AWS IoT 1-Click, AWS IoT Device Management, AWS IoT Device Defender, AWS IoT Analytics, Amazon FreeRTOS, and AWS Greengrass ML Inference make getting started with IoT as easy as one click, enable customers to rapidly onboard and easily manage large fleets of devices, audit and enforce consistent security policies, and analyze IoT device data at scale. Amazon FreeRTOS is an operating system that extends the rich functionality of AWS IoT to devices with very low computing power, such as lightbulbs, smoke detectors, and conveyor belts. And, AWS Greengrass ML Inference is a new capability for AWS Greengrass that allows machine learning models to be deployed directly to devices, where they can run machine learning inference to make decisions quickly, even when devices are not connected to the cloud. To get started, visit: https://aws.amazon.com/iot "AWS IoT Device Management has helped streamline our device onboarding, which has enabled us to meet our planned production throughput for connected devices. With AWS doing the undifferentiated heavy lifting for our IoT platform, we can spend more time on our customers than on our infrastructure."

April 27, 2017, people walk past an Amazon Go store, currently open only to Amazon employees, in Seattle. Amazon Go shops are convenience stores that don't use cashiers or checkout lines but use a tracking system that of sensors, algorithms, and cameras to determine what a customer has bought. Ultimately, Amazon wants to sell Amazon and Whole Foods shoppers alike, even more, goods and services, including stuff they might not even realize they need. In the world of customer service, we're experiencing the rise of chatbots, virtual digital assistants, and artificial intelligence (AI) agents, answering basic queries which allow humans to tackle more complex problems and improve the speed and efficiency of decisions. Emerging technology such as machine-learning applications, chatbots, and mobile messaging will play a much more significant role in customer interactions in the next five years.

Circuit Breaker Labs recycles old printed circuit boards (complete with components) into bracelets, earrings, necklaces, cuff links, tie bars, and even retractable badge holders. Prices range from $21 to $345 for individual pieces, and gift sets are available. Another electronics-pride jewelry option is provided by Lumen Electronic Jewelry. The company has created a range of solar-powered, LED-equipped necklaces, earrings, and tie clips that can blink long into the night, with charge stored in capacitors rather than bulky batteries (pieces cost between $85 and $225).

Amazon Web Services unveiled its latest wares in the cloud-computing arms race here on Wednesday, deploying a suite of services designed to let software developers take advantage of artificial intelligence capabilities without first getting a Ph.D. Andy Jassy, chief executive of the online retailer's cloud-computing unit, announced more than a dozen new services, including software that translates and transcribes speech, analyzes videos and gives developers a leg up in building their own tools. He was speaking in a keynote Wednesday morning at AWS's sixth annual re:Invent conference. "The hype and the hope here is tremendous," Jassy said of machine learning, the set of services that helps algorithms improve with experience. Many companies are experimenting with such services, he said, "yet I would argue it's still very early." Jassy's unit, Amazon's most profitable division, grew up by offering bite-sized, simple services: storage and computing power, at first, and later, database tools and other on-demand versions of existing business software.

In an increasingly competitive retail environment, competition on price, or even quality and mix of goods, will create only transitory wins. Those factors bring customers only until your competitor sees your success and then does the same thing. Most retailers understand that real success in today's environment comes with delivering on the customer experience factor. When you compete on price, you will have customers until the next guy sells the same thing for a dollar less – when you deliver a memorable customer experience, you create lasting loyalty. The question is, how to deliver that customer experience?

"Artificial intelligence is going to change everything, everything, 180 degrees…There is no way to beat the machines, so you'd better bone up on what makes them tick." I don't own a basketball team, but having served the consumer markets for some 30 years I'd say that Cuban is dead on. The principal challenge facing retailers is how to use the technology now available to move beyond merely surviving to actually thriving. One glance at the news is enough to recognize the urgency. Most retailers are stuck and, at best, making relatively incremental process changes to their existing business models. It won't do, at least not if you're aiming for a championship.

Inc. AMZN -2.71% wants workers to ask its virtual assistant Alexa to book conference rooms and launch meetings, as the company races against rivals to make the office the next major inroad for voice-recognition devices. Amazon has built a wide lead in the field with its popular at-home Echo speaker, which launched in late 2014. The company is now counting on its new service, dubbed Alexa for Business and available immediately, to spark a surge in voice computing in the workplace. The online retail giant plans to announce the initiative here Thursday at its annual conference for its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit. Even before Amazon made a push into business, RBC Capital Markets predicted that by 2020, Alexa device installations could reach 128 million.

Amazon wants companies to take advantage of artificial intelligence -- and, more importantly, it wants to sell them the tools to do so. Today, the online retailer's business subsidiary, Amazon Web Services (AWS), unveiled a suite of new products to help with this goal. Chief among them is a $250 AI-powered camera called DeepLens; a new platform for developing and deploying machine learning algorithms named SageMaker; and services for AI-powered transcription and translation. With these and other tools, Amazon is making it clear that during the current AI boom, it wants to be the one getting rich shelling shovels. At the same time, these announcement show it butting heads with rival Google, which has been busy building its own AI enterprise stack.

As a research scientist at the German online retail giant Zalando, Dr. Alan Akbik is an expert in Natural Language Processing and Data Extraction. In his work for the company, which at any given moment is handling massive numbers of online transactions in multiple languages, Akbik helps unveil unique insights into the very structure of human language by observing and analyzing huge sets of multilingual text data. Here's what he had to say about the possibilities for both business and the study of language that NLP is bringing online. What first inspired you to pursue a career as a data scientist? In a sense, all of humankind's knowledge is stored in written language in books, the Web, and elsewhere.

While many observers consider Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) to be an unstoppable force that steamrolls the competition wherever it goes, most notably in retail and cloud computing, the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are particularly important areas where it lags, Bloomberg reports. Getting up to speed is vital for Amazon, Bloomberg adds, because the running of AI applications is likely to fuel much of the future growth in cloud computing. Global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) projects that sales of software for coding AI applications will increase by 40% through 2021, exceeding $8 billion, and that the growth will be even faster for these products in the cloud, Bloomberg says. Meanwhile, competitors Microsoft Inc. (MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), the parent of Google, have raced ahead in developing AI applications for their cloud computing clients, per Bloomberg.