Microsoft's Azure Machine Learning is and end-to-end data science and analytics solution that helps professional data scientists to prepare data, develop experiments, and deploy models in the cloud. It replaces the Azure Machine Learning Workbench.
$0
per month
Google Assistant
Score 9.3 out of 10
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Users can build custom conversational experiences using Google Assistant’s voice and visual APIs. Take users on journeys through a product, using Assistant’s natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities and developer tools.
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Cortana (discontinued)
Score 7.5 out of 10
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Microsoft's Cortana was a general purpose productivity assistant, that has been deprecated as a standalone product.
I'm in a Me vs. The World environment rather often. I can connect to my outer realm when heading to live meetings. Auditions, job assignments all via my assistant. I like having the ability to capture the moment and rewrite it as well. This is a primary driver for me. Sometimes branching out or when collaborating, I think I work a little harder in the moment than Google Assistant might but that is moreso my limitations and not the feature so much. I catch this scene when I'm in a group environment or at times having to create and respond to a larger scale event. Not a deal breaker for me however.
It's easy for anyone who is expecting some simple AI problems like fetching the keywords, understanding the intent, language translation, etc. to be solved from an existing database and all they need is to connect to their APIs via a subscription model. But for complex use cases, there is still room for improvement like customization of underlying AI models for a specific use case like identifying some unique identifiers with respect to industry.
User friendliness: This is by far the most user friendly tool I've seen in analytics. You don't need to know how to code at all! Just create a few blocks, connect a few lines and you are capable of running a boosted decision tree with a very high R squared!
Speed: Azure ML is a cloud based tool, so processing is not made with your computer, making the reliability and speed top notch!
Cost: If you don't know how to code, this is by far the cheapest machine learning tool out there. I believe it costs less than $15/month. If you know how to code, then R is free.
Connectivity: It is super easy to embed R or Python codes on Azure ML. So if you want to do more advanced stuff, or use a model that is not yet available on Azure ML, you can simply paste the code on R or Python there!
Microsoft environment: Many many companies rely on the Microsoft suite. And Azure ML connects perfectly with Excel, CSV and Access files.
I think newer, complementary ideas are a bit sharper than Google Assistant especially in a Q&A environment or when seeking some depth to a subject. That enhancement is to be expected I feel. And Google Assistant is not so self limiting so I don't have a lot of improvement needs because I use this for what I've become accustomed to and for the ability overall.
It is always important to do your best around hectic places, in bad tower signal areas or even if trying to do something new while using Google Assistant. Have patience in the setting. It pays off.
I feel this can be adjusted and after some trial and error you sort of start knowing what will work and how. And I have to say the overall impact becomes personal and we are all different. I'm small scale and as I've said, it works.
It is easier to learn, it has a very cost effective license for use, it has native build and created for Azure cloud services, and that makes it perfect when compared against the alternatives. As a Microsoft tool, it has been built to contain many visual features and improved usability even for non-specialist users.
I chose this because it was easier for me and can be accessed via mobile and laptop too because it enables cross device support because it helps in adding more depth to my life, and can help me save tons of time.
IBM Watson Assistant has been early into this market and has improved a lot over time compared to Azure AI Cortana. More documentation related to the services. But Ease of integration Azure AI ranks over IBM Watson Assistant. And again in terms of services offered under the ecosystem, Azure AI precedes IBM Watson Assitant.
Productivity: Instead of coding and recoding, Azure ML helped my organization to get to meaningful results faster;
Cost: Azure ML can save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars for an organization, since the license costs around $15/month per seat.
Focus on insights and not on statistics: Since running a model is so easy, analysts can focus more on recommendations and insights, rather than statistical details
Difficult to ascertain the ROI as we are a software house who have developed a module in our application using Cortana. However for companies that use our software I would say the use of sentiment analysis in our application could free up at least 1 full time resource to be used elsewhere in their organisation.
