Amazon.com has agreed to buy connected-doorbell startup Ring for about $1 billion, a person familiar with the matter said. The move helps Amazon expand further into the consumer market, including providing security for package deliveries. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. advised Ring on the sale, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Amazon has been pushing for a bigger presence in homes through connected devices such as its Echo smart speaker with the voice-activated assistant named Alexa. Buying Ring gives the e-commerce giant another touch point with customers, said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co. "For this specifically it A) builds connection for further strengthening trust between the brand and consumers, B) increases market for delivery, and in turn, frequency, C) moves company along path to same day/same hour efforts while everyone else is battling the two day war," Cakmak said in an email.

Unlike in stores or online, where an array of brands get plenty of exposure, voice-search assistants like Amazon.com Inc.'s AMZN -0.66% Alexa often steer shoppers to a single product, usually selected by an algorithm with no input from the sellers. That isn't a big problem now, as voice searches account for a sliver of purchases. In the next five years, half of searches on the web will be done via voice, estimates Sebastien Szczepaniak, a former Amazon executive who now heads e-commerce for Nestlé SA, NSRGY -1.19% the world's biggest packaged-foods company. Consulting firm Capgemini says voice-assistant users will spend 18% of their total expenses via voice assistants in the next three years, up from 3% currently. "Of all the disruptions that are taking place in all the things technology is bringing into our space, voice is among the most disruptive," said Graeme Pitkethly, chief financial officer of Unilever PLC.

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The business media has a responsibility to report facts accurately and fairly. Unfortunately, Bloomberg News recently spent considerable time and effort creating a juvenile video game to purportedly simulate the challenges of managing a retail property. The game includes scenarios such as negotiating rent with tenants or paying ongoing operating expenses. However, sadly, the game is rigged for players to lose and the property to fail, reflecting the tone of coverage of the industry that paints a gloomy, one-way and inaccurate vision in which no mall can ever be brought back. Facts tell a much different story, and frankly, it's a lot more fun than Bloomberg's game.

Bricks-and-mortar shopping could be about to change forever. Amazon pioneered the automated convenience store with its newly-opened Go supermarket, and now computer vision company AiFi is introducing the first scalable, checkout-free system for stores outside of Amazon's sphere of influence. The technology has the potential to turn enormous retail spaces and small mom-and-pop operations alike into shopping environments of the future, allowing customers to "grab and go" without the hassle of physically checking out. The system works in largely the same way as Amazon's, with sophisticated camera technology, AI algorithms and sensors. The difference is its scalability -- it doesn't require any major retrofitting, which makes it a feasible option for almost all stores.

Following the launch of Amazon's cashless, cashier-free Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle, a startup called AiFi is emerging from stealth today to announce the availability of its own checkout-free solution for retailers. But unlike Amazon Go, AiFi claims its A.I., sensor and camera network-based system can scale from a small mom-and-pop all the way up to a big retailer with tens of thousands of square feet and a hundred thousand products. Based in Santa Clara, AiFi was founded in January 2016 by Steve Gu and Ying Zheng, a married couple whose previous experience includes time spent at both Google and Apple. Gu, a PhD in computer science from Duke, worked on 3D Touch and Force Touch technologies while at Apple. He later went to Google X where he developed technologies for Google Glass. Zheng, also a PhD in computer science from Duke, first worked at Google Research, then later went to Apple, where she was a senior research scientist.

Supermarket cashiers and self-scan checkouts could become redundant thanks to a new app that speeds up the weekly food shop. The app, called Supersmart, allows users to scan items as they shop using their smartphone and then wheel them to a special floor pad. Several cameras and a deep-learning algorithm combine to detect all the items, before the customer pays for them at an automated checkout. It is hoped the technology will be quicker than both self-scan checkouts and human-operated tills. Supermarket cashiers and self-scan checkouts could become redundant thanks to a new app that speeds up the weekly food shop.

If you've spent any time on social networks like Facebook or Twitter, you've probably seen the word'chatbot' pass through your timeline many times. In short, a chatbot is a computerized communications service that follows specific rules to interact with people in a text based environment. They are becoming increasingly sophisticated and some are starting to incorporate artificial intelligence as well. Chatbots serve many purposes, from functional to fun, and can live in any messaging or chat product such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, or even plain old text messages. They may use a chatbot to make it easier to engage with a brand in real time, inject their brand's personality into the consumer's online experience, or to help simplify the process their consumers go through.

MWC 2018 -- Telef--nica has launched its voice-activated "cognitive" assistant Aura in the six markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and the UK after teaming up with tech giants including Facebook, Google and Microsoft on the new platform. First announced at last year's Mobile World Congress, Aura works much like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana, allowing customers to request information and control devices through voice commands. Powered by artificial intelligence, the Aura technology will be available through apps that Telef--nica's customers can download onto their mobile devices. Unlike the digital assistants from Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google, however, Aura has been designed around the communications services that Telef--nica provides to its customers. "It is a new customer relationship model based on cognitive intelligence and a one-stop shop for navigating through different channels," said Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, Telef--nica's CEO, during a press conference earlier today.

BEIJING, CHINA - Media OutReach - 2 February 2018 - Fung Retailing Limited, with a network of over 3,000 stores, and JD.com (Nasdaq: JD, JD.com or JD.COM), China's largest retailer, today announced a partnership to develop AI-driven retail solutions. According to the agreement signed today, the two companies will cooperate in using AI to transform the retail landscape, and to collaborate in areas including AI platform development and the application of AI to smart retail. The agreement calls for the establishment of an AI Boundaryless Retail Center that will oversee and manage cooperative research and development projects, and facilitate the sharing of information and expertise relating to AI technology. Leveraging AI, and combining JD.com's extensive online expertise and Fung Retailing's offline expertise, the two companies aim to develop a new retail format for China and Asia. This includes creating an AI-driven retail system that seamlessly integrates online and offline retail platforms; developing an end-to-end system that enables the management of products, pricing, storage, order and payment; and enhancing consumer experience through solutions such as AI-driven virtual fitting, unmanned stores and smart shopping assistants.