Barely 48 hours after picking up Urban Engines Inc. for its transportation intelligence platform, Google has announced another acquisition in the analytics space: API.AI Inc., a Sunnyvale, CA-based provider of natural language processing technology for developers.

The outfit’s flagship offering is a cloud-based chatbot building service that promises to automate most of the heavy lifting traditionally involved in creating a new artificial intelligence. That includes first and foremost the task of parsing user inquiries into a machine-readable form, which API.AI handles with a set of pre-packaged communications modules. The startup says that its platform can process both text and voice input while consulting a built-in knowledge repository to glean the full context of every request.

If, for instance, a travel app based on API.AI receives a question from a user who is interested in comparing potential vacation destinations, it can quickly pull key information about the relevant locations from the service’s built-in encyclopedia. And the platform also provides access to other data sources such as weather forecasts, flight schedules and world news. Coupled with extensive set of third party integrations included the package, this functionality enables API.AI to power a broad range of use cases, which should go a long way toward helping Google make money from the acquisition.

The search didn’t specify how it plans to go about the task, but vice president of engineering Scott Huffman dropped a few helpful hints in a blog post. He indicated that users will be able to keep using API.AI without fear of Google shutting it down and told them to expect integrations with his company’s products. Huffman didn’t specify say what offerings are involved, but it’s safe to assume that the Alphabet subsidiary’s existing natural language processing service for application teams will be among them.

Google might even go as far as outright making the startup’s technology a part of its public cloud, if for no other reason than to one-up rivaling providers like Amazon Inc. that have historically enjoyed a lead in the functionality department. The search giant is doing the same with Apigee Inc., the API management provider that it acquired for $625 million earlier this month. And it could also use API.AI in internal projects like the mobile virtual assistant that it previewed back in May.

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