Universal Electronics (NASDAQ:UEIC) is collaborating with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) on a smart home digital assistant platform built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform using artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) services.
The two companies have collaborated to offer a white-label smart home hub platform, Nevo Butler, with an integrated digital assistant, as well as a range of turnkey kits for home safety and security, energy management, and entertainment control, in residential or hospitality settings.
Nevo Butler, announced earlier this month at CES, is a voice-enabled smart home hub with nevo.ai integrated and built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform leveraging Azure IoT and AI services, including Microsoft's virtual assistant solution with Azure Bot Service and Azure Cognitive Services.
"With Nevo Butler, we are democratizing access to an essential technology where consumers' brands and service providers can quickly and efficiently deliver new services across many categories. Our sensors and hubs are pre-integrated with a configurable digital assistant where these brands can remain in charge of the relationship with the end consumer," said Arsham Hatambeiki, SVP Product and Technology for UEI. "Microsoft has proven to be a reliable and innovative partner in delivering this flexibility to brands, and choice to consumers."
"Today and in the future, we assume every home product experience will become frictionless, controlled naturally through conversation and voice, in a personalized and trusted experience," said Lili Cheng, CVP, Conversational AI, at Microsoft. "By partnering with UEI on Nevo Butler and Quickset Cloud, we will enable UEI customers to create custom virtual assistant solutions, for millions of home products, powered by Microsoft's AI and Azure IoT services."