SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Box (NYSE:BOX), a leader in cloud content management, today
announced Box
Skills – a framework for applying state-of-the-art machine learning
tools such as computer vision, video indexing, and sentiment analysis to
content stored in Box. With Box Skills, enterprises will be able to
uncover insights and reimagine business processes that have
traditionally been too costly or impractical to digitize and automate.
At BoxWorks 2017, Box showcased skills powered by IBM Watson, Microsoft
Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as Box Skills Kit, a set of developer
resources for building custom skills.
“We are in the midst of a revolution in enterprise software driven by
artificial intelligence and machine learning, and we are making Box the
most intelligent cloud content management platform in the world,” said
Aaron Levie, cofounder and CEO of Box. “As businesses continue to drive
digital transformation, they need to realize more value and intelligence
from their content. Box Skills is a first-of-its-kind framework that
will make it possible to digitize almost any business process on Box.”
At BoxWorks 2017, Box previewed three
initial Box Skills currently in development, leveraging
state-of-the-art machine learning tools from IBM Watson, Microsoft Azure
and Google Cloud to solve common business use cases, including:
-
Audio Intelligence: Uses audio files to create and index a text
transcript that can be easily searched and manipulated in a variety of
use cases; demonstrated at BoxWorks using technology from IBM Watson.
-
Video Intelligence: Provides transcription, topic detection and
detects people to allow users to quickly find the information they
need in a video; demonstrated at BoxWorks using Microsoft Cognitive
Services.
-
Image Intelligence: Detects individual objects and concepts in
image files, captures text through optical character recognition
(OCR), and automatically adds keyword labels to images to easily build
metadata on image catalogs; demonstrated at BoxWorks using Google
Cloud Platform.
“IBM has shown how data-intensive industries are being transformed
through the use of Watson,” said David Kenny, Senior Vice President, IBM
Watson and Cloud Platform, IBM. “Now we’re enabling enterprises across
the globe to combine the rich content in Box with the AI power of Watson
to reimagine critical business processes and how they get work done. Box
Skills is an extension of our strategic partnership with Box aimed at
helping businesses work more efficiently, solve challenges and seize
opportunities for innovation.”
“Box Skills brings together Box’s cloud content management and Microsoft
Azure’s industry leading AI services to deliver intelligent insights for
customers,” said Scott Guthrie, EVP of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise
division. “We’re excited to see how the general availability of Box on
Azure, that starts November 1st, will help benefit customers
in their digital transformation journey.”
Box Skills Kit
Box also introduced Box Skills Kit, a set of developer resources for
building custom Box Skills. Custom Skills can include chaining together
multiple skills to enable intelligent business processes, leveraging
third-party machine learning solutions for a specific workflow, or
training a skill to handle data unique to a business or industry.
The company demonstrated several examples of potential future custom
skills at BoxWorks, including:
-
A skill that combines IBM’s Watson Speech to Text and Natural Language
Understanding services on the IBM Cloud to process customer service
recordings and automatically surface priority issues or identify
product names that generate positive or negative customer responses.
The ongoing IBM and Box partnership is helping organizations large and
small better leverage their data.
-
A skill developed by Ephesoft
to detect information in a form or document – such as a legal contract
– and extract it into a custom metadata card in Box that helps
automate a process – such as employee onboarding or a loan application.
-
A specialized image recognition skill that uses a company’s
proprietary data stored in Box to train its own machine learning model
for recognizing images of its own products.
Box Skills Kit will enable an ecosystem of cloud services providers,
independent software vendors, systems integrators, and enterprises
themselves to create custom Box Skills implementations.
Box Graph
Also at BoxWorks 2017, the company showcased its Box Graph technology.
Box Graph is an intelligent network of content, relationships, and
activity that Box will leverage to power new experiences and services
for both individual Box users and enterprises. Box Graph will be
continuously enriched by machine learning techniques and governed by
Box’s built-in permissions, security, and compliance standards to ensure
all data always stays in a customer’s secure Box instance and that users
can only see and interact with the files and content they are allowed to
access.
The company debuted the first new experience powered by Box Graph,
called Feed, a personalized activity feed that curates and surfaces the
most relevant updates, insights and content for each Box user. With Feed
every employee will be able to:
-
Immediately see what requires their attention and always be informed
on the content that they are collaborating on with their teams.
-
Discover content recommended to them based on their activity and
network of collaborators.
-
See trending content that is currently popular within their company.
Feed is just the beginning of how Box Graph will enable new intelligent
experiences and services in Box. Other anticipated applications will
include enhanced search, personalized file and app recommendations, and
new security services like automatic anomaly and threat detection.
“The power of cloud content management is that you have one, centralized
and secure place for all your business content in the cloud – no data
siloes, no fragmented systems, no shadow IT,” said Jeetu Patel, Chief
Product Officer for Box. “Box Skills and Box Graph represent a truly
practical application of intelligence for the enterprise, ensuring our
customers can realize incredible value from every piece of content they
have in Box.”
Learn more about Box’s new intelligence capabilities:
Pricing and Availability
The Box Skills framework, Skills Kit for Developers, and skills for
Audio and Video recognition are currently in development, with beta
availability and pricing expected early next year. The Image Recognition
skill leveraging Google Cloud is currently available in beta.
The new Box Feed is slated to be available to Box users next year.
About Box
Box (NYSE:BOX) is the cloud content management company that empowers
enterprises to revolutionize how they work by securely connecting their
people, information and applications. Founded in 2005, Box powers more
than 76,000 businesses globally, including AstraZeneca, General
Electric, P&G, and The GAP. Box is headquartered in Redwood City, CA,
with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more
about Box, visit http://www.box.com/.
SAFE HARBOR FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding (a) the expected
availability, timing and market acceptance of the Box Skills framework,
the Box Skills Kit, and specific skills powered by integrations with
third-party solutions, (b) the benefits that are expected to be derived
by Box, its customers and other stakeholders from the Box Skills
framework, including Box Skills Kit and third-party integrations, and
(c) the expected availability, timing and market acceptance of Box
Graph. Statements including words such as “anticipate”, “believe”,
“estimate”, “expect”, “future” or “will” and statements in the future
tense are forward-looking statements. The achievement or success of the
matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks,
uncertainties and assumptions, which, if they do not fully materialize
or prove incorrect, could cause the availability of the Box Skills
framework, the Box Skills Kit, third-party integrations, and Box Graph,
as well as Box’s financial results, to differ materially from those
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks,
uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, risks
associated with: the successful development and integration of Box
Skills with technology provided by third parties such as IBM, Microsoft
and Google; the ability of Box to agree to commercially acceptable terms
with each of these third parties; evolving data privacy laws and
regulations; market acceptance of, and customer demand for, Box Skills
and Box Graph; changes in product plans or roadmaps; product development
or integration delays; and changes in the relationship between Box and
Box’s third-party technology partners such as IBM, Microsoft and Google
due to the business environment, competitive factors or other factors.
Further information on these and other factors that could affect the
success of Box Skills and Box Graph or the financial results derived
therefrom, can be found in the documents that Box files with or
furnishes to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most
recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed by Box. All forward-looking statements
in this press release are based on information available to Box as of
the date hereof. Box assumes no obligation, nor does it intend, to
update these forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or
circumstances that arise after the date on which this press release was
first issued.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this press release or
other public statements by Box are not currently available and may not
be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Box’s services
and products should make their purchase decisions based upon features
that are currently available.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171011005403/en/
Source: Box