Technology in the so-called Smart Machine Age, which includes AI, virtual reality and robotics, will bring huge changes not just in headcount, but also in how people innovate and collaborate. That will require new approaches to how people think, listen and relate, says Edward D. Hess, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia. In the "Smart Age" now evolving, ego has no place. Instead, the focus will need to be on the quality of ideas, accuracy, emotional intelligence and mindfulness. Hess writes about these issues in the just-released book he co-authored with Katherine Ludwig, titled Humility is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age. Hess discussed his ideas on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio, SiriusXM channel 111.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be understood as a science, engineering and deployment of machines, which perform tasks with intelligence as similar to humans. Since its inception 60 years ago, AI has observed significant growth in recent years. Initially, AI was considered as topic for academicians, though in recent years with development of various technologies, AI has turned into reality and is influencing many lives and businesses. Additionally, evolution of various other supplementary technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning and cognitive computing are collectively paving the growth of the market for AI. Many IT giants and start-ups are investing heavily in development of AI software solutions and hardware products. Some the prominent players in AI market in the recent times are Intel Corporation (U.S.), Google Inc. (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Amazon.com,

DAVOS, Switzerland: Open markets and global trade have been blamed for job losses over the last decade, but global CEOs say the real culprits are increasingly machines. And while business leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos relish the productivity gains technology can bring, they warned this week that the collateral damage to jobs needs to be addressed more seriously. From taxi drivers to health care professionals, technologies such as robotics, driverless cars, artificial intelligence and 3-D printing mean more and more types of jobs are at risk. Adidas, for example, aims to use 3-D printing in the manufacture of some running shoes. "Jobs will be lost, jobs will evolve and this revolution is going to be ageless, it is going to be classless and it is going to affect everyone," said Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Every year I pick out digital and marketing trends and developments which I think will shape the industry and its planning and thinking in the year ahead. There is an increasingly blurred line between'digital marketing' and'marketing' but the following trends focus on the digital elements of marketing. In part 1, I looked at broad macro trends affecting brands, and in part 2, marketing-specific trends. Econsultancy's recent research on'The New Marketing Reality' with IBM highlights the many challenges facing digital marketing: fragmentation, complexity, challenges in understanding the customer journey, challenges with organisational and data silos, confusion around metrics and what good looks like, managing both generalist and specialist agencies and vendors at the same time, lack of capability in areas like data and customer experience, faltering attempts to be more agile, lack of clarity in strategy and leadership. There is nothing particularly new here and there will not be in 2017.

At Curalate, we're fascinated by the future of computer vision and machine learning. Those technologies have made serious strides over the past few years and the future looks incredibly bright. Curalate is doing its part to define how artificial intelligence meets commerce with Intelligent Product Tagging -- technology that can analyze an image and use machine learning to identify the products depicted within that image. For example: If you have a photo of a woman wearing a floral dress, our technology can identify that dress, then visually match it with the corresponding product in a brand's catalog -- making the image shoppable. We expect to start introducing this tool to clients in 2017, but it's actually a much longer-term research effort for Curalate's talented product development team.

If I told you there was a delivery app for birth control, you might disregard it as just another Silicon Valley-based subscription service, designed to excuse you from ever leaving your house again. But Nurx, which prescribes birth control online and mails it to users, isn't a boutique service for busy urbanites. It just might be a key player in blowing birth-control access wide open, especially as women's reproductive health becomes increasingly politicized in the U.S. The way Nurx works is simple: you register for a free account online, fill out a questionnaire of basic medical inquiries, exchange a few instant messages with a licensed doctor, and receive a package in the mail containing your birth-control method of choice. There are no consultation or delivery fees, so in most cases if you have insurance, it's free. If you don't have insurance, then you pay only for the cost of the medication itself.

A survey of business leaders has found Australian companies are the worst prepared for the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies among selected major economies, despite spending the second-largest amount of money on automation. Independent research agency Vanson Bourne was commissioned by IT company Infosys (which as a seller of an AI platform has a vested interest in promoting such technology) to poll 1,600 business leaders of companies with more than 1,000 staff and at least US$500m in annual revenue across Australia, China, the United States, Germany, France, India and the UK. According to the survey, released at the World Economic Forum last week, major Australian businesses invested an average of $7.9m last year in AI, behind only the US, but placed last in both the skills required for AI takeup and in plans to integrate AI. The Infosys Australia regional head, Andrew Groth, told the Guardian the survey demonstrates that Australia risks becoming uncompetitive. "The challenge is the skills situation," he said.

This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com A philanthropic organization set up by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan has signed a deal to acquire Toronto tech company Meta. Financial terms of the deal, announced by venture capital firm iGan Partners, an early Meta backer, were not immediately available. Zuckerberg and Chan set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2015. Meta uses artificial intelligence to help researchers keep on top of the latest scientific papers.

Automation in the workplace has been one of the looming existential threats to American workers for years now. And with each new study published, the fear of robots, machines, and artificial intelligence coming to take our jobs ticks higher. But a new report from McKinsey finds that the future of work and automation isn't quite the zero-sum game when it comes to jobs as some perceive. Right now, 51% of job activities could be automated with "currently demonstrated" technology, the McKinsey report says. The distinction is noteworthy: McKinsey isn't saying half of all jobs can be automated with existing technology, but rather job tasks.

Now that many executives are finding measurable results from their Big Data initiatives, they are looking ahead and making decisions about investments in emerging capabilities such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Executives of the nation's biggest corporations fear that major disruption is on the horizon. This is a central finding of the 2017 Big Data Executive Survey from NewVantage Partners, which tracks the views of senior corporate executives on disruptive capabilities, ranging from Big Data to artificial intelligence. According to the fifth annual survey, which was released this month, nearly half of senior executives surveyed -- a remarkable 46.6% -- see disruptive change coming fast, with many fearing that their companies are at significant risk of disruption or displacement. Survey respondents consisted of corporate business leaders (CEO/president), data leaders (chief data officer), technology leaders (chief information officer), analytics leaders (chief analytics officer), and marketing leaders (chief marketing officer).