7. Scott Guthrie

Microsoft completed its acquisition of Nuance Communications, the provider of AI-based speech recognition software, for $19.7 billion.

Microsoft believes Nuance will have the most significant impact on health care, where Nuance’s speech recognition technology is popular, Microsoft signaled.

Scott Guthrie, executive VP of Microsoft’s Cloud + AI group, made waves for giving us hope about the promise of affordable health care.

“The combination of Nuance’s deep vertical AI expertise, and the richness of Microsoft’s industry cloud offerings will deliver more affordable, effective and accessible health care for all,” he said.

Learn how Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance will also enhance Microsoft’s efforts to create more intelligent contact centers.