Proactive intelligent personal assistant

• US 10,666,594 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2018
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Pfriem, Zachary Adam, Vitazko, Mark Jozef, Frew, Jared, Nelson, Jason Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US16/188,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20190081916A1
• Time in Patent Office: 560 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

Non-limiting examples of the present disclosure describe proactive action by an intelligent personal assistant application/service to improve functionality of one or more applications. In one example, an intelligent personal assistant service may interface with a messaging application to analyze a message thread within the messaging application. The intelligent personal assistant service may analyze the message thread by evaluating context of message content within the message thread. Analysis of the message thread may occur proactively without requiring an explicit request for assistance from a user of a processing device. In response to the analyzing of the message thread, the intelligent personal assistant service may proactively provide a cue that includes content retrieved by the intelligent personal assistant service. An input may be received to include the cue within the message thread. In response to receiving the input, the cue may be displayed within the message thread. Other examples are also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

executing an application that comprises an intelligent personal assistant component;

analyzing, using the intelligent personal assistant component, messages in the application, wherein the analyzing comprises evaluating context of message content within the messages;

proactively providing a cue that includes content retrieved from the intelligent personal assistant component based on analysis of the messages;

receiving an input indicating to include the cue within a thread of the messages; and

in response to receiving the input, displaying the cue within the thread of the messages,

wherein the analyzing occurs proactively without requiring an explicit request for assistance.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing further comprises:

evaluating received signal data, extracting entity data from the message content and utilizing the extracted entity data, the signal data and the context from the message content to generate the cue.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cue is a natural language processing result generated by the intelligent personal assistant component.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the content of the cue is a contextual recommendation for the message content presented in a rich format.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the content of the cue is a contextual recommendation for the message content presented in a plaintext format.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

proactively providing an indication that content, retrieved by the intelligent personal assistant component, is available to be included within the application based on analysis of the messages; and

receiving an input selecting the indication, wherein the cue is proactively provided in response to receiving the input selecting the input.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cue is provided as a message draft within the application, and wherein the input indicating to include the cue within the thread of messages is a confirmation to transmit the message draft to the thread of messages.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the application is one of an email application, a messaging application, a conversational application, a collaborative application, a productivity application, or a web browsing application.

9. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory, operatively connected with the at least one processor, that stores computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor causes the at least one processor to;

analyze, using an intelligent personal assistant service interfacing with an application, messages in the application, wherein the intelligent personal assistant service evaluates context of message content within the messages;

proactively provide a cue that includes content retrieved from the intelligent personal assistant service based on analysis of the messages;

receive an input indicating to include the cue within a thread of the messages; and

in response to receiving the input, display the cue within the thread of the messages,

wherein analyzing of the messages occurs proactively without requiring an explicit request for assistance.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the application is one of an email application, a messaging application, a conversational application, a collaborative application, a productivity application, or a web browsing application.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the cue is a natural language processing result generated by the intelligent personal assistant service.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the content of the cue is a contextual recommendation for the message content presented in a rich format.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the content of the cue is a contextual recommendation for the message content presented in a plaintext format.

14. The system according to claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

proactively provide an indication that content, retrieved by the intelligent personal assistant service, is available to be included within the application based on analysis of the messages; and

receive an input selecting the indication, wherein the cue is proactively provided in response to receiving the input selecting the input.

15. The system according to claim 9, wherein the cue is provided as a message draft within the application, and wherein the input indicating to include the cue within the thread of the messages is a confirmation to transmit the message draft to the thread of the messages.

16. A hardware storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer processor to perform a method comprising:

analyzing a message thread in an application, wherein the analyzing comprises evaluating context of message content within the message thread;

proactively providing an indication that content, retrieved by an intelligent personal assistant service, is available to be included within the application based on analysis of the message thread;

receiving an input selecting the indication; and

in response to receiving the input, providing, within the application, a cue that includes content retrieved by the intelligent personal assistant service,

wherein the analyzing occurs proactively without requiring an explicit request for assistance.

17. The hardware storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the application is one of an email application, a messaging application, a conversational application, a collaborative application, a productivity application, or a web browsing application.

18. The hardware storage medium according to claim 16, wherein cue is proactively provided without requiring an explicit request for assistance.

19. The hardware storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the cue is a natural language processing result generated by the intelligent personal assistant service, and wherein the content of the cue is a contextual recommendation for the message content presented in a format selected from at least one of:

a rich format and a plaintext format.

20. The hardware storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the cue is provided as a message draft within the application, and wherein the method further comprises receiving an input indicating to include the cue within the message thread, and, in response to receiving the input indicating to include the cue within the message thread, displaying the cue within the message thread.