Lisa Lacy is a reporter who covers digital and search marketing. Despite millions of orders for voice enabled devices, vendors have yet to map the uncharted territory of voice enabled search and advertising. Indeed, as voice search expands -- to the tune of 50 percent of all searches by 2020 (according to some estimates) -- so, too, do opportunities for platforms to cash in beyond products and services. In fact, in an earnings call last year, Google acknowledged voice search will drive industry-wide change, but it did not detail its plans. These devices are already in a massive (and growing) number of American homes.Amazon's Black Friday weekend sales saw millions of orders for voice-enabled devices that could help generate $10 billion in additional revenue by 2020, split evenly between device sales and shopping, according to investment bank RBC Capital.

We are excited to announce the AWS Machine Learning Research Awards, a new program that funds university departments, faculty, PhD students, and post-docs that are conducting novel research in machine learning (ML). We are working with Carnegie Mellon University, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Harvard Medical School, The University of Washington, and the University of California, Berkeley on this program. The scale and performance of the AWS Cloud, coupled with powerful frameworks like Apache MXNet, TensorFlow, Caffe2, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK), and PyTorch, allow an unprecedented opportunity to drive machine learning research forward. The goal of this program is to help researchers accelerate the development of innovative algorithms, publications, and source code across a wide variety of machine learning applications and focus areas. In addition to funding, award recipients receive computing resources, training, mentorship from Amazon scientists and engineers, and have the opportunity to attend a research seminar at the AWS headquarters in Seattle.

Now that frenetic Black Friday and crazy Cyber Monday are behind us, I've decided to complete my Christmas shopping. And this year, I'll be doing it with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). With the tech giants, such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and IBM, increasing their investments in AI and news of Alibaba's $15bn investment in it, I wanted to find out what the customer experience is really like. And, most importantly, does it live up to all the hype? The term AI was first used back in the 50s and was based on the principle that'every aspect of learning or any other features of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.'

Finish strong and make everyone happy on Christmas with these 10 Amazon deals. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Christmas is three days away, but that means you can still take advantage of free two-day shipping for Amazon Prime members to get the last of your holiday shopping done and have everything you need by Christmas Eve. There are even some great deals still going strong to help you make the most of your remaining Christmas present budget, so long as you have Amazon Prime (or want to sign up for the free 30-day trial).

Did you know there's a bit of artificial intelligence (AI) magic behind the scenes helping to make your holiday dreams come true? Santa's little helpers have gone high-tech this year. From finding the perfect gift to AI-enabled toys and even composing a holiday song--that truthfully will take a bit more refinement before it becomes a holiday classic--AI has infiltrated our holidays from start to finish. Those of you who are adept behind the keyboard might be surprised that this hasn't been true for years, but the scales have tipped in favor of online shopping with 51% of the Deloitte 2017 Holiday Retail Survey respondents saying they would be making the bulk of their purchases online this holiday season. In the past, shoppers would research and compare prices online, but the majority still went to stores to make their purchases.

Software can watch multiple transactions that humans can't handle. There are a lot of ideas around about where retail technology needs to go and most of them are good. But until now, very few of them were going to do what retailers need most: give consumers a great reason to go back into stores. Now, there are ideas emerging and developing that will be highly impactful. These new ideas and software will affect almost every in-store experience in the future, they will change what it means to go to a store and they will make store experiences more worthwhile than ever.

For most of us at the moment our only contact with FaceTech is likely to be at electronic passport gates or finding novelty filters on Snapchat. However, like it or not, our faces seem to be becoming an increasingly important tool for accessing possessions and information, as well as enabling different sectors to learn more about consumer markets. Wild wide ranging implications on ethics and business, in future, how might industries – not to mention everyday people – use FaceTech to their advantage? Today, essentially all phones, laptops and tablets are fitted with cameras. Say, for instance, your phone was stolen.

Thinking about the industries where artificial intelligence has played a relevant role in the last years, we tend to think about finance, manufacturing and transport. Another area that artificial intelligence has impacted significantly too is customer service, with the leading online retailers implementing automated tools to make their customer support faster and more efficient. However, physical retailers (bricks and mortars) haven't really considered the artificial intelligence as a powerful tool for their business. The classic perception of digital innovation is seen as tools focused on e-commerce that don't really apply for physical retailers. As a result of this, many bricks and mortars retailers are not adopting this technology fast enough, which makes them lose the race in gaining new customers.

Your business doesn't need to be a billion-dollar, multinational company like Walmart, to make use of Big Data, artificial intelligence, etc. In fact, learning how to use this technology could be a distinctive advantage for a small business too. They assume that Big Data and artificial intelligence is reserved exclusively for large companies. That couldn't be further from the truth. The majority of techniques used in Big Data and the Internet of Things (even some artificial intelligence) don't require a large budget or a huge staff.

If 2017 left you breathless, exhausted by unexpected headlines, then brace yourself. The coming year may bring even more turbulent change, according to the CEOs, academics, economists and other bold thinkers we consulted for our annual peek at the year ahead.