This interview is part of our series of . We interviewed the founders and CEOs of 20 of the fastest growing startups in Europe. We asked them about their companies, their companies' culture, and their lives, trying to understand how these three factors played a role in the achievement of such impressive growth. If you want to know where to launch your next business venture, keep reading -- Spanish startup can help you out. Founded in 2015, the company is already leading the field of location intelligence.

Ocado is to test a humanoid maintenance assistant in its warehouses, in the online grocery specialist's latest move to reduce reliance on human workers. Artificial Intelligence has various definitions, but in general it means a program that uses data to build a model of some aspect of the world. This model is then used to make informed decisions and predictions about future events. The technology is used widely, to provide speech and face recognition, language translation, and personal recommendations on music, film and shopping sites. In the future, it could deliver driverless cars, smart personal assistants, and intelligent energy grids.

Walmart has confirmed its testing of self-driving floor scrubbers. According to a LinkedIn article, the floor care robot that the company is trying out was developed by Brain Corp, a San Diego-based company. For more videos, subscribe to Mashable News: http://on.mash.to/SubscribeNews Give us a follow: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mashable/

One in six Americans now own a smart speaker, according to new research out this week from NPR and Edison Research – a figure that's up 128 percent from January, 2017. Amazon's Echo speakers are still in the lead, the report says, as 11 percent now own an Amazon Alexa device compared with 4 percent who own a Google Home product. Today, 16 percent of Americans own a smart speaker, or around 39 million people. The holiday shopping season also seemed to have played a role in the increased adoption of smart devices in the U.S., with 7 percent of Americans reporting they acquired at least one smart speaker between Black Friday and the end of December, and 4 percent saying they acquired their first smart speaker during the holidays. Both Amazon and Google used the holiday shopping season to their advantage in terms of acquiring market share for their respective devices by slashing prices to encourage more impulse buys, and by heavily promoting the items across their storefronts.

When you look back at some of the iconic films and TV series from the 60s to the 80s like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek and Back to the Future, it's surprising how many'futuristic' inventions that seemed fantastical are now a reality, or close to being so. We haven't achieved a time machine or teleporter yet, but flying cars, wearable computers and fully automated factories are here to stay. And, if Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are successful in their new ventures, we'll soon have human brain/computer interfaces. This kind of innovation isn't just happening in the world of technology, it's also being applied to the field of data science. With major advances in computing power and self-correcting algorithms, it is now possible for retailers to use predictive analytics to fine-tune their forecasting, replenishment and price/promotions decisions to improve efficiency and increase margins and revenue.

Saks Fifth Avenue isn't intimidated by the emergence of artificial intelligence and consumer preferences shifting to online retail, the luxury department store's president told CNBC on Friday. "When you think about the online versus the offline experience, we don't need AI in our stores. We have'I,'" said Marc Metrick, president of Saks. "We have living, breathing, 4,500 style advisors in our stores." "The focus for Saks in the luxury space is really kind of convergence between tech and this living, breathing, selling associate," Metrick said in an interview on "Squawk Box." Metrick spoke as e-commerce giant Amazon has been aggressive in expanding its retail muscle, including through partnerships and acquisitions.

Boeing unveiled a prototype for a massive remote-controlled drone Wednesday, meant to deliver cargo up to 500 pounds. Eventually, it wants the drone to fly itself. Such ambitions put the plane maker in direct competition with Amazon, which in December 2013 said it was developing Prime Air drone delivery service. Both companies say their drones are intended to be able to deliver goods within at least a 10-mile radius. Amazon's drones, however, are only intended to carry packages up to five pounds--a payload that the retailer says encompasses nearly 90% of its sales.

If you think shopping is tedious, try juggling 200,000 products in a Walmart. Not literally, of course, but somehow keeping the shelves stocked over an area of tens of thousands of square feet. For that you need a worker with a barcode scanner and an enviable amount of patience. Or you could unleash a hard-working robot from a company called Bossa Nova. That makes it one of the first truly intelligent robots to work alongside humans in complex ways outside of a factory.

The effort is one of many signals that artificial intelligence is a huge theme at this year's show–mainly in the form of digital assistants like the Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, and Apple's Siri. Google wants those ads to create the vibe that its Assistant is the go-to choice for consumer electronics companies looking to build a brain into their device. But the current reality is different than the marketing message. This year, 45.4 million Americans will talk to an AI assistant inside smart speakers, says research firm eMarketer. But only about a quarter of them will be talking to Google's Assistant, while almost 68% will be talking to Amazon's Alexa. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who only occasionally shares specific numbers relating to hardware sales, said his company sold "tens of millions" of Alexa-powered devices over the holidays.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is noticeably making a difference in how we live and work. Search engines predict words and translate text, social media connects people, smart appliances respond to ambient conditions, and public transportation is becoming autonomous. Similarly, the retail industry is set to unleash fascinating possibilities by embracing AI. Imagine the retail value chain when machine learning is fully operational, with the power of natural language processing, image identification and voice recognition software working together to produce better experiences for consumers. The cumulative effect can be transformative for retailers, across and beyond their enterprises.