Xuedong Huang

Huang received his BS from Hunan University in 1982, his MS from Tsinghua University in 1984, and his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1989.

After receiving his PhD in 1989, Huang joined Carnegie Mellon University and worked with Raj Reddy and Kai-Fu Lee on speech recognition. At CMU, he directed Sphinx-II speech system research and achieved the best performance in every category of DARPA's 1992 benchmarking. Microsoft Research recruited him to found and lead Microsoft's spoken language initiatives in 1993. His co-authored book Spoken Language Processing[1] with Alex Acero and Hsiao-Wuen Hon and his Historical speech recognition review[2] with Raj Reddy and James K. Baker succinctly summarized several generations of spoken language research. As Microsoft's Mr. Speech for nearly three decades, Huang has been instrumental in creating Microsoft's Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI), shipping Microsoft Speech Server, and modernizing spoken language and integrative AI services [3][4][5][6] with Azure AI Cognitive Services,[7] which not only enabled numerous 3rd party customers but also powered up Microsoft's own AI scenarios in Windows, Office, Teams,[8] and Flight Simulator.[9] Huang helped Azure AI achieving multiple industry's first human parity milestones such as transcribing conversational speech,[10] machine translation,[11] conversational QnA,[12] and image captioning.[13]

Huang has made contributions to the software and AI industry not only by his executive leadership but also through his scientific publications and inventing more than 170 US patents that impacted millions customers globally through Azure AI. Wired magazine named him one of 25 Geniuses.[14]

Huang was awarded the Allen Newell research excellence medal in 1992, and IEEE Speech Processing Best Paper in 1993. He was recognized as IEEE Fellow by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2000, and named ACM Fellow by Association for Computing Machinery in 2017.[15]

• Aberdeen City Council in Scotland answers calls for customer service [16]
• Airbus accelerated innovation [17]
• Automation Anywhere uses Azure AI to support UK healthcare provider’s COVID-19 response [18]
• BBC reads its articles and enables "Beeb" assistant [19][20]
• CDC launches coronavirus bot to help take strain off healthcare system [21][22]
• DLA Piper and Wilson Allen are driving innovation in the legal industry [23][24]
• Dentsu Aegis Network uses Azure AI to support global clients like General Motors, P&G and Kraft Heinz [25]
• EU brings the parliament closer to citizens with Azure live speech translation [26]
• GE rapidly converts customers’ paper-based records into digital formats [27]
• Konica Minolta effectively handles user inquiries increased due to rise of teleworking [28]
• KPMG helps financial institutions save millions in compliance costs [29]
• Looney Tunes: American's iconic character Looney Tunes now speak with Azure voice via ATT 5G[30]
• Microsoft AI for Good,[31][32] Accessibility,[33] and Cultural Heritage [34]
• Minsur Mine operator increases sustainability by applying custom computer vision [35]
• Motorola Solutions helps first responders using just their voice [36]
• NHS leads innovation with Azure AI [37]
• NYC is fulfilling consistent societal needs [38][39]
• Progressive insurance shoppers gain new service channel [40]
• Reliance Jio partners with Azure Cognitive Services to expand Indian languages [41][42]
• RXR Realty reopens for business to empower tenant safety [43]
• Swisscom uses Azure to drive innovation, market leadership with multilingual voice assistant[44]
• TIBCO takes anomaly detection to the edge [45]
• TruGreen’s take on AI is a catalyst for greener lawns and happier customers [46]
• Uber boosts platform security with facial recognition [47]
• University of Nottingham empowers remote research and learning [48]
• Vodafone transformed its customer care strategy [49]
• Volkswagen engages global customers with real-time translation [50]
• Walgreens customer service now on Microsoft Azure AI [51]