Amazon.com is developing its first wearable product--a pair of "smart glasses" that will allow you to use its digital assistant Alexa wherever you are, according to the Financial Times. The FT said the new glasses would connect wirelessly to a smartphone and would boast a "bone-conduction audio system" allowing the person wearing the spectacles to hear Alexa's voice without headphones. The move is a risky one, given the difficulty that the likes of Google and Apple have had in making wearables mainstream over recent years. And Amazon itself has had its fair share of expensive failures in hardware in the past --notably with its Fire smartphone, on which it took a $170 million write down. However, Jeff Bezos's company feels it's worth the risk because it can enhance in a big way a product that has already proved extremely popular.

I have been a collector of books and classes of machine learning and deep learning for the last few years. Even though I come from a strong theoretical background, I have to say one must do hands on tinkering to be able to solve one's own problem successfully. Then for deep learning one must work with Tensorflow or Theano. However, I have been searching for a good hands-on book on tensorflow and had found none until this book. I purchased the kindle version so I can dive into this book early before the book comes out.

Amazon wants to make Alexa a more formidable competitor to Google Assistant and Siri by letting you put it on your face and take it anywhere, according to a Financial Times report (paywall). The company is said to be developing a pair of normal-looking eyeglasses that tether to your smartphone and allow you hear, and presumably speak to, Alexa via a bone-conduction audio system. Though the lack of a screen and camera would seem to neuter the glasses, dropping them would dramatically improve its battery life. And in any case, the idea is not to have Google Glass-like vision, but to give users a direct line to Alexa on a smartphone without having to open an app, as is currently the case. That would make them much more useful in a vehicle or on the street, especially if they can be incorporated into comfortable, daily-worn eyeglasses. On top of that, the lack of a screen would simplify the development process considerably, reducing the time to market and increasing its chances of success.

Drones flying in the skies to deliver packages to customers, is how technology based on data and analytics is likely to impact retail industry and consumers both – in near future. New ways and means of understanding the customers are emerging and both, online and offline retailers are embracing this data first strategy. These retailers are trying their level best to match customers to products and services. Retail is increasingly becoming a data driven business and is going digital creating many more data capture opportunities. With every click, tap or touch, every swipe, search or share – consumers are creating information.

More than three-quarters of Americans now use smartphones, more than two billion messages are exchanged between people and businesses each month through Facebook Messenger, and usage of voice-enabled speakers, like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, is poised to grow another 130% this year alone. Rapid changes in the way people communicate aren't just impacting personal relationships, they're also hitting the retail market as consumer preferences evolve. In a new report released just this morning, the post-purchase solutions provider Narvar uncovers generational differences in how consumers prefer interacting with retailers, as well as a growing interest in using bots and voice technologies to communicate with brands. While email is still top dog in Narvar's survey, with 80% of consumers selecting email as their preferred communication channel, 38% now say they want to hear from retailers on multiple channels, with post-purchase communications being among the most-likely to be appreciated via text or push notification. "It's important that retailers understand customers' communications preferences so they can invest in the right channels, personalize outreach, and ultimately, create effortless yet emotional customer experiences," says Harsh Jawharkar, vice president, head of marketing and partnerships at Narvar.

I am hoping this book earns five stars, and will come back and update this rating if the typo I found on day one is an aberration. I ordered this book back in May and was very pleased to get it; so far it is excellent and exactly at the level I need: I am a sometime practitioner of machine learning and AI using a range of open source and off-the-shelf tools. I have moved more strongly into Python as i mostly deal with text and NLTK and python have bee easier / faster for me to pick up and use than java-syntric approaches. So moving into deep learning is a big step but I feel I am well prepared, and the level and degree of "refreshers" here, from linear algebra tp statistics are hitting just the right depth and tone. I initially thought my Kindle software was broken when searching for the first occurrence of "SGD" didn't show up; I remembered it was referred to as the "canonical" solution to solving a system of linear in an iterative fashion, but forgot what it stood for.

Whether we're receiving coupons based on our spending, or product suggestions based on other people's spending, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how consumers shop and experience brands. For retailers, meanwhile, AI could increase profits by almost 60%1. It could be a game-changer in this labor-intensive sector, augmenting the workforce and enabling employees to become more productive. Some retailers already recognize ways for AI to complement their human workforce and boost profits. Stitch Fix is a clothing retailer that combines the expertise of fashion stylists with algorithms that analyze unstructured consumer data to deliver hand-picked items based on their preferences2.

As organizations look for ways to better serve their customers, many are seeking new and innovative ways to better understand their customers' wants and behaviors. Increasingly, this means the use of digital tools and digital transformation initiatives, as well as the use of customer and predictive analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning, to better know and understand their prospects' and customers' needs to provide an outstanding customer experience. For some, the initial exposure to AI has been with such consumer products as Apple's Siri and Amazon's personal assistant, Alexa. For others, this journey began with exposure to progressive retailers that have been leaders in defining and executing on key elements of omnichannel retailing and omnicommerce. These firms, which include such names as Apple, Best Buy and Nordstrom, and others, are relentless in their efforts to better understand their customers, and have been among the leaders in developing customer-centric systems. Analytics and digital transformation efforts are often at the center of discussions about increasing customer interaction and engagement.

In today's consumer market, every company needs to be a tech company, and retailers are no exception. Giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba are racing to redefine the retail experience. They're quickly proving that advancements in both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce capabilities are needed. The problem is, many retailers haven't implemented the technology necessary to compete. I hear a lot of buzzwords in the tech startup field, but the term that seems to be thrown around most frequently of late is "artificial intelligence."

There was a time, not too long ago, when Wal-Mart was the undisputed king of retail. However, e-commerce has changed the landscape, and over the last few years, Amazon.com, Inc. has been taking an increasingly large slice of the retail pie. Wal-Mart has been playing catch-up in online sales, but now it seems the retail giant is ready to take the fight to Amazon, with a little help from NVIDIA Corporation and artificial intelligence (AI). In a note to clients, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry revealed that Wal-Mart would be building huge data centers to house its cloud computing and make a sizable push into deep learning, a segment of artificial intelligence.