Project Alexandria: Using AI to build a knowledge base fit for humans
Science & Technology
Introduction
Imagine a technology that can automatically discover every single project, team, event, product, and process inside an organization, while continuously keeping these details up-to-date as the organization evolves. This is exactly what we are building with Project Alexandria—a Microsoft Research initiative that leverages machine learning to seamlessly extract critical business knowledge into a unified knowledge base.
Addressing Organizational Challenges
The project aims to tackle some of the perennial challenges organizations face, including:
- Knowing who is working with a particular client
- Understanding the specifics of a given project
- Keeping track of the status of various products
To achieve this, we have assembled a diverse team with a broad set of skills, from developers to customer-facing personnel. Together, we are developing powerful machine learning systems and coupling them with user research and design. This collaborative approach allows us to envision and create knowledge-powered experiences that have the potential to transform the way people work.
In fact, Alexandria is a key component of Viva Topics, a new product now available to millions of users within Microsoft 365. This system organizes an organization’s information into shared topics, aiding employees in understanding the current happenings within their organization.
Enhancing Knowledge Discovery
Alexandria plays a crucial role in enabling Viva Topics in several ways. For instance, it discovers new topics for the system and links pertinent knowledge identified by other machine learning algorithms. It also classifies the type of knowledge each topic represents, while connecting those topics to relevant individuals, documents, and websites.
By building partnerships with various teams, we can rapidly utilize novel machine learning capabilities and user insights from Microsoft Research, applying them to product experiences that truly create value for users.
Initially, our knowledge base is designed to assist individuals in finding essential content and information within their companies by fostering new connections that transcend organizational silos. Looking ahead, we envision that this knowledge base will help drive workflows—shifting from passive knowledge seeking to actively moving work forward.
Active Knowledge Integration
For example, consider an employee drafting an email who needs quick access to detailed information about a partner. We aim to provide the right knowledge at their fingertips while they're typing. Should they wish to switch from partner details to project information related to them, it will be just one click away within the interconnected knowledge base.
Another challenge we are addressing is the management of knowledge from a multitude of sources at scale. Organizations handle massive volumes of data spread across various databases and tools, both from Microsoft and third-party providers. Much of this information is sensitive, either at the organizational or individual level, while some of it stems from public sources on the internet. Our goal is to empower employees to work across these different sources so that essential knowledge is always accessible.
A third issue we’re tackling is how to guide people not just on what to do, but also on the methodology—linking topics that employees engage in across the organization, scrutinizing when and how different elements of work take place. By doing this, we can begin to model processes and workflows, thus aiding employees in learning from one another's practices.
The Power of Diversity in Problem-Solving
These challenges are complex to solve, which is why our team's diversity is crucial. Collaborating across disciplines allows us to explore various technical approaches—like probabilistic modeling and natural language processing—while also integrating deep insights into people's day-to-day work practices and the knowledge they require. This is how we innovate and create products that genuinely have an impact in the world.
Keyword
- Project Alexandria
- AI
- Knowledge Base
- Microsoft Research
- Machine Learning
- Organizational Challenges
- Information Discovery
- Viva Topics
- Workflows
FAQ
What is Project Alexandria?
Project Alexandria is a Microsoft Research initiative that uses machine learning to automatically extract and unify critical business knowledge within organizations.
How does Alexandria help organizations?
Alexandria addresses challenges such as knowing who is working on what, tracking project statuses, and managing information spread across various databases and tools.
What is Viva Topics?
Viva Topics is a new product integrated with Alexandria that structures organizational information into shared topics, aiding employees in understanding critical information within their organizations.
What problems does Alexandria tackle?
Alexandria aims to improve knowledge discovery, drive active workflows, and link diverse knowledge sources across an organization to create a rich, accessible knowledge base.
Why is team diversity important for Project Alexandria?
Diversity allows the team to explore a range of technical approaches and gain insights into people's work practices, ultimately leading to solutions that have real-world impact.
