We often frame new automation technology as a grave and immediate threat to the jobs and livelihoods of the humans whose tasks the machines take over. Tell that to the custodians at Sea-Tac airport who no longer have to spend their nights scrubbing floors, or sales associates at your local supermarket who will no longer have to schlep carts full of products throughout the store thanks to BrainCorps' smart scrubbers and tugs. BrainCorp is an AI software developer based in San Diego, California. Founded in 2009, the company spent half a decade developing its computer vision and automation technology before pivoting into the floor care industry. This service sector "hadn't seen a lot of automation yet or at least successful automation of the products," John Black, Brain Corp's Senior Vice President of New Product Development, told Engadget.

Machine learning, virtual reality (VR), and pop-up stores are increasingly crucial to industries such as retail, as they help organizations deliver an easier -- and more exciting -- customer experience. "We have invested heavily in machine learning … to automate the ease of the shopping experience," Walmart Executive Vice President and CTO Jeremy King said onstage at NRF 2019. Imagine how long it takes a busy parent to manually add 100 grocery items to a virtual shopping cart, for example; now contrast that with automation that intuits what each shopper needs, whittling the process to mere seconds. "Building that kind of experience is really important." Click the button below to load the content from Youtube.

Amazon's Echo speakers have a broadcast feature that will help you send a message to family members that might be scattered around the house. If you have an Amazon Echo product, you aren't the only person privy to your private conversations. Thousands of people across the globe are employed by Amazon.com to listen to Echo recordings, transcribe and annotate them and feed them back to the software so that Alexa can better grasp human speech, according to a report from Bloomberg. The employees – ranging from Boston to India – signed nondisclosure agreements barring them to speak publicly about the program. According to Bloomberg, they work nine hours per day, with each reviewer going through as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift.

When Amazon customers speak to Alexa, the company's AI-powered voice assistant, they may be heard by more people than they expect, according to a report. Amazon employees around the world regularly listen to recordings from the company's smart speakers as part of the development process for new services, Bloomberg News reports. Some transcribe artist names, linking them to specific musicians in the company's database; others listen to the entire recorded command, comparing it with what the automated systems heard and the response they offered, in order to check the quality of the company's software. Technically, users have given permission for the human verification: the company makes clear that it uses data "to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems", and gives users the chance to opt out. But the company doesn't explicitly say that the training will involve workers in America, India, Costa Rica, and more nations around the world listening to those recordings.

The new world of marketing is personalized, contextualized, and dynamic. Increasingly, this world is orchestrated not by outside parties but by chief marketing officers partnering with their technology organizations to bring control of the human experience back in-house. Together, CMOs and CIOs are building an arsenal of experience-focused marketing tools that are powered by emerging technology. Their goal is to transform marketing from a customer acquisition-focused activity to one that enables a superb human experience, grounded in data. In experiential marketing, companies treat each customer as an individual by understanding their preferences and behaviors. Analytics and cognitive capabilities illuminate the context of customers' needs and desires, and determine the optimal way to engage with them. Experience-management tools tailor content and identify the best method of delivery across physical and digital touchpoints, bringing us closer to truly unique engagement with each and every human. Imagine a world in which a brand knows who you are and what you want, and can deliver the product, service, or experience that best suits your needs seamlessly and in real time, across physical or digital channels. Marketing technology is undergoing a renaissance. Channel-focused solutions such as websites, social and mobile platforms, content management tools, and search engine optimization are fast becoming yesterday's news. As part of the growing beyond marketing trend, organizations are adopting a new generation of martech systems that deliver unprecedented levels of customer intimacy, targeted engagement, and precision impact.

Walmart's "customer hosts" will still greet customers but have additional and physically demanding responsibilities, which means eliminating greeters. Walmart is planning to use thousands of robots for a wide variety of tasks within its stores following a "well-received" round of tests in 2018. "Smart assistants have huge potential to make busy stores run more smoothly," the nation's largest private employer said in a news release. Walmart, which employs 1.5 million associates in the U.S. alone, said in the release Tuesday that the plans will give employees "more of an opportunity to do what they're uniquely qualified for" which is serve customers face-to-face on the sales floor. Walmart isn't the only retailer that has robots roaming around.

Amazon thinks it knows what may be in the stars for its Prime subscribers. The e-commerce giant has set its sights on disrupting the astrology industry by launching horoscopes exclusively for members of its $119-per-year Prime subscription service, according to Fast Company. However, don't expect to gain any expert insight into whether or not your lover may be waiting in the wings or if you're about to strike it rich. Instead, the horoscopes are a thinly-veiled marketing scheme meant to push Prime subscribers to the latest and greatest products on Amazon. The service is available through Prime Insider, Amazon's newsletter for Prime members that gives information about deals and recommendations, as well as how-to guides.

Brick and mortar stores have been hit hard by online retailers like Amazon. Walmart (which has its own online presence) believes it has an answer to dwindling sales. Its solution, robots that take care of mundane jobs (like cleaning up spills) while its staff spends their time helping customers. The retailer announced today that it will deploy 1,500 new "Auto-C" autonomous floor cleaners, 300 "Auto-S" shelf scanners and an additional 1,200 "FAST" unloaders to scan and sort items as they come off delivery trucks. Plus to streamline online orders, it'll have 900 "Pickup Towers" so customers can order something on the company's site and just pick up it up from a vending machine at their nearest Walmart.

Sonos and Ikea are teaming up for a new line of speakers. After previously announcing years ago that they would be working together, the two companies finally announced the first fruits of their partnership on Monday. Symfonisk, which translates to "symphonic" in Swedish, looks to bring Sonos' sound to Ikea's smart home plans. As with traditional Sonos speakers the new products will work with the Sonos app, be able to play music from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora, and be able to connect to other Sonos-branded speakers that you may already have in your home. If you have two of the same speakers, i.e. two lamps, you can link them together to create a stereo pair.

Sonos and Ikea have teamed up to release a line of connected speakers that include a table lamp and a bookshelf. Both devices connect to the WiFi, can be controlled by an app and let users play music from their favorite service like Spotify or Apple Music. The lamp and bookshelf, part of a line called'Symfonisk,' are priced at $179 and $99, respectively, and are expected to become available for purchase in August. Sonos and Ikea have teamed up to release a line of connected speakers that include a table lamp and a bookshelf. While both devices are priced within the same affordable range typically found in Ikea products, they pack the high quality of any other Sonos speaker.