Startups focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning will be top acquisition targets in 2017 as chip manufacturers, software firms, and the automobile industry increasingly seek to add those features to their products. After decades of research, the push to make smarter computing devices with AI and programs that can learn on their own via machine learning techniques has reached the point of market readiness, analysts at 451 Research wrote in a report this week about possible acquisition activity in these fields. "The artificial intelligence winter spanning 30 years or more is finally over," they wrote. AI and machine learning have been deployed for a wide array of uses, covering everything from analyzing image files and other big data to piloting drones, cars, and robots. And there has already been plenty of related M&A dealing this year, such as Intel's (intc) $400 million purchase of Nervana and ARM Holdings' $350 million deal for Apical.

Is it too soon to do reviews and forecasts for the New Year? I noticed another contributor to SA has offered a forecast for Palo Alto (NYSE:PANW) and its prospective performance for the coming year. Several brokerage analysts have offered their evaluation of the year ahead for IBM (NYSE:IBM). The old year is passing at a frightful pace, and it means that all valuation metrics need to be adjusted for the year ahead. One of the interesting things about IBM is that its headline metrics are not expected to change much in 2017, with earnings expected to rise and revenues expected to show marginal shrinkage, how much credence should investors place in the consensus? How should investors look at prospects for IBM's dividend? How should investors value a company without growth, or will there be growth in the future? Of course, I do not hold all the answers. But I think as 2017 approaches, it might be worthwhile for me to express my point of view about what to expect going forward. I think that IBM is most likely to miss and/or guide down for a variety of reasons that I outline in the foregoing article.

Virtually everywhere you look, Bay Area tech businesses are running into walls. Smartphones were revolutionary and lucrative, but the U.S. market is saturated, and Apple's iPhone sales have fallen for three quarters. The "app economy" has matured, with more people using existing apps than downloading new ones. And Facebook, which has filled users' news feeds with so many ads it can barely add more, is predicting its revenue growth will slump next year. Silicon Valley needs its next big thing, a focus for the concentrated brain power and innovation infrastructure that have made this region the world leader in transformative technology.

Israeli machine learning startup Dynamic Yield has raised $22 million in Series C financing round led by Vertex and ClalTech, with participation from Baidu and Global Founders Capital. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLP and Innovation Endeavors also participated. The funds will be used to fuel further global growth of Dynamic Yield's personalization technology across the world. Dynamic Yield's advanced machine learning engine builds actionable customer segments in real time, enabling marketers to increase revenue via personalization, recommendations, automatic optimization & 1:1 messaging. Dynamic Yield, founded in 2012 by CEO Liad Agmon and CTO Omri Mendellevich has offices in Tel Aviv, New York and Berlin.

A French robotics startup has raised €3.3 million ($3.5 million) to build and grow a fleet of mobile robots that help warehouses prepare orders for delivery. The company was founded in 2015 by former GE Healthcare software architect Renaud Heitz and BA Systèmes technical director Romain Moulin, and Exotec Solutions ("Exotec") robots have already been tested across a number of industries. With $3.5 million more in its coffers, the company expects to launch its first robot -- called Exo -- into the wild in early 2017. The most recent round was raised from 360 Capital Partners, Breega Capital, and a handful of its existing investors. The miniature robots are being targeted at any logistics operator that relies on humans to traverse large warehouses picking items off shelves, and it promises to cut employees' average daily distance covered from 15km to 4km per day and to "[double] the productivity" of each worker.

It started in 1986, in the sort of castle you'd expect one of its characters to climb. In the three decades since it improbably took up within the halls of a 19th century neo-Renaissance Brittany keep, French multinational games publisher Ubisoft has turned out some of gaming's grandest franchises. From Rayman's ghost-limbed antics to the tactically encyclopedic Tom Clancy games, the crypto-byzantine Assassin's Creed series' edgy roof-running to Just Dance's infectious bust-a-moves, Ubisoft has turned quirky, technically involuted concepts into industry exemplars. TIME recently spoke with Ubisoft cofounder, chairman and CEO Yves Guillemot about the company's origins, what he's learned about overreaching, recent threats of hostile takeovers, what interactivity means for the future of the species, and why, of all things, a castle. Actually, the fact that I was surrounded by brilliant and creative people. Brilliant and creative people were really what helped me to continue to go forward.

Virtually everywhere you look, Bay Area tech businesses are running into walls. Smartphones were revolutionary and lucrative, but the U.S. market is saturated, and Apple's iPhone sales have fallen for three quarters. The "app economy" has matured, with more people using existing apps than downloading new ones. And Facebook, which has filled users' news feeds with so many ads it can barely add more, is predicting its revenue growth will slump next year. Silicon Valley needs its next big thing, a focus for the concentrated brain power and innovation infrastructure that have made this region the world leader in transformative technology.

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Virtually everywhere you look, Bay Area tech businesses are running into walls. Smartphones were revolutionary and lucrative, but the U.S. market is saturated, and Apple's iPhone sales have fallen for three quarters. The "app economy" has matured, with more people using existing apps than downloading new ones. And Facebook, which has filled users' news feeds with so many ads it can barely add more, is predicting its revenue growth will slump next year. Silicon Valley needs its next big thing, a focus for the concentrated brain power and innovation infrastructure that have made this region the world leader in transformative technology.

LeadGenius, which uses machine learning to provide a marketing and sales tool for businesses, has raised $4 million in a new round of debt and equity funding. Above: LeadGenius cofounders David Rolnitzky (left), chief product officer, and Prayag Narula, CEO. The Berkeley, Calif.-based company said the investors in the round included SJF Ventures, as well as existing investors Lumia Capital and Javelin Venture Partners. LeadGenius uses a combination of machine learning and real human researchers to power its business-to-business (B2B) service platform. The company will use the money to add multi-channel capabilities to LeadGenius for outbound marketing and sales.