Language Understanding
An AI service that allows users to interact with your applications, bots, and IoT devices by using natural language.
Add custom natural language understanding to your apps
Build applications capable of understanding natural language. Using machine teaching technology and our visual user interface, developers and subject matter experts can build custom machine-learned language models that interprets user goals and extracts key information from conversational phrases—all without any machine learning experience.
Create custom language models specific to your use case with developer tools and portal experience to simplify labeling
Build natural language processing models with no machine learning experience required
Run Language Understanding anywhere—in the cloud, on premises, and on the edge with containers
Rely on enterprise-grade security and privacy applied to both your data and any trained models
Quickly build a custom language solution
Machine teaching technology enables you to get started without labeled data and to train models interactively to accelerate your development. We provide prebuilt entities, features, and applications to jump start your project.
Read this guide on getting started
Intuitively teach language models
Using machine teaching techniques, you teach language models like you would teach a person. No machine learning expertise is needed. The simple, iterative process and visual interface makes it simpler than ever before.
Learn more about machine teachingAlways learning and improving
Language Understanding enables developers to seamlessly improve language models over time based on real traffic.
Learn more about active learningBuild a comprehensive natural language solution
Integrate seamlessly with Azure Cognitive Services like Text Analytics and Speech, as well as Azure Bot Service for an end-to-end conversational solution.
Add language understanding to your botEnterprise-ready, available worldwide
Language Understanding scales to meet enterprise quality and performance needs and meets international compliance standards including ISO, HIPAA, SOC, and FedRAMP.
See Language Understanding in action
Smart light application in action
LUIS application response
Explore Language Understanding scenarios
Information Chatbot
This Informational Bot can answer questions defined in a knowledge set or FAQ using Cognitive Services QnA Maker and answer more open-ended questions using Azure Cognitive Search.
- 1 Employee starts the Application Bot
- 2 Azure Active Directory validates the employee’s identity
- 3 The employee can ask the bot what type of queries are supported
- 4 Cognitive Services returns a FAQ built with the QnA Maker
- 5 The employee defines a valid query
- 6 The Bot submits the query to Azure Cognitive Search which returns information about the application data
- 7 Application insights gathers runtime telemetry to help development with Bot performance and usage
Commerce chatbot
Together, the Azure Bot Service and Language Understanding service enable developers to create conversational interfaces for various scenarios like banking, travel, and entertainment. For example, a hotel’s concierge can use a bot to enhance traditional e-mail and phone call interactions by validating a customer via Azure Active Directory and using Cognitive Services to better contextually process customer requests using text and voice. The Speech recognition service can be added to support voice commands.
- 1 Customer uses your mobile app
- 2 Using Azure AD B2C, the user authenticates
- 3 Using the custom Application Bot, user requests information
- 4 Cognitive Services helps process the natural language request
- 5 Response is reviewed by customer who can refine the question using natural conversation
- 6 Once the user is happy with the results, the Application Bot updates the customer’s reservation
- 7 Application insights gathers runtime telemetry to help development with Bot performance and usage
IoT devices
Create seamless conversational interfaces with all of your internet-accessible devices—from your connected television or fridge to devices in a connected power plant. LUIS is able to integrate up to 500 intents to translate commands into smart actions.
- 1 User logs into Skype and accesses the IoT bot
- 2 Using voice, the user asks the bot to turn on the lights via the IoT device
- 3 The request is relayed to a third-party service that has access to the IoT device network
- 4 The results of the command are returned to the user
- 5 Application Insights gathers runtime telemetry to help development with bot performance and usage
Industry-leading security for the enterprise
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Microsoft invests more than USD 1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development.
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We employ more than 3,500 security experts who are dedicated to data security and privacy.
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Azure has more certifications than any other cloud provider. View the comprehensive list.
Get the power, control, and customization you need with flexible pricing
Pay only for what you use, with no upfront costs. With Language Understanding, you pay as you go, based on number of transactions.
Documentation and resources
Explore code samples
Check out our sample code
See customization resources
Build natural language into apps, bots, and IoT devices with the LUIS Portal.
See how trusted companies are applying Language Understanding models
Telefónica delivers an AI-powered digital assistant
Telefónica builds a digital assistant based on natural language bot to engage with customers on a new level.
KPMG saves clients millions in compliance costs
KPMG uses Language Understanding in its Customer Risk Analytics solution to distill information and flag compliance risk.
Jet.com finds answers faster for its customers
Jet.com uses Cognitive Services to infuse its customer care chatbot with the intelligence to communicate using natural language.
LaLiga boosts engagement with its own virtual assistant
Alfredo Bermejo, Digital Strategy Director at LaLiga"It's the easiest and most natural way for humans to interact, so we wanted to give our fans that option. They don't need to navigate through an app to find information, they just ask a question in plain language."
Progressive extends Flo to better serve customers
Matt White, Marketing Manager, Personal Lines Acquisition Experience at Progressive Insurance"By using Microsoft Azure Bot Service and Cognitive Services… we've been able to continue our own Progressive journey of digital innovation and do it in an agile, fast, and cost-effective way."
Accenture onboards new joiners with an enterprise bot
Chellappan Murugappan, Senior Architect at Accenture"We're seeing great power in the solution we've developed with Bot Framework and Language Understanding. It's a huge 'aha' moment for us and for our HR leadership."
Frequently asked questions about Language Understanding
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See product availability by region.
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Azure Cognitive Services, including Language Understanding, guarantee 99.9-percent availability. Learn more about the SLA.
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Yes. Because Language Understanding is designed to be customized for your scenario, you need to provide the data to train your model.
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It’s both. Use the site to access a graphical interface for training models, and, once you publish your model, you make calls to the service for predictions. In addition, you can use the SDK to train models.