Consumer Products & Services

If you want a glimpse of the future, spend a minute with Joey Hasty – because he's got it in the palm of his hand. "Come here, take a look," he says, pulling a phone out of his pocket. With a few brisk finger taps, the affable associate vice president of innovation and transformation at Royal Caribbean, 45, calls up on his phone the image of the brightly lit, wood-paneled office where he's holding court, and marks a spot on the screen. "This is Richard Fain, our CEO; I'm going to just place Richard right in front of us," he explains. Within a heartbeat, a new person fills the visual reproduction of the room – this one, holding a 3D model of a massive ship.

Recently, I crossed paths at an airport with a Midwestern brewmaster who shared that he was ready to retire, but simply couldn't. There was no one to take his place who could brew the company's trademark recipes for beer. This is not an uncommon business problem. Semiconductor companies report that their master materials engineers, who could work around a material shortage and still come up with an effective product, are retiring. It's creating a know-how gap that might leave the next materials shortage unsolved, since newer employees lack the know-how and experience.

Characterized by a fusion of technologies that blur the lines between the physical and digital, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is spreading across the manufacturing world. As a component of this revolution, a growing number of suppliers are using augmented reality (A.R.) to improve operations in workforce training and equipment maintenance. A.R. is a technologically enhanced version of reality created by using technology to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed through a device, such as smart goggles or a smartphone camera. The goggles are often voice-controlled, leaving wearers with both hands free. Statista estimates the A.R. market was worth $5.91 billion in 2018 and that it will reach more than $198.7 billion by 2025.

Several international airlines were diverting planes from flying over the Strait of Hormuz and parts of Iran on Friday, a day after the Iranian military shot down an American surveillance drone and the United States went to the brink of launching a retaliatory strike. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order early Friday that prohibited all American flights in Tehran-controlled airspace above the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman because of "heightened military activities and increased political tensions." United Airlines said in a statement that it had suspended flights between Newark Airport in New Jersey and Mumbai, India, that typically fly through Iranian airspace after a security assessment. The German airline Lufthansa said in an emailed statement that its planes would not fly over the Strait of Hormuz and that the diversion area was likely to expand.

American tech stars such as Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos or the investor legend Peter Thiel do not believe in such humility, but instead, let billions of dollars go to decipher the mystery of why people age and die. If the three business leaders blindly believed the computer, there would be a more pleasant way for them to at least postpone death: drink more champagne. Because the analysis of many data and influencing factors provides the clear connection that with increasing champagne consumption the life expectancy rises. Although it is not well known how much Dom Pérignon the billionaires drink per week. What is certain, however, is that each of them ignores this connection.

Businesses are witnessing a tipping point that can dramatically change the trajectory of their growth. Shifting attention from Big Data collection to real-time data consumption is setting the stage for a level of intelligence that requires a new way of thinking about processes and the applications that enable them. Fortunately, technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain are helping companies find a path forward. For many organizations, pulling together large volumes of data – which comprise diverse formats and originate from numerous sources – is creating a wave of pressure-tested innovations, data security and privacy, and a seismic shift in business value. And this outcome is changing not only the definition of industry leadership but also people's lives for the better.

The worst part of working in any restaurant could soon be eliminated after a robot capable of washing the pots has been invented by a US-based start-up. Although there are more than half a million people employed as dishwashers in the US alone, the job is poorly paid, gruelling work and has a high-turnover rate. But now Dishcraft, based in Silicon Valley, is hoping to tackle these issues with their automated dishwasher, reports CNBC. The system currently works by using bowls and plates that have metal pieces attached to them, but the founders, Linda Pouliot and Paul Birkmeyer, hope to move on to other items in the future. Dishcraft's robot currently only works with plates and bowls the company develop themselves as it has metal pieces attached to the bottom and are much stronger than other dishware.

Everyone loves shopping and chatting; it's the combination of them, doing both simultaneously that excites people most often. In today's digital age, while consumers have all that they can ask for -- convenience, speed, offers and ease of doing shopping -- they still crave for something more, a personal touch that's evidently lacking. Conversational commerce is trying to fill that gap. Retailers know only too well what personalization can do when it comes to attracting and retaining customers. One of the most persuasive ways of drawing customers to shop is artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational commerce.

Artificial intelligence is allowing us all to consider surprising new ways to simplify the lives of our customers. As a product developer, your central focus is always on the customer. But new problems can arise when the specific solution under development helps one customer while alienating others. We tend to think of AI as an incredible dream assistant to our lives and business operations, when that's not always the case. Designers of new AI services should consider in what ways and for whom might these services be annoying, burdensome or problematic, and whether it involves the direct customer or others who are intertwined with the customer.

Arla Foods has developed a new artificial intelligence tool to better predict their milk intake from farmer-owners. This means that 200 million kilos of milk can now be utilised better each year making Arla's value chain even more sustainable. Every year, Arla collects around 13 billion kilos of milk from their 10,300 farmer-owners across Northern Europe. To transform as much as possible into healthy and more sustainable dairy products, the cooperative is keeping a close eye on emerging technologies that can make the dairy production even more efficient. Most recently, Arla has developed a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict how much milk 1,5 million cows will produce in the future.