Personal calendars given an artificial intelligence makeover through iPhone app

Tempo is a smart calendar app from SRI International that uses artificial intelligence to make users' schedules more manageable.

Calendar management has become a perennial challenge for many people in today’s time-strapped world, but the basic model for such apps – in most cases, the simple paper calendar – has changed little over the years. Enter Tempo, a smart calendar app from SRI International that uses artificial intelligence to make users’ schedules more manageable. Launched last month by California-based Tempo AI, a spinoff of SRI, the Tempo Smart Calendar is a mobile productivity app that analyzes data from a user’s mobile calendar and applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance meetings and events throughout the day. Specifically, it’s designed to find and neatly organize in context everything the user needs to be fully prepared, including contacts, relevant emails, and related documents. Tempo can handle the passcodes for dialing into conference calls, for example; it can also open Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF documents in preparation, as well as browsing attendees’ LinkedIn profiles and scouting locations with Foursquare and Yelp. In addition, Tempo can find meeting locations along with driving directions, nearby parking, and estimated drive time. Users can even send a preset email or text if they find themselves running late. Perhaps best of all is that the more Tempo is used, the more fine-tuned and personalized it becomes because it learns and recognizes patterns to make better suggestions over time. The video below outlines the premise in more detail: The company explains: “Using Tempo Smart Calendar is like having a personal assistant prepare for what’s next – not only providing the right information, but anticipating and understanding what a user intends to do with it. With details in the event summary, it is simple to quickly find information, eliminating the issue of hunting around other apps, email or the browser while trying to complete a simple task such as finding a meeting agenda or someone’s phone number.” Now listed as a free app on Apple’s iTunes store, Tempo is currently available on a first-come, first-served basis through the company’s reservation system. Busy entrepreneurs around the globe: one to try out – or get involved in? Spotted by: Murray Orange