New services using AI and knowledge APIs will enable modern enterprise search.
May 29, 2020
Microsoft’s Project Cortex, capabilities that aim to advance internal knowledge networks using artificial intelligence, will arrive early this summer.
The company announced the imminent release of Project Cortex during last week’s Microsoft Build conference, its annual gathering of developers. At Build, held online because of COVID-19, company officials demonstrated Cortex, introduced during last fall’s Microsoft Ignite conference. The company has offered the private preview to more than 75 customers.
Microsoft’s Project Cortex is not a specific product; rather, it is a collection of taxonomies and knowledge APIs that enable the surfacing of data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. It provides those services through the Microsoft Graph.
“Cortex showcases what’s possible with Microsoft Graph, the gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365,” according to an update posted by Office GM Seth Patton.
Consisting of REST-based APIs and webhooks, the Microsoft Graph aims to provide a uniform programming model Microsoft 365 data. Besides the graph, Microsoft 365 as a platform includes Windows 10, Office and Enterprise Management + Security (EMS). The latter ensures Project Cortex solutions uniformly apply security policies and access control lists.
The Project Cortex APIs let developers embed search into content, exposed as topics when a user hovers over a term.
Microsoft’s Yina Arenas
“You can customize the way knowledge in your organization is surfaced and shared,” said Microsoft principal program manager Yina Arenas.
Arenas demonstrated the capabilities that customers and partners can create with Project Cortex during a keynote session at Build.
“Cortex then organizes that content and expertise across your teams and systems of record, interrelated topics such as projects, and then creates a knowledge network just for you and your organization,” she said.
In the demo, Arenas simulated a new employee at a company reading an email. By hovering over the word “core” in the message, it rendered a topic card image with a definition and context.
“All of this was automatically generated by mining the knowledge network behind Microsoft Graph,” Arenas explained. “In other words, Cortex generates knowledge tailored specifically and relevantly for you and your organization.”
Microsoft Graph Connectors
A key deliverable from Project Cortex are the Microsoft Graph connectors, which provide links to third-party apps and external data.
Microsoft’s James Lau
“The most critical one is probably search,” said Microsoft principal program manager James Lau, who leads the Cortex connectors team.
Lau said the graph connectors make data easily searchable through all endpoints accessible to the Microsoft Graph. Speaking during a Build technical session, Lau noted that Microsoft released a private preview of the connectors last fall.
Microsoft will extend the preview to partners and customers in the coming weeks, Lau said. Also, the company will add new connectors over the next few months, he said.
Lau noted that by importing external data, Project Cortex will use topic cards and topic pages to surface information.
“By building a graph connector and bringing in external data today, you can have search lit up immediately,” Lau said. “But the value of your connector will accrue more and more over time as more of these experiences light up in the future.”
Microsoft has created connectors that partners can link to …