MSIgnite updates on conversational AI at a glance

Every year somewhere at the end of September Microsoft’s biggest conference Ignite attracts thousands of people with a massive amount of news and big announcements. To keep up with all these awesome news is nearly impossible, as there is so much to explore in this very short period of time. Therefore, I try to sum up and link to all big announcements and news Microsoft made during the Ignite 2018 on the topic of conversational AI…

Bot Framework#

• Microsoft Bot Builder v4 SDK hits GA status
• New Azure Bot Service template “Virtual Assistant” introduced
• New Azure Bot Service template “Enterprise Bot” introduced
• More than 60 Bot Builder samples published for Bot Builder v4 SDK in .NET, JS
• Updated documentation on the Azure Bot Service & MS Bot Framework for v4 SDK
• Bot Framework Web Chat control fully customizable

Cognitive Services#

• QnAMaker supports Chit-Chat
• New built-in entity types for people names and geographic locations in LUIS
• Microsoft releases platform to build company-specific skills for Cortana
• Announcing Speech service: A new service combining all speech capabilities in a single endpoint
• Video Indexer hit GA status