Oil prices: An analysis of Andrew Walker, a correspondent for the BBC's Economics

Saudi man in front of the oil price on the stock exchange in RiyadhImage copyrightAP
Image captionSaudi Arabia is the largest exporter in the world crude
Oil has made Saudi Arabia a major economic factor. But it comes at a price. The short-term challenge is the volatile price of crude oil, which is currently less than half as much as it was in mid-2014. Saudi Arabia has deep pockets.

It will not work go to the International Monetary Fund for financial aid, something different oil exporter, Angola, did. But the Saudi reserves are blurring and almost three-quarters of public revenues on the basis of oil price decline makes itself felt.

In the long-term international efforts to combat climate change creates enormous uncertainty regarding oil demand in the future. Oil loses its dominance in the transport fuel market in the next few years, but the prospect of more to come is unknown.

Thus, Saudi Arabia should become less dependent on oil for government revenue and jobs and incomes of Saudi citizens.

Oil prices are still less than half the peak of $ 115 a barrel seen in June 2014, but the prince said that the reform will go ahead regardless of the price.

"The vision has nothing to do with the price of crude oil," he said.

"If the price of oil goes back up it will greatly support the vision, but he does not need the high prices. We can deal with the lowest prices possible."

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman depicted in the office meetingImage copyrightReuters
Image captionThe powerful and influential Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave detailed information about the reform plan, known as Vision 2030
In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Prince Mohammed said taxes on luxury goods and sugary drinks can also be administered. However, he said that it is important that the program will not leave poor countries worse off.

Prince is the second in line to the Saudi throne, and also serves as defense minister.

Huge oil revenues allowed the Saudi government to offer generous subsidies for utility services for the population. But some of them have been reduced in the past year due to the fall in oil prices.

Over the weekend, King Salman dismissed minister of water on a background of resentment at higher prices for utilities.

Saudi slump

Even rich Saudi Arabia is under pressure from tumbling oil prices, and announced a series of economic reforms

72%

revenues come from oil

$ 98bn budget deficit in 2015
an increase of 80% in gasoline prices in the past year in the country
$ 2.5tn size of the state oil giant Aramco
$ 2tn potential sovereign wealth fund worth Saudis created

Analysis: Dave Lee, BBC North America Technology reporter, San Francisco

This time last year, Nadella was preparing for a massive launch - Windows 10. For the first time the operating system is free. The goal - to get it on as many devices as possible, because then the fun can begin.

Over 270 million units later, Windows 10, it's time to see what he can do. In 2016 release, the excitement around the AI and AR.

AI - Artificial Intelligence - is only-slightly-jokey reputation as a technology that could potentially lead to the end of humanity as we know it. But this is not "man versus machine", Mr Nadella said, but "the man with the machine."

He said that the bots new applications, as well as demonstrate the assistant Cortana Microsoft's flash - it is integrated into other programs such as Skype. The goal here is to have the ever-present assistant, which grows more intelligent over time.

AR - Augmented Reality - is now ready for developers. First HoloLens Headsets to be sent out, and with it the promise of calculating the events that we had never imagined for education, business and entertainment.

But I must say that the on-screen demo HoloLens are fantastic compared to the fact that the device can actually do today.

How to be run on Windows 10, people asked if Microsoft can drag themselves back into relevance.

Tonight's show AI and AR proves that they were superior. Microsoft is exciting again.

Build 2016: Microsoft offers an auxiliary boom bot

Nadella said, Microsoft hopes to "pour" with intelligence technology
Microsoft introduced a new robotic system that can represent the business and interact with users via Skype.

Social robots automatically programs that can communicate with users in a humanlike way.

As part of the Build developer conference, Microsoft also showed an update digital assistant Cortana, which can interact with the bots on your behalf.

Cortana will now function in a variety of devices and operating systems such as Android and IOS.

Tech giant also announced the Skype application for your HoloLens headset.

"We want to build intelligence, which greatly enhances human capabilities and experience," said audience when building in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Nadella.

Mr. Nadella Cortana described as "truly unlimited personal assistant that is always with you," as he explained that it will be available across Windows, Center IOS and Android OS devices.

Just hours earlier, however, artificial intelligence called Tay Twitter bot creator Microsoft was briefly revived and started spewing nonsense tweets.

Mr. Nadella acknowledged problems with the bot, and said: "We are back to the drawing board."

Executive Lillian Rincon demonstrated how automated robots could help to book a hotel through SkypeImage copyrightMicrosoft
Image captionExecutive Lillian Rincon demonstrated how automated robots could help to find a hotel with Skype
Business bots

Lillian Rincon, a Skype application group manager proceeded to demonstrate how online automated bots can interact with Cortana in a text conversation in to Skype.

"As soon as you see here is the fact that the agent, Cortana, actually mediating conversation with the bot a third party," she explained, as Cortana final details of the delivery of products.

The app can also, for example, listen to a conversation between friends about the trip, and then propose the introduction of a bot, which is a local hotel.

The order can then be executed as if the conversation took place between a user and a sales representative.

"Microsoft integrates its Cortana and deep learning opportunities in the platform, which will cover everything from Skype to the appearance and on different devices," CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber told the BBC.

"This is Microsoft is trying to set the next platform, omitting the mobile."

Chris Green, a technical expert consulting Lewis, said the development is likely designed to increase the availability of Cortana to more users on more systems and thereby increase application "stickiness."

"This concept of stickiness is very important, we are talking about the formation of the connection between the user and the system - it is important to achieve the long-term usability," he told the BBC.

Annex to teach human anatomy for medical students using HoloLens been shown offImage copyrightMicrosoft
Image captionAn app to teach medical students human anatomy was paraded through HoloLens
HoloLens Developer

The company also confirmed that it HoloLens augmented reality headset, which was suddenly announced to build last year, will begin shipping to developers.

The statement in this regard have already been made on the Windows blog from Microsoft in February.

Applications that demonstrate how HoloLens can be used, for example, teach students human anatomy - from the "holographic" images of organs and systems that are visible in 3D-headset wearers.