raised concerns among researchers that the technology has become too powerful. In March, Elon Musk and apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak has written an open letter calling for a six-month pause in developing an AI stronger than OpenAI’s latest large-scale language model, GPT-4.
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